—
The highway south wound away from the coast to the arid Interior of British Columbia, shot down to the Fraser River and then meandered through a long valley of farms and creeping gentrification back to the wet coast, with its mist-crowned mountains and low grey skies. The trip was punctuated by roadside stops so Kota could get his nic fix since Mave had given him strict orders not to smoke in her bug. Just outside Prince George they took another smoke break at a lonely gas station. While Jared filled the gas tank, Kota nuked some questionable cheeseburgers, and gathered up a pile of heat-lamped nachos and super-sized cups of dispensed Coke that was supposed to be regular but had the bitter chemical aftertaste of diet. They ate on the hood of the bug. Jared still had no desire to eat, but he carefully spat his bites of burger back in the wrapper and squished it small so Kota wouldn’t notice, and took a couple of token nachos. Kota collected the takeout wrappings and tossed them all in the clearly marked bottle recycling bin. Jared must have made a face because Kota said, “Ah, recycling’s a fucking scam. It all ends up in the landfill.”
“I’m just wondering if I’m making a mistake going back to Mave’s,” Jared said.
“Off to your Caribbean hideaway instead?”
“What?”
“Unless you’re secretly rich, I don’t see where else you can go.”
“I don’t want her to get hurt.”
“Yeah, your mom’s in a mood,” Kota said. “Come on. We’re missing all the drama.”
“I’d rather skip it.”
“Life is drama. Drama is life. Have you learned nothing from Facebook?”
Jared stared at the traffic going by. “I dunno.”
“You can’t avoid your mom forever.”
“I’m—I don’t. I’m not avoiding Mom.”
“Mm-hmm.” Kota gave him a friendly shove. “Get in, dumb-ass.”
3
YEA, THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY
A lone, shadowed figure appeared in the headlights, a thumb held out as the dude walked along the shoulder, weighed down by a large camo duffle bag. They were a five-minute drive out of the previous town, a strip of gas stations and convenience stores, motels with vacancy signs and shuttered fruit stands.
“Pull over,” Jared said.
“No,” Kota said. “I’m not picking up some rando on the Highway of Tears.”
The headlights spotlighted his thin face, his baggy jeans and rumpled hoodie. Through the side mirror, Jared watched the man turn red in the glow of their tail lights before he was swallowed by the darkness.
Two years ago, Jared had been hitchhiking along Highway 16 one sleety February day, trying to make his way back to Kitimat. He’d been freezing his ass off, standing on the outskirts of Prince Rupert near the Indian gas station, and should have been happy for any ride, but his every nerve had jangled when a little old woman pulled up beside him in her burgundy Caddy. She’d looked like a rez granny—flowered dress, cheek-dusting glasses and chunky orthopaedic shoes. But underneath her skin, he could see something not human. At first he thought reptilian, but now he knew what he’d seen was an ogress. Georgina. He hadn’t got in her car. What would have happened if he had? Would he still have met the little old woman who’d unhinged her jaw and eaten ghosts, spirits and everything that bled?
The sharp twists and turns of the road meant Kota had to slow down. If it was daylight, Jared could have looked down the pale cliffs at the river, but it was dark and all he could see were vague outlines. He rested his head against the window, not bothering to put his seat back again. He yawned and yawned again, fighting sleep.
In his dream, the bodies of her pack of coy wolves were all gone from the dusty plains where the ogress stood. She wore a brown tunic of coarse fabric. She was impossibly tall. Only magic could have folded her into her human skin. Her eyes were black and she’d tied her long hair in a braid. She watched him approach as if he was mildly interesting. A fire crackled, the flames low. The fireflies who’d helped him before were not in the dark sky full of bright blue-white stars, though this was their world, though the ape men were there. Jared crouched near an ape man in a grey tunic, who stared upwards, eyes shocked wide.
“Once they realize what I can teach them, their fear subsides,” Georgina said. “The first brave, greedy souls come forward and offer themselves to me.”
“He’s going to be human?”
“No. Homo sapiens never evolved here. From what I gather, the last galactic collision irradiated this earth in such a way that it’s not a human-friendly environment.”
Jared stood. He still had to look up at her.
“Worlds die,” Georgina said. “Your world is dying. Would you save it if you could?”
“You ate your way through the dolphin world and you weren’t going to stop.”
Her lips quirked into an almost-smile. “Did that disconcert you?”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“You don’t trust me because I’ve eaten some animals. How hypocritical of you. And very human. You’ll shed that notion as you come into your power.”
“I’m not like you.”
She shrugged. “I underestimated you.”
“You ate me.”
“You murdered everyone I loved.”
Jared flinched. She looked away from him. She was alone, he realized, like he was. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know they would die here, I didn’t.”
“If I forgave you and promised not to seek vengeance, would you bring me back to your world?”
Jared’s heart fluttered and, even in his dream state, he felt adrenalin coursing through him.
“He has possibilities,” Georgina said, looking down at the ape man. “In a few generations his great-grandson could be this world’s first Trickster.”
Jared backed away from her, wanting the dream to end. “Why am I here?”
The ape man moaned. One of the bones in his face cracked, and his left cheek sank so the outline of his teeth showed through his skin.
“He wants his brother’s wife,” Georgina said. “And he’s willing to go through
