CHAPTER II: A SERIES OF INEXPLICABLE EVENTS

Even though they didn't overspeed, they were in Seattle, Washington in no time. Evergreen loved Seattle. They stopped for burgers and fries at a local place and then went into the Experience Music Project, a relatively new museum that they both had an interest in, due to their shared love of music. They had visited a small smattering of times in the past but today was a special trip for Evergreen's birthday.

When they entered the museum, they were greeted with massive halls with an industrial vibe, and band posters as far as the eye could see. Dad let a small grin escape when he noticed his son's rapt expression looking around the massive hall. They proceeded to walk through a throng of people. There were some kids all wearing the same t-shirt that mentioned some school club, as well as countless Japanese tourists with cameras, who were excitedly chattering about, and there were a few small families as well. Evergreen noticed a tall, redheaded mother holding a new baby to her chest and he felt a slightly melancholy pang in his chest. Perhaps his mom had had red hair. He noticed Dad looking at the stranger as well, but he quickly stopped when he noticed Evergreen looking his way.

They kept on walking with the group until they reached a room with a towering ceiling that was easily four stories from bottom to top. Right smack dab in the middle of this room was a familiar sight: the large art sculpture of hundreds of instruments all inexplicably bound together. Evergreen noticed that there were some guitars, drums, keyboards, some reed instruments like clarinets and saxophones, and even a handful of accordions. It really was the sort of thing to make one stop. Evergreen knew that some of the guitars played to a computer occasionally, so it was no surprise when some of the guitars started playing "Sweet Child of Mine," by Guns and Roses. An oldie but a goodie.

Suddenly, banging sounds began to blast out of the drums and long trills flew right from the mouths of each saxophone. At first, Evergreen thought it was due to some speaker somewhere. A closer look at a drum proved otherwise when he saw the head of the drum vibrate as if being repeatedly hit with a mallet. Dad had played the drums for years, so Evergreen knew the way a drum looked and sounded when struck. It was amazing. It was almost like magic.

Some kind of primal instinct then seized upon Evergreen, and he reached out to touch the drum closest to himself. The blue body of the snare drum temptingly glinted in the afternoon sunlight as his pink fingers inched toward it. Dad wasn't paying much attention to his son as he was rather captivated by the massive, central, floor-to-ceiling sculpture like everyone else.

At the moment Evergreen's fingertips brushed the snare drum's body, a deafening crack rang out through the air. All was still like a frozen lake and then a really strange thing happened. Beams of light — hundreds of thousands of beams of light — began swirling around the pillar of instruments. No two beams were the exact same color, or even the same texture or design, for that matter.

For a moment, everyone simply thought that it was a part of the show. That is, until employees came running from all directions, yelling about the sculpture being on fire or something. The crowd began to be shuffled away and Evergreen was knocked down by someone. Before he got to the floor, Dad caught him, and it was at that moment when the lights and the music all stopped.

All was suddenly still, and although there seemed to be no danger at that moment, Dad and Evergreen decided to go into the next room anyway. They shuffled away in that direction where there was a massive glass exhibit with all of Jimmy Hendrix's guitars. They continued through the room, all the way to the far side where there was a band recording simulator. Dad got on the drums and Evergreen picked up a guitar. They had a lot of fun just messing around.

The Quandarys left with quite high spirits and a copy of their pretend performance on DVD. It was one more thing to add to their increasingly impressive disc collection. A glance at Dad's watch reminded them that it was getting a little late in the day.

"E.E., you know that I'd love to stay here, but we have places to be."

"What—" he responded, being distracted while reading the back of the DVD. "Oh yeah. We should probably get going. How long t-till we get there, then?"

"About two and a half hours. We're halfway there."

"Whooooah, livin' on a prayer!" Evergreen added in singsong.

It was slightly overcast when they left the museum so their reflections on the side of the building were not quite as brilliant as they had been earlier in the day. As they made their way across the parking lot to their truck, Evergreen suddenly had an odd feeling. It was almost like they were being watched. He stopped between two SUV's.

"What's going on?" Dad asked.

"I j-just have an odd feeling. Like we're n-not alone."

