by R E Swirsky
Chapter 2
Sunday, September 18th 10:40 am
It would be a long drive to the coast with a good eleven to twelve hours of black highway and winding mountain roads. Jack began planning what needed to be done before departing around 7:30 in the evening. He would arrive just as the sun rose on the West Coast Monday morning. It was nearing midday on Sunday, and Jack still had a lot to do. The sky was fully overcast, and the clouds were clustering together in darkened tumbling masses, giving hints of the savage fury they planned to unleash by the time evening arrived. The wind would periodically gust and then settle to a complete calm—a tease to those who doubted the storm.
He told Donna he needed to go into the office downtown and then to the Calgary IKEA to pick up some tote boxes as he always did before he left on a long road trip. That was exactly what he did. At the office, he logged on to the computer and spent over an hour sorting through customer files and making a list of customers to see on this trip. He also made a list of cold contacts he wanted to hit in the North Vancouver area and in the interior of British Columbia on his way back. He would have to drive to Calgary to purchase the tote boxes he wanted for his files, supplies, and brochures. He no longer had the ones from his last trip; he always made a point to empty out his vehicle at the office upon his return, and others at the office eagerly snatched up the empty totes.
Jack was very particular about the exact tote boxes he wanted, and he preferred the ones IKEA sold. He would often carry the totes in with him when he met with his clients. He wanted to impress his clients with quality, and that included the tote boxes he carried his samples inside. He finished up at the office and drove to IKEA. He picked up his totes and then went to Best Buy where he spent almost an hour picking out two audio books for the trip. He called Donna from the Best Buy parking lot to tell her he was just going to top off his fuel before heading back home to Bluffington.
By the time Jack arrived home, the rain was falling steadily. Water was starting to pool on the road, and the wind picked up into a steady force that gusted heavily at times. The wind drove the rain hard at an angle against any object in its path, swirled it in another direction for a few moments, and then gusted and crashed it hard again.
Donna had supper on the table with a single lit candle when he returned home just before six. Jack had only one glass of wine from the bottle Donna opened for them to share over dinner; he would be on the road within the hour. After dinner, Jack took Donna upstairs and made love to her. He told her how much he loved her and that she was the best thing that ever happened to him.
The storm continued to strengthen and crashed down in full fury as Jack prepared to leave. Tree branches around the neighbourhood thrashed violently leaving a profusion of twigs, broken branches, and leaves ripped from their perches and scattered in the yards and along the street. The rain was falling sideways as Jack made the crazy dash out to his vehicle. He quickly tossed his suitcase into the rear hatch of his new Pathfinder SUV. He then struggled to open the driver's door as the wind pressed hard against it. He finally forced the door open against the wind and squeezed himself inside. Jack was fully drenched by the time he sat in the driver's seat. The wind slammed the door closed beside him. Lightning flashed and lit the drive. He tooted the horn twice as he always did when he backed out of the driveway. He set down Founder's Road on a course for the mountains. The time was precisely 7:30 p.m.
