Chapter 2 – Sea to Sky Highway

Lauren got out of bed at a little after 11:00 the next morning according to the time on her cellphone. It also let her know Max had called her three times and sent a bunch of text messages. She checked them. He had wanted to know when he could expect her.

“Slept in. Still need to get coffee and packed. Be there before dinner time,” she texted him back.

“OK.” He texted back.

Thankfully, she had drank a lot of water the night before (amongst all the wine). It was her coffee she needed next.

She got up. Did a quick adjustment of her hair in the mirror and headed to the kitchen to put on the single serve Keurig pack of coffee.

In the kitchen she noticed that Violet wasn’t in her usual place on the couch. She had slept in too. Lauren saw her coffee had finished brewing and she sipped on it. It wasn’t great, she thought, but it would do for the morning.

She thought about her daughter for a few moments before deciding that she would make Violet her favorite breakfast, French toast, with fruit and maple syrup. Max was generally the cook in the family, but this was her specialty.

Faster than one would expect given Lauren’s lack of time in the kitchen and (her slightly hung-over state) she had the French toast plated, the kitchen cleaned, and decorated the two plates with the remaining handful of blueberries left in the refrigerator. Laruen then put the plates on a tray with the bottle of syrup and headed down the hall to Violet’s room.

“Hey, Sleepyhead,” said Lauren shaking her daughter awake. “Breakfast in bed today”.

Violet, who normally took her time waking up was wide awake in an instant.

“French Toast. And the bottle of syrup?” she asked.

Her mom nodded with a big smile that went all the way up to her eyes.

“I brought a second set of cutlery. There room in your bed for a CuddleMum?” asked Lauren.

Violet moved over in on the bed to make room for her Mom. The two of them sat and ate their breakfast off the tray in bed and laughed and joked.

****

It took them a couple of hours after breakfast to get packed and out of the house. Lauren packed up anything that could be useful around the cabin to bring into the city. The old hiking backpacks, and Violet’s old child carrier, because it could double as a backpack. The old tent, sleeping bags, camping mattresses and first aid kit. A giant bag of trail mix and other snacks. She tetrised them into the Mini and, after a twenty-minute detour to fill up on gas, they started the drive back to town in earnest.

Once they hit the Sea to Sky Highway, the only route Whistler to Vancouver, the joy of the morning quickly faded back into the routine of the everyday. The highway alternated between routes cut in the side of mountains, steep ascents and descents that required trucks to put on their engine break. It had been expanded and completely repaved for the 2010 Winter Olympics ten year ago, but it had been well maintained since. The highway had no pit stops other than one small town half-way between Whistler and Vancouver. Lauren loved the drive, but the beauty was lost in its winding familiarity.

Violet was in the backseat watching her iPad. Sometimes she looked out the window and counted highway markers or moved her perspective up and down to have a water spot on the window trace the horizon. Other times she would adjust her perspective to get a view of her mom’s face while she was focusing on the road. Mostly though, Violet focused on her shows and kept her head out of the real world.

Lauren set her phone up in the hands-free mount and called up Max as she drove along the highway. She did this trip regularly and it was one of the few for which she did not need to use the GPS. And despite it being a Sunday the Sea to Sky was mostly empty and Lauren drove well enough (and fast enough) to find a pocket without any other cars around. The phone rang a couple of times before he picked up.

“Hi Honey,” said Lauren. “We’re a little late in heading out we had a bit of a girls morning. Right, Violet?

“Mom made French toast!” shouted Violet from the back seat.

“Oh so, it was one of those nights,” said Max. “Well, it’s nice that you girls enjoyed yourselves this morning and that you on your way home now. That’s all that matters.”

Lauren was silent. She looked out the side window at the trees rushing by and then turned her eyes back to the road.

Max tried to get her attention back over the phone. “Darling?”

“Yep.”

“Well, as you might expect,” he continued “it was a bit of a mad house at Costco, but he got a couple of big bags of rice, and flour, oil … other staples. He got way too much Charmin in my opinion…” rambling on while Lauren drove, with the occasional “I see,” and “Yep” and “Good thing you got jerry cans,” from her keeping the conversation going.

“Had to cancel all of the moves though today and for the next week. It’s the middle of the month so not the busiest time, but still.”

When she didn’t respond again for a while Max said “Lauren,” with some frustration in his voice.

“I’m listening, just a little distracted.” she said. “Is this really happening Max? Is it really the end of the world? Is this what it has all come to?”

“Not the end of the world. No definitely not, but things are going to be different after this, that’s for sure. Paul even bought 30 boxes of ah-em-em-oh for the gee-you-en-esses,” said Max.

“Normally, I would say that that is overkill, but I don’t mind it here. Don’t tell Paul I said that.”

Lauren paused as she felt an alert message pop up in her mind

Congratulations! You have been selected as a beta tester for global upgrade version 1.2.4. Because of the overall good response to the first wave, the second wave has been moved forward a full 24 hours! Enjoy! -H.G.

The second wave will begin in 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, ….

“Mommy, what’s that?” asked Violet.

Lauren checks her mirrors, and seeing no one around pulls over to the natural gravel edge of the road and stops the car.

“It’s OK darling just pulling over to the side of the road.” Then speaking to the phone, “Max you get that notification?”

In the background Violet is counting down with the calm feminine voice in her head. “…7, 6,”

“Yep. You somewhere safe?”

“4, 3”

“Pulled over.”

“1”

“Good”

“Initialize. Dad what’s initialize mean?”