Dad rolled his eyes, "Of course, we're not alone. Seattle's huge. If we were alone, I'd probably freak out."

Evergreen started walking away with Dad but stopped again when he saw something quite peculiar. Beneath the raised bed and slightly behind the front driver's side tire were the same beady eyes that he had seen previously further down South. The same beady eyes, wiggling nose, and large, protruding teeth. He approached the truck and was distracted by Dad calling out to him.

"Evergreen?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

A quick look back at the truck revealed that there was no one there, so Evergreen responded with a quick "Nothing!" and followed Dad to their truck.

They chatted nonchalantly as they pulled out of the parking lot, Dad manhandling the steering wheel as per usual. Dad was a sensitive guy, but also a bit of a gentle giant, who didn't always know his own strength. He was an excellent driver, in Evergreen's opinion, although he admittedly had some slight issues with road rage, which typically resulted in some extremely colorful language that Dad didn't otherwise use. After a short drive, they arrived at the docks for the Bainbridge Island Ferry. Sure, they could have gone the long way by land, but the most direct way to get to Victoria was by the ferry system. Thus, they would take the Bainbridge across Elliot Bay and then the Port Angeles across the Salish Sea, which would drop them right into Victoria. Evergreen had also never taken a ferry before, so this was an exciting prospect. They planned to drive directly onto the ferry and then stay parked in their truck all the way across the water, where they would be spilled out on the other side once they reached their destination.

Things were not too terribly eventful until they reached Bainbridge Island. Once their truck touched down on the island's asphalt, they felt kind of a shared anticipation because they both knew that they were extremely close to their final destination. The island was relatively barren and there wasn't a lot besides mountains and greenery this far inland. However, to quickly get to another shore on the island, one would need to take the direct route through the wilderness. So, that is what they did.

They drove and drove, and twisted and twisted, and further and further north they went. Massive pine trees, Evergreen's namesake, surrounded them on all sides. Some were small enough to be taken home as a Christmas tree, and others looked like they could reach halfway up Seattle's Space Needle. All these just whipped past them at 60 miles per hour. They almost didn't notice when an 18-wheeler truck began to shift into their lane.

With a crash, the larger truck rammed into the side of their truck, effectively sideswiping them. However, the momentum that the 18-wheeler had accrued from its apparent over speeding was so strong, that it sent them reeling. They were sliding across the road with a sickening screech that set Evergreen's teeth on edge. Dad's teeth were clenched and a few choice words of varying shades of blue had escaped his mouth, nevertheless.

Suddenly, the unthinkable happened. Their truck rolled into a ditch. Their feet were above them one moment and they were back to their upright position the next. After metal upon metal screamed through the woods and the whole world nearly spun completely out of control, all was silent, all was still.

Evergreen was hyperventilating and not sure at all what had just happened. He looked to Dad to see if he was okay. Neither one was bleeding, and they also didn't even seem to be really broken or bruised. The two of them got out of the truck and noticed that they were in an open grove within the forest. They looked back at the way they had come and saw that it was effectively a mossy ramp that began at the road and ended at the grove where they were standing. This was quite curious and rather convenient, Evergreen thought.

One look at the truck and he was positively astonished. Where he expected to see broken glass, missing mirrors, irreparable body morphing, and startling paint damage, he saw the last thing that such an experience should result in. The truck was completely unharmed. No scrapes, no broken bits, nothing. In fact, it looked even better than it had in Seattle. It was as if it had been through the most expensive car wash in the nation and even the white paint gleamed in the way that only new cars ever did, with not even a whisper of forest rubbish. That didn't make sense though, for Dad had bought this truck when Evergreen was a baby.

"Eminent," Dad began. "Are you okay?"

Dad only ever used Evergreen's first name during very important conversations.

"Yeah. I'm just a little s-surprised. I mean, look how f-far we fell d-down here."

"I know. I thought the truck would be trashed but look at it. It looks just like it did the day I drove it off the lot. I know I try to treat it well, but I know that it didn't look this good this morning."

"That's what I was thinking." Evergreen started scratching his head, "D-do you think it still runs and we could get b-back up to the road?"

"Only one way to find out, E.E.." Dad answered with a laugh.