by The Eurostar
Edulcore Cicciotto:
It's three in the morning when I leave Doc's cabin, with Turner on my back. I don't want to wake up Henry. We have given him too much trouble already.
When the EPS will be here... because they will come, I am sure... I know Quantos will have a means to defend himself. He doesn't know where we're heading. They should leave him without harm.
What yesterday I mistook for a small lake was the inset of a big river running to the south. The Lillooet River, I read on the map I borrowed from Doc. It runs into the Pacific near Vancouver; we'll descend it with Quantos' canoe. Forty miles before the city, we'll cross over to the other bank and then, by foot, reach the U.S. border.
If I stay clear from towns and roads, it will be difficult for the EPS to find us. I have provisions for three days. I hope for then, that the EPS will have lost our tracks, and to find a way to get a faster mean of travel. In the backpack I have also two complete change of clothes that Quantos prepared for us last evening, before going to sleep.
The night is clear. Thousands of stars shine in the black, moonless night. A distant call of coyotes. Glow worms in the grass.
I lay Turner in the canoe, push it in the water, and jump over it. And begin to row.
Thanks, Doc. I hope to see you again, one day.
After two hours, Turner awakes.
"Where... are we?" he whispers.
"Vancouver," I say.
"Eh?"
"Vancouver, somewhere in Canada, and we are heading for the Caribbean, Turner," I joke.
He closes his eyes again. The he reopens them and stares at me.
"You saved my life," I say.
He seems to remember. His hands go to the chest, touching the bandages over it. "It seems you saved me, too," he says in a low tone. "We are even."
"What do you mean? That I don't owe you anything more? Sorry, but I never understood that concept, when I read it in books. If I save your life a dozen more times, I would always owe you mine."
He takes his fedora, covers his face, and soon is back to sleep.