Blockade

Note: This fictional story mainly takes place on the southern part of Vancouver Island of British Columbia, the author's abode. The author worked in the past with the provincial Ministry of Forest during the massive Clayoquot Sound protests, and also lived on the Songhees First Nations Reserve in the Esquimalt Region of Victoria, BC. This tale was written during the time of the recent and even greater Fairy Creek blockade and protests. ------------------------- A school teacher nearing retirement, Jessie Bonner, wants time away from the big town Christmas atmosphere and her two-timing husband, Jim. She makes her way up-island to a distant cousin's empty rental cabin not far from the Fairy Creek old growth logging protests and blockade where she sees that there is a burnt out RCMP vehicle and three people being arrested. She reaches the cabin, only to find that Ted Groundwater, one of her best students and an Indigenous graduate of her school has broken in. She allows him to stay hidden, even after a few RCMP personnel come questioning about a fourth perpetrator in the cherry-bombing of an RCMP vehicle and the accidental murder of an officer. They also note that there is a lone wolf in the vicinity which doesn't phase Jessie. When visiting the small town the following day, she overhears information from a few RCMP officers including Inspector Lemieux and Constable Chun about the people allegedly involved in the cherry-bombing: River, Ted, Gerry and Violet. Three were graduate students at her school - one of whom Gerry is not at all innocent, and the fourth is the well-to-do Oak Bay resident, Violet, dating Jim! Jessie returns to the cabin to inform Ted who then tells her that he needs to contact his parents to let them know he did not do the crime and that he is safe, but he has left his phone in Sage's tent at the protest camp. Jessie offers to get his phone while he is to stay in hiding. She drives out towards the blockade behind a parked logging truck. After finding out the location of Sage's tent, she meets up with Sage, one of the Indigenous elders who lives close to her school. Both Sage and Jessie notice wolf tracks and go around them. Sage then makes a quiet unsavory remark about Gerry and the 'weird' woman in reference to Violet. After Jessie has returned to the cabin with Ted's cell, Jessie and he decide to drive to Cowichan, another small town to get Christmas items and supplies. Unfortunately, Ted is recognized in Chandler's Coffeehouse and both must flee back on the long route back through a blizzard. Jessie manages to outmaneuver and lose the RCMP on her trail before arriving back at the cabin. Meanwhile Richard Thomas bails out his son, Gerry, in time for Christmas and his daughter, Madison, finding this out, furiously ups and leaves them. In a heated argument which quickly becomes violent, Gerry stabs his father to death. He rushes out of the condo when he receives a call from a very sober River who tells him that he has confessed to who the real culprits are in the cherry-bombing in order to obtain a lighter sentence. Angry, Gerry takes a bus to Oak Bay to go to his older cousin Violet's place where he meets Jim, Violet's lover. They listen to her voicemail and decide to drive out to bail her out. On the way there, Gerry asks to stop at the corner of Trailhead Rd, so he supposedly can have a few words with River. Without Jim knowing, Gerry smashes the windshield of River's truck as a warning. As River's mother and sister huddle together in their house, River calls the police on Gerry. Jim and Gerry bail out Violet. Together they make their way to Jim's in-law cousin's cabin and witness the shadow of a wolf in the night-time falling snow. By this time, the RCMP are on high alert. However Jim, Violet, and Gerry make it to the cabin before back up arrives. Jessie and Ted attempt escape out the back door into the snowy forest as Gerry in a fit of rage breaks down the front door. Inspector Lemieux is stabbed in the foot and his gun snatched by Gerry who runs, shoots at both Jessie and Ted. Violet is already handcuffed and placed in a vehicle when Jim and another officer are trapped inside the cabin by Gerry's shooting. Jessie is fatally wounded as Ted tries to save her. In the end, Constable Chun and another RCMP officer finally kill Gerry. The scene ends with the peaceful falling snow all around them and the disturbing scene as a wolf howls in the distance.