Dearly Departing by Geoff North (book reader for pc txt) 📕

His mother gave his hand a tug. “She’s okay, Raymond. Your father and I are both with her now. Our girl is fine. You need to look after yours.”

“Mom,” he finally managed, unable to take his eyes off the beautiful little sister he’d lost. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry for all of it.”

“We know you are, dear. But now you have to go. This isn’t your flight. Not yet.”

His father was holding her other hand. He smiled reassuringly at his son. “Go, son. Now.”

She released his hand, and Ray staggered back into the coughing woman that had followed him onto the plane. “Watch where you’re going,” she snapped.

Ray pushed past her towards the front of the plane. He shoved other people along the way. The flight attendant that had checked his seat number stopped him at the door. “Do you need to use the washroom? Are you feeling sick?”

Ray glanced back down the aisle. His sister was standing above all the other faces. She was waving good bye. “Not sick, I have to get off the plane.”

Chapter 12

Dawn pushed the second empty bottle away. The server noticed and came over smiling. “You ready to try something a little harder now?”

“No, not anymore,” she answered, pulling one of the bills her dad had given her from a coat pocket. “Can you break this?”

“Not a problem.” The woman smiled. “I’ll be right back with your change.”

Dawn strode out from the terminal a few minutes later into the cool afternoon feeling cheerier than she expected. Not only had she resisted the booze, but it felt as if a few more corners had been turned since she had set out west with her father. She was going to sleep back at the hotel for awhile and then wake up, a brand new woman. Maybe a return to school wasn’t out of the question.

Dawn sat in the rental car and started it up. Screeching wheels sounded behind her. She looked in the rear view mirror and saw her ex-boyfriend’s red truck blocking the way. “What in the fu—”

“Get the hell out!” He came around the truck’s front end, pointing a gun in her direction. Tyler pounded on the driver’s window with the weapon’s butt end. “Now! Right fucking now!” The window exploded into a thousand pieces. Dawn screamed as he reached in and grabbed the handle. His fingers were in her hair, pulling her out.

He dragged her across the pavement and shoved her into his truck. And then they were moving, tires squealing.

“Don’t kill me,” she wept. “You stupid asshole, please don’t kill me.”

“You think that’s what this is about?” He slammed on the brake and waved the gun in her face. “You think I’d actually shoot the woman I love?”

“I don’t know what you’re capable of anymore.”

“You wouldn’t give us a chance. I gave you some distance for a while, but you just wouldn’t come around. I had to do this, Dawn. You didn’t leave me any other choice.” Tyler stowed the gun under his seat and took off again, slowing only slightly near the corner where the last row of vehicles ended. “I’m not gonna hurt you, I’m gonna—”

The world exploded. Dawn had never heard anything so loud. She felt the jarring smash down in her bones. She could taste the impact in her mouth. Her ears started to ring, an awful buzzing. She gasped for breath and opened her eyes. Tyler was slumped over the twisted steering wheel. There was blood all over his face. She could smell it, the blood, the dust.

Beyond the crushed-in driver’s door was the crushed-in front end of the rental car. Her dad was staggering out of it, clawing his way towards them. “Are you alright? Dawn! Are you okay?”

She nodded and choked out the words. “Okay… I’m okay.”

The police cruiser they’d seen earlier arrived five minutes later, the ambulance a few minutes after that. Dawn and Ray were checked over by the paramedics. Nothing broken, no blows to the skull. Not a single scratch on either one of them. Tyler regained consciousness halfway to the hospital. One of the police officers was in the ambulance with him, guaranteeing his stalking, gun-toting days were over.

Dawn listened to her father’s report at the police station—how he’d left the plane while it was still boarding, and spotting Tyler grabbing his daughter at gunpoint from the parking lot. Luckily the rental was still running when he’d reached it. He was able to cut between the rows of cars and plow into Tyler’s truck before it could exit the lot. It was after ten at night before they made it back to the hotel.

“It’s a good thing you paid extra for insurance on the rental,” Dawn said as she folded her dirty clothes and packed them back into her bag.

Ray was sitting on the corner of the desk next to the flat screen television, watching her. “We’ll find out in the morning if smashing it intentionally into another vehicle is covered. I have a suspicious feeling it isn’t.”

“What if it’s used to stop homicidal maniacs?”

He shrugged. “We’ll see.”

“At least my Cruze is all fixed. We’ll be halfway back to Manitoba by lunch time.” Her father just sat there, grinning. “What? We’re not leaving tomorrow?”

“There’s no hurry anymore. We should keep driving west, all the way through the mountains. You haven’t seen your uncles in years.”

Dawn raised her eyebrows. “You told them about Aunt Alicia?”

“Not yet. I figure we can all talk about that when we get there.”

“You won’t back out again in the morning?”

“Not again, Girl-of-Mine. Not ever again.”

Chapter 13

Bruce and David handled their little brother’s confession remarkably well. It seemed the old saying was true; time heals all wounds. Both men had raised children