A World Full of Strangers
Disclaimer: All the characters in the story are the property of Stephanie Meyer. I have borrowed them for my entertainment and (hopefully) your reading pleasure. I make no profit from their use.
Chapter 15: The Journey North
Esme drops Bella and I off in Grand Forks, North Dakota near the Red River so that we can cross the border on foot. Our plan is to follow the river northward towards Winnipeg in Manitoba. The drive across Washington, Idaho, Montana, has been completely uneventful.
The mountains of Washington, Idaho, and western Montana were stunning. But once we got past the Rockies, the landscape leveled out. Esme and I took turns driving so that Bella could sit in the back seat with Renesmee. We kept our stops very short, only gas and food for Renesmee. She hasn't been eating much. We considered making a hunting stop, but then decided that it was going to take us long enough to drive up without taking time for that.
Of course we are at a great advantage because we can drive at about one hundred fifty miles per hour twenty-four hours a day. By the time we were halfway through Montana, we realized that we were driving much farther east than we probably needed to. But we decided to stick with our original plan.
We heard from the others when they reached Whitehorse. They had found two condos to rent in the same complex, one for Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett and the other for the rest of us. Carlisle and Rosalie were looking at houses. Things got a little interesting in Montana when she started texting us pictures of different options.
It was helpful to be able to focus Renesmee's mind on something other than leaving Jacob behind. She was very worried about him, so she was pleased when Rosalie sent us a picture of a large, sprawling house with seven bedrooms, and several large open rooms between. Nearby is a large outbuilding that we can renovate for the cars.
Also on the property, about a half mile from the house was a cozy looking cabin that had recently been refurbished as a rental space. As soon as Renesmee saw it, she immediately thought of Jacob. I did too, because the set up is nicer than Billy's place in La Push. Esme gave Carlisle the go ahead to purchase the house.
The transaction will be relatively simple. Since we are paying cash, there won't be a huge amount of bank paperwork. The present owner has been trying to sell it for over a year now and is only too happy to let it go so quickly. In the meantime, Carlisle has already been over to the hospital to establish his presence.
Emmett and Jasper are already excited about being up there. In addition to the bears, there are moose, stone sheep, and caribou. Unfortunately, it is not a habitat for big cats, but I consider that a minor problem. I can easily range south if I want. Emmett, of course, is dying to range north into polar bear territory, but Carlisle has convinced him to hold off. Polar bears are an endangered species, so we will have to hunt them carefully.
Alice is unhappy with the shopping options. Luckily, there is good Internet access, so she will be able to shop online. And Rose is just happy that Jacob hasn't shown up yet. She is looking forward to seeing Renesmee of course. Overall, it looks like Whitehorse has been a good choice.
The local people, including the mayor are very pleased to meet the family members who have come to town so far. Carlisle's medical skill alone is going to provide an immediate upgrade to the hospital facility. But when he saw some of what he considered basic diagnostic tools missing, he ordered them as a donation. He also went over to the high school with the other four to register them and us as freshmen and sophomores.
The school organization is different up there, so that grades one through seven are in the elementary schools and eight through twelve in the high school. One of the elementary schools and the high school offer French immersion classes. For a change of pace, the others decided to go the French immersion route. They have already begun listening to online French language classes to pick up the lingo.
Bella is going to have to take a very quick study when we get there since she never had any French, but since I already speak the language, it won't be a problem for. Renesmee finally began to show a bit of life when she discovered that she would be studying her lessons in French.
"That's good," she said. "Then it won't be so boring. It will be a challenge to learn a new language."
"Yes, and in a new language as well" said Esme. "And we can also practicing speaking at home."
"I know that Carlisle speaks French, Esme," commented Bella. "I didn't know that you did also."
"Oh, I don't," she replied playfully. "But it will give me something to do when I am not working on the house."
"And when my Jacob comes," added Renesmee. "He can learn too. Do wolves learn languages as quickly as vampires?"
"I don't know," I answered carefully. "I guess that we will find out if he comes up."
"I think that he will come up," she said confidently. "After all, he said that I was his life. He will see that we all want him when he sees his cabin. You will fix that up too, won't you, Mom?"
Esme nods slowly, but none of us had an answer for the rest of her assumption. Renesmee was so certain that Jacob would show up that we didn't have the heart to disappoint her. Of course, we haven't been helping. She had asked earlier if Jacob was in Whitehorse and Bella had answered, not yet, as vague an answer as one can give.
