TIME FOLLOWS ME

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE INTO THE BLUE SUPERIOR SKY

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

INTO THE BLUE SUPERIOR SKY

They kicked me off at Dryden, then, let me back on, as there weren't enough seats for all who had booked. I was nervous and silently cursed myself for not getting a reservation. With two minutes to flight time the Flight Attendant said, "There is space, you can go on." I'm sure I looked visibly relieved but wondered where they would kick me off next? Flew into Thunder Bay. We circled over the Great Lake Superior so vast and blue it looked like an ocean. Landing, we blew both tires on one side of the plane. It turned out this was the second time in as many days. The stewardesses had looks of horror etched on their faces. I would too if I had to do this everyday. I had gotten through one mishap, but they faced this possibility many more times.

Taxiing to the terminal lobby, I could feel the vibration all through the fuselage. We disembarked and boarded a closely parked Boeing 737, a plane that is considerably larger than the Air Transit.

When we took off, it was very hazy. There was a lot of turbulence once airborne, but I felt great. I felt very trippy, looking out the window watching the wings almost disappear completely in the clouds. To get out of this weather the pilot flew higher.

Way below was Lake Superior, the lake I had grown up beside, a child raised in a shack my Dad had built with his own hands outside of Wawa. Now, I was in the air surrounded by mountains. These mountains of clouds stacked one on top of each other looked like cotton batten or white cotton candy, the kind you get each year at the local carnival fall fair. They were soft and wispy, and I felt like I was flying into a dream where everything was magical. I felt light and spacey. This was my world but I was just a small infinitesimal part of it, connected to all the other parts, and it was beautiful. I was going to be all right. I knew what I had to do.

Landing in Toronto, the lights of the city spread out before me like a trillion diamond dice tossed onto the "felt" from an unseen hand. We circled over Lake Ontario and around the giant phallus called the CN Tower, the world's tallest structure, and landed in Malton.

I waited at the circular luggage carousel until my worn, faded green canvas fire knapsack trundled 'round with my worldly possessions. I hauled it off the conveyor, and over my shoulder, like the seasoned traveler I am. Walking down the escalator and through the automatic doors, the cool night air hit me in the face like waking from a dream.

Waited, then boarded an Express Bus to the Dundas and Bay St. Greyhound Bus Terminal. I would take a bus for $6 dollars to Barrie. I felt calm and relaxed, but also a bit sad to be almost home. Night fell like a glove over a lily-white hand.

On the bus I met a school friend Connie Long who was also going to Barrie. We talked a bit about school and I asked her what I had missed? Not much, so I filled her in about some of my travels. It was hard to talk about this right now.