Page 54 of Laying Low

“Where are we?”Ilia asked.He looked to Reg and Anthony.“It would be nice to know.”

Anthoy blew out a breath, like he was getting ready to hazard a guess, but Reg was pretty sure he knew.

“The currents were pushing us to the west and north,” he said.“And slowly.I suspect we’re a little northwest of Sooke Harbor.Before the phone died, I checked the coastline, and thislooksapproximately like the Google version.I think if we follow the shore there to our left, we’ll come to a road in a mile or two, and maybe we can flag down some help.”

“What will we tell them?”Reynaldo asked apprehensively.

It was Anthony’s turn to answer.He’d actually spoken with Eben at length about Canada’s immigration policy.Given how close Washington was to the border, and how often Eben’s travels took him to ports in Puget Sound, it was something the natives talked about.

“The truth,” Anthony said.“You’re fleeing a dangerous situation.Both of you.You both belong to marginalized groups, and you’re fleeing violence from both your families and your country.I think you have a good case—and hopefully Reg’s brother can smooth the way for you.It was our plan from the start.”

Ilia shrugged, a sort of Slavic fatalism making him look, for a moment, very much older.“What can we do?”he asked.“It is either that or we form a commune.I would….”He let out a sigh.“This way I might at least speak with my mother again, even just in letters.Reynaldo deserves to see his aunt.I—” Again, that shrug, but they could both see the quivering lip, the wobbling chin.“—I am grateful to not be with my uncle, at the very least.Or in a ‘detention center.’”He sneered the last word.“Where I would be fucked into the concrete and left to die.Or El Salvador or Texas.So many worse things I could be.Let us go hope for the best.”

It was a brutal summary of their choices, and while they insisted Reynaldo sit and rest, those left straightened the cruiser in grim silence, battening down the tarps, blankets, and life preservers that had cushioned and sheltered them, and bagging up the trash to take with them so vermin wouldn’t be tempted to take over the vessel while they were gone.

“Wait!”Reg cried as Anthony made ready to hop down, using the rail and the ladder built into the side to help.“Anthony, take off your shoes and socks.The beach is sandy here, and we don’t want to walk in wet boots!”

“Ooh,” Ilia said, sitting down immediately.“That’s why he’s got the big brain.And honestly, my feet arerank, and I’ve got one more pair of clean socks!”

Some of the tension left them as they all complied, and Reg was ribbed gently—and thanked profusely—for thinking that far ahead.They not only took off shoes and socks, but rolled their pants up as far as they could go, shivering in the foggy dawn but knowing that wet clothes would be so much worse.Ilia and Anthony hopped ashore first, splashing in the shallows, while Reg remained on board to help Reynaldo down.Then it was Reg’s turn, Anthony there to help steady him as he landed, and the shock of the cold water on his feet was enough to clear the last of the Dramamine from his system.

They sloshed to shore, making quiet sounds of “ooh” and “ah” and “ouch!”as they did so, and finally, laughing, found places to sit on the crab grass that had grown in above the dunes.

Reg watched as Ilia helped Reynaldo slide his boots and clean socks on, and teased him about stinky feet, and thought,Even if they’re not a couple, they’ll be inseparable.They’ve endured something together that few people would understand.

It was an optimistic thought, but it didn’t help when Ilia had to hold Reynaldo’s pack while Anthony and Reg helped to support his weight.Reg produced the last of the cheese and fruit, and they ate readily as they walked, but nobody had to say anything about how glad they were that this would be their last day, for better or worse.

Reg knew that people had gone without more during greater hardship, and he shuddered to think of their despair should they find that the place they were fleeing to was more dangerous than the place from whence they’d come.

THEY HITa main road after less than a mile of walking and were following it inland when a man wearing flannel, a battered baseball hat identifying a local hockey team, and a three-day beard stopped alongside them.

“Do you all need help?”he asked, and Reg glanced at them, rumpled and unshowered, with Reynaldo half-suspended between him and Anthony while Ilia tried to carry extra bags.

Anthony was closer to the road, and he nodded at Reg and said, “Yes.Please.Our friend here is really sick, and we ran our boat aground because we got lost in the fog.Do you have a hospital nearby?”

“We’ve got a small one in Sooke Harbor,” the man said.“Hop in!”

They put Reynaldo and Ilia in the front, with a hurried admonition to Ilia to not disclose too much about where they were from, and then Reg and Anthony took the gear and hopped in the back of the truck.

It was an old American-made workhorse truck—Reg could never tell make and model, and as for color, he’d have to say “primer.”But as he and Anthony leaned back against the cab and huddled out of the wind, the rumble of the engine under their backsides was comforting.

“You know,” Anthony hollered over the wind, “I think one of the world’s most prolific serial killers came from Canada!”

Reg stared at him and then chuckled.It had certainly been trusting of them to just take this guy’s offer, but… God.Maybe being exhausted did that to your judgment.

He craned his neck and saw Ilia in the middle of the bench seat, cheerfully talking the ear off their generous new friend, while Reynaldo leaned against the window, obviously too sick to care.

Ilia sensed his regard, because he turned in his seat and slid the window panel back.

“It’sfine, Reg.He’s got a trailer with big dogs, but he figures since he’s taking us to the hospital, the dogs won’t be a problem.”

Reg blinked at him, and then nodded because he had no choice in the matter.Apparently life really was like coasting in the fog—steering was an illusion, and you took the direction the world chose to send you and ran with it.

Anthony wrapped his arm around Reg’s shoulders and murmured, “We’ll have the nurses call border control and give them your brother’s contact the minute we get there.Don’t worry, baby.We’ll make it.I really think we’ll make it.”

Reg huddled against him and hoped.

The town must have been small, because less than ten minutes later, the truck shuddered to a halt in front of a petite country hospital.Reg and Anthony hopped (or ratherheavedthemselves since they were so limp with exhaustion) out of the truck bed and, after scrambling for their packs, hurried to help Reynaldo out of the front.As soon as they had him between them, Ilia went running for one of the wheelchairs lined up in the foyer of the hospital, and Reg and Anthony turned to thank their benefactor.