Undeterred, Renesmee decided that he must be traveling as a wolf rather than flying. She even went so far as to suggest that he might be shipping his belongings.
However, the truth is that if Jacob shows up in Whitehorse, it will be to try and convince Renesmee to return to La Push with him. I am even thinking that he may wait until her birthday (if he can), when he thinks that she will be full-grown. But it is difficult to consider her full grown when you look at her sleeping curled up, with her head in Bella's lap, and clutching her battered, old stuffed wolf pup.
Even when she is asleep, we don't talk about Jacob. When we were at a gas stop and Bella was taking care of a couple of Renesmee's human needs, Esme and I agreed that nothing the least bit negative should be said about him. And while we would avoid discouraging her from thinking that he was coming, neither would we encourage her.
"The most likely accusation that he will make against us is that we have turned her against him," I said. "It would be nice if he didn't show up until she was established at school and was making friends, but I don't want to count on that."
"You don't think that he would try to kidnap her?" asked Esme worried.
"That would be pretty stupid on his part," I replied. "The only place that he would take her is La Push and I doubt that we would have any trouble getting to Charlie to return her to us."
At that point, Bella and Renesmee returned from inside the service station and we changed the topic of conversation. Renesmee has been practicing calling Esme, Mom. But she couldn't bring herself to call Bella by her first name, so she has nicknamed her "Sissy," which is logical if Bella is her adopted sister. She has no problem calling me, Edward.
After we arrive, to further establish the parent-child relationship, Esme will take Renesmee to the elementary school to register her there. So far, we have had no questions about our own masquerade. No one has looked twice at them as they play their roles of mother and daughter. Bella and I pass easily as young teenagers in love. The problem with that charade is always acting too mature for our ages. This is all new to Bella, but I am doing my best to show her the ropes.
One of the problems that we will have to face is that our life in Forks was so secluded that Bella never really got a lot if practice behaving human or interacting with humans since she changed. In the past couple of years, she has even begun to behave even more "vampire-like" in her stillness and grace. She is going to need to fidget and slouch more to behave human.
Since she has never tasted human blood, she will probably have as few thirst control problems as Rosalie does sitting in a classroom full of students. Because she has always abstained, she won't feel the same compulsion as the rest of us, with the exception of Carlisle, do.
All of these things run quickly through my mind as I look fondly at my daughter. We are making the crossing at night in case Bella and I run into any humans. We don't want to risk the reflection of light off of our bodies.
"Goodbye, Renesmee," I say, as I give her a kiss.
"Goodbye, Daddy," she says. "Goodbye, Momma. I'm going to miss you until we get to Winnipeg."
"We will be together again before you know it," says Esme.
Bella is looking sad as we wave them off.
"We won't have any problems, will we Edward?" she asks.
"None at all, love," I answer. "Alice said that everything is going to be just fine."
"I know," she sighs. "But I'm still worried. I am going to worry until we are back in the car with Esme and Renesmee."
"Well, the sooner we start running," I reply. "The sooner that we will meet them."
With a little half-smile, she is jogging along side of me. Because we are still on the road, we are wearing running suits and shoes and trotting along at human speed. We can't really start to take off at vampire speed until we hit the wilderness. But to anyone driving by us, we look like a normal pair of joggers enjoying the good weather (even if it is three in the morning).
"I'm glad that the weather is good," I say. "It's not that rain would bother us, but if it were pouring, people might try to stop and help."
"That would be annoying, I guess," says Bella.
"Something tells me that you are not just worried about Renesmee," I comment. "Are you worried about Jacob?"
"Yes," she sighs, but doesn't say anything.
"This is one of those times when I really wish that I could read your thoughts," I remark. "Sometimes it's easier to express your feelings when you don't have to say the words out loud."
"Well, if you could read my thoughts," she answers. "Then you would see how mixed up I am and conflicted about Jacob."
"No offense, Bella," I say. "But ever since I have known you, you have been conflicted about Jacob. First, he wanted to be your boyfriend and now your son-in-law. But even you must be able to see how far he stepped over the line."
"Yes, I can see it," she says. "I'm not exactly sure of what he was thinking about when he said that Renesmee could live with Sam and Emily until she was ready to marry him. Can't he see how young she is?"
"He sees it," I reply. "But he doesn't see it the same way that you do. Remember back when he insisted on bringing Charlie back into your life so that we wouldn't leave Forks? That was all about him and his need to be near Renesmee. The one thing about the imprinting that is difficult for you to understand without actually being in his mind, is that he literally believes that she is not safe unless she is close to him."
