It was a fairly normal day back at the Pier. Frank handed Charlotte a beer, tossing it to her in an aggressive, yet loving, fashion.

"Here's yer beer, Charlotte."

"Dangit, Frank, couldn't get off yer ass to hand it tuh me like a real gent, couldja?"

"Dangit, Charlotte!"

They watched as their adolescent son sauntered past with a duffel bag in hand.

"Ma, Pa, the day has arrived! I set off to that fancy school today, remember? Pa, you were gonna drive me to the airport, right?"

"DANGIT, JOHNNY! You know I have arthritis!"

Johnny sighed.

"Fine, I suppose I'll have to ask Victoria's parents for a lift then"

"Jo-boy, take care of yourself, okay hun?" his mother said, her voice trembling with concern and intoxication.

Johnny took out his cell phone and called Victoria. Now He wasn't quite sure how, but Victoria was related to him. She was spawned from someone on his mother's side and it's only because of a luck of genetics' that she was one of the most sane member's of his family, Though Johnny thought that was only because Victoria was more like her Mom's side of the family, and really most of the members of Aunt Laine's family actually went to some sort of post-secondary educational system.

Out of all his family who lived within a reasonable distance away Victoria was the only one who had a parent with some sort of valid license to drive anything other than farm machinery, some sort of water craft, or a Zamboni. So left with Victoria as his only option Johnny pulled out his phone and made the call.

"Hi. You've reached Bernie's House of Bean Bags, how can I assist you?" a female voice answered in a monotone manner.

"Victoria?" Johnny asked, wondering why she would answer in such a manner.

"Johnny? Oh! I though you were one of them telemarketers. I thought if I pretended to be selling something, they'd leave me alone after a while"

Johnny chuckled. "Well, your mom can still pick me up, right? And Julia will meet us at that train platform."

"Yeah, Mom's firing up the GM van right now. It's been having some problems lately. We'll be there in a bit"

As Johnny plopped down on the front steps to wait, the reality of the whole thing hit him. He sighed at the thought of leaving his remote east coast village in Canada, by way of Newfoundland. Especially the thought of leaving his parents all alone ...

"DANGIT CHARLOTTE!"

"Frank! I thought I told you to buy some Molson!"

"BUT THIS IS SALE BEER! And it's made in Labrador! What part of that don't you get? DANGIT!"

Johnny suddenly felt a wave of relief wash over him at the thought of leaving his parents. He wouldn't have to control arguments about who was cooking the moose meat or who was going to get rid of the beaver dam in the backyard. He would leave that up to his little sister, Marie Antoinette. His parents had decided to give her a French name. Too bad they weren't very original. Poor little Marie ...

Chortling to himself, he slung his duffle bag over his shoulder maliciously. With a last cackle aimed at Marie, he ran out to the mailbox where Victoria's GM van was waiting for him, the door half hanging off the hinges. He didn't know how the Mounties hadn't spotted it driving around the province, but he thought it was only a matter of time before they caught wind of this death trap roving the side streets. He groaned as he stepped in some cow plop. Marie had a nasty habit of leading their only cow, Alexander Keith, ( Don't ask, it goes without saying that Frank and Charlotte named the cow) around their driveway.

As Victoria waved goodbye to his house, greeting him as he entered the car, Johnny barely making it before Victoria's Mom slammed down on the accelerator, making the van travel at 2 km/h.

"Well, you excited?" Johnny asked Victoria.

He looked at her. When one looks at Victoria, you don't notice things at first. She looks a bit like everyone else. Short reddish brown hair, short stature, pale complexion - which in Canada, really isn't that uncommon - a curvaceous hourglass figure (probably from all that moose meat and Timbits). Not to say she wasn't unattractive, but once you took a good look, there was just something there that drew you in. Johnny thought it had to be her eyes, sure they were just brown but when you looked into them it felt as if she knew the answers to all your questions. Like she was a library just waiting to give you the knowledge you needed to find. Not that Johnny ever asked her anything because God only knows what would have come out of her mouth.

She giggled. "Is a bear excited for the first thing it does after hibernation?"

"Well ... it does take a large crap..."

"WHICH IS A RELIEF FOR THE BEAR! So it's excited. Okay?"

Johnny shrugged, as he and Victoria laughed all the way to the airport.

Now, Johnny had a bit of a problem. The last time he was on a plane, it was the last time he had visited his distant cousin, Julia, out in Nunavut (which is a territory, not a province). Well, let's just say that they don't have the same restrictions as the rest of Canada. Let's just say ... Julia and a lightweight airplane didn't give Johnny the best view of flying. His parent were still paying the therapy bill's.