"But we are her parents and she is surrounded by six other vampires who will love and protect her from anything," she says. "Doesn't he understand that?"
"Bella, he can't understand it," I explain. "It's not the way that his brain is wired anymore, so to speak. Now, what I really didn't understand was what his problem was with moving with us to the Yukon. While that wouldn't have made most of the family very happy, I do know that it would have made Renesmee happy. And he has always said that the imprinting was all about being whatever she needed him to be. But not where, I guess."
"You make it sound like a possibility that he won't do it," she says.
"I think that he will try," I respond. "But I don't think that it will work. When Esme and I were talking to Sue back at Charlie's, I learned a lot not only from what she said, but also from what she was thinking. And I don't think that what she was thinking was coincidental."
"You mean that she was giving you information that she wanted you to know without actually say it."
"Exactly," I reply. "Sue is a very tough lady. In fact, having had the opportunity at different times to read the other Council members' minds, I would say that she will be the one who is the most opposed to Jacob returning to La Push with Renesmee."
"Really?" she says in surprise.
"Sue couldn't wait to see the backs of all of us fast enough," I reply. "She wants her own kids to have a shot at better lives and getting away from all of the wolf pack stuff. She wants Leah to be able to break away, go off on her own, and live a happy life. She doesn't want Seth to imprint. she thinks that he is so easygoing that without the Cullens around to trigger the wolf gene, he will tame his emotions and stop phasing completely.
"And above all, she is practical. Seth finished high school with honors and has gone to college on a scholarship for Native Americans. She wants a better life for him than what he will get on the reservation. He's thinking about teaching math at the high school on the reservation rather than using his engineering degree to go out and have a real career."
"You're right," she agrees. "Sue is tough, so tough that she would rather her own kids not follow the traditional path of the tribe to live an easier life."
"Yes," I say. "But it's more than that. She would like to see the education upgraded on the reservation. She wants to improve he houses where people live and see the young people work at real careers rather than just live hand to mouth on the workmen's wages they get.
"And while she appreciates the culture and the legends, she doesn't like the fact that the environment they create is holding everyone back from larger participation in the modern world. I mean Billy's daughter Rachel has a degree in computer science. But when Paul imprinted on her, all she wanted to do was marry him.
"She tried to do some work from home, but then she had the babies and that was it. Sue understands, in away that the men do not, how the imprinting impacts the future opportunities for women also."
"What about Renesmee?" she asks me. "You would think that she would perceive her as an asset to the tribe with all of her education."
"She seemed to be looking for a way out of any situation that involved Renesmee living there," I say. "She began asking some very personal questions about Renesmee's, um, fertility. And of course, as a vampire-human hybrid, there is no way of knowing whether she can have children. None of Nahuel's sisters have children. But we don't even know if there was ever a possibility."
"At the moment, Renesmee has not reached a point where physically she could even get pregnant," she says. "But why should Sue care?"
"From what I could tell, she doesn't care," I reply. "But she wanted the information to bring to the Council. I suspect that they are looking for ways of telling Jacob that he shouldn't follow Renesmee, but if he does, he is in it alone, and he should stay wherever she is if he wants to be with her."
"But doesn't that still mean that his pack members are going to have to live with his pain in their heads?" she asks. "When Jacob disappeared after he found out that we were officially getting married, Seth told me that they could hear his thoughts even though he was all the way up in Northern Canada."
"One way they could escape it would be to rejoin Sam's pack," I reply. "But Leah won't want to do that. She joined Jacob's pack to get away from Sam."
"You know," says Bella. "Even though she is very bitter and angry, I have always felt sorry for her. First she lost a man who still loved her to her cousin who initially didn't want him. Then she had to live in his mind for a while and not just see, but also experience the love and devotion that he had for her. It hurt me to just look at Sam and Emily when you were gone and he wasn't even my old boyfriend."
"Yes," I reply. "The love between the imprinter and the imprinted is a sight to behold. I'm glad that I've only had limited contact with the others. It's bad enough dealing with Jacob's head and it's not just because he's fixated on my daughter. When you originally called it a moronic "wolfie claim," that summed it up as much as anything. But that is being pretty judgmental on my part. In some ways, I'm not much better."
"What do you mean?" she asks.
"Well, the first time I realized that I was really in love with you was after I saved you from Tyler's van," I say. "First it made me feel responsible for you and very protective. Then I couldn't stay away from you. And I did everything that I could to be near you. I hunted like crazy to satisfy my thirst and when I discovered that the more time I spent near you, the more I could tolerate your scent.
"But when I figured out that I loved you, that was it. There was no turning back. And then I did my best to prove my love and devotion to you. I was so jealous of Mike Newton that there were times when I came close to killing him, and not for his blood.
"And then, when you picked me over all those other boys, I was beside myself. You have no idea how overjoyed I was when you agreed to go to Seattle with me after you said no to your three suitors. I was the one that you said yes to. I don't know how I could have stood it if you wanted someone else."
"So then you really do understand what imprinting is all about," she says.
"It's not as powerful as what I feel for you," I say. "But it's pretty close. And I know that you feel the same way about me."
"I do," she says. "It wasn't until I was turned that I realized what you meant when you said that you loved me more than I love you. But we are equals now."
"Yes, we are," I say. "But another thing that Sue said was that for all intents and purposes, the fact that we are taking Renesmee away from him is essentially going to tear him in two."
"What do you mean?" she asks.
"Well, one of the reasons that he has never even considered leaving the reservation, was that he feels very tied to it by his blood," I say. "He is the great-grandson of the last official chief, and the son and grandson of those unofficial chiefs who followed. When I mentioned to her that while we talking to him that he was thinking that we were stupid because we didn't understand that Renesmee's future husband was going to be a chief, she was very surprised."
"I didn't realize that he was thinking that," she says.
"I didn't want to tell you because it was so obnoxious," I say. "But Sue says that Jacob has made no claim to the title. He is the Alpha of the second smaller pack and he has not been paying his dues, so to speak, to earn the position."
"But I thought that the position was based on birth?" she asked.
"Things have changed and apparently the tribe has much more of a say in who becomes chief," I explain. "And from the Council's perspective, Jacob just hasn't been spending enough time on the reservation, working for the tribe. But Sam has. From the Quileute perspective, Jacob has allowed his imprinting on Renesmee to interfere with his tribal duties."
"He told me that he was spending all of his time guarding her because that was his job," she says. "He told Renesmee that that's why he doesn't work."
"Well, the other four imprinted wolves all work outside their homes," I say. "Of course he might argue that all of their women live on the reservation. I always got the idea from him that she didn't really belong with us anymore, but never anything clear."
"This whole thing is getting on my nerves," she says. "Look we can turn off here to hit a wooded area that will lead us up to the border. Let's just get ourselves to Winnipeg so that we can be with Esme and Renesmee again."
I agree. We take the turn off and once we're out of human contact we are flying. The running is easy because we are out on the prairie, but since we don't know where there might be farmers or ranchers out, we decided to stick to the trees. The country looks cultivated but empty. We can tell that we have crossed the border when things begin to become more natural and untamed.
The open, dry space is a major change from the green mountains and wet climate of the peninsula. We are lucky that it is overcast and relatively darker than a fully moonlit night. It will make it even more difficult for the humans to detect us. As it is we drove across the northern plains we were decked out in hats, long sleeves, and sunglasses. It was good that we were able to drive straight through the night. It was much less stressful.
In a couple of hours, we arrive on the outskirts of Winnipeg at the agreed location. Renesmee is standing outside of the car waiting.
"We beat you!" she says happily.
"Any problems at the border?" I ask.
"None at all," replies Esme. "They hardly looked at our passports. And driving through at night meant that there was no line. It sure is desolate out here."
"Yes, it is," I agree. "Do you want me to drive now? I bet that I can make it to Saskatoon by morning."
"I bet that you can too," she says. "Be my guest."
As I turn onto the highway again, I feel myself relax. The most difficult part is behind us. We will drive through the northwest through the four provinces and then directly west along the Al-Can. I know that we will make excellent time across the prairies, but the Rockies will slow us down a bit.
But now that we are halfway there, I am beginning to feel the same sense of adventure that I have always gotten from moving around the North American continent for the past one hundred years. It's only now that I am out here in the vast Canadian grasslands that I realize how cooped up we had really been in Forks. I am not sorry that we will not return for another hundred years.
Renesmee has fallen asleep again, but before she dropped off, I could sense that there was a greater sense of peace in her mind. It is based completely on the fact that she is now certain beyond a reasonable doubt that Jacob will be waiting for her when she gets there. I hope that she isn't too disappointed when he doesn't show.
End of Prelude
The next segment of the story will focus on the Cullens' entry and integration into their new community. How will Bella react to her second time through high school? How will Renesmee react to going to school for the first time? And what about Jacob? Will he follow them north to be with Renesmee?
The answers will be coming in the second installment of the story.