Ruxton Nights

By Helen Randall

Kat, a smart, attractive Psych Ph-D student at UBC thinks she is being stalked. A Mayan Professor seems to know about her vision; about her role in preparing for the 2012 Prophesy. A trip South with her boyfriend, Daniel, brings some frightening revelations that shake her very foundation and make her realize no one is who they seem.
She turns to her mother Eleanor who takes her to a simple life on a beautiful remote Gulf island where the two come to terms with decisions that they made in the past and what they must do to secure a future. Kat explores how much control she has over Fate, especially in the company of an irresistible sailor. Can she save her own world?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Helen Randall
• Release date: Jul 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476056760

Helen Randall

H.T. Randall is a Vancouver Island author who moved to Canada from Scotland when she was 19 years old. She has an MBA and spent her professional life in Lab Management before retiring in the coastal city of Nanaimo. In her retirement, she is a sailor, potter, and writer; she is married to Greg Fiddick, and spends a great deal of time at their cabin on the beautiful Ruxton Island. Helen is a mother of two, and Granny of four. Though she has been writing for ten years, 'Ruxton Nights' is her first published book.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

They were almost in Arizona, searching for the heat she craved. Going where the sun was most likely to shine. Leaving the damp, foggy, evergreen, city behind. Get in the truck and head South. That was Kat’s plan. Check the newspaper weather-map over a great big greasy Denny’s breakfast and see where the orange bit had moved to. Who cared if she regained a little insulation, anyway? The only way to melt those West Coast Canadian bones in a hurry was to become a heat-seeking missile. She was not capable of making a more complex plan. She thought of her brain as having the IT blue screen of death. Any sensible thought would require a complete reboot; even this thought itself caused pain. They drove non-stop and slept in the cab for the most part, on their trek South, racking up the miles and zoning out on the I-5.

The Canucks are playing, he said, we lucked out. We can watch an away game tomorrow. I hear it is quite another experience altogether. No audience belting out the anthem. Not even any semblance of fairness. No replays of the opposition goals. And, the locals glower at you if you cheer. Not the wavy camaraderie we Kanuckle heads are used to. What’dya say Kat? Are you up for it?

He folded up that morning’s sports section of the paper carefully and put it on the booth seat next to him. He picked up the breakfast tab and the gaudy colored traveller’s magazine they had grabbed in the restaurant foyer.

Let’s put another few hours in on our Highway to Heat and then find this cheap motel in the Travellers’ guide and get ourselves cleaned up. I thought it wasn’t supposed to rain in Southern California. I know it is pouring, not raining, but you know what I mean. Oh yeah. That is what that song is about. Now I know why Californians don’t bother with raincoats! We wouldn’t have to go so damn far South if it wasn’t the rainy season here in sunny California.

Sounds like a plan! Kat tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible. This trip was on his dime and she really didn’t care where they were or what they did as long as she could get warm. She could survive a sleazy motel and a couple of hours in an ice rink after dark if it meant she woke up in the vicinity of the hot, bright sun.

She waited in the truck several hours later, while he checked. She laughed at him when he came out to read the license plate. Obviously more used to fancy hotels in cities than he was to checking into cheap motels. He got back in the car, waving his trophy, a $40 bargain registration and drove across the lot to the designated spot in front of their tiny room.

Come on you old girl with the frozen bones, let’s check out the mattress. See if a little friction can heat you up, he joked, unlocking the door. They took what they needed from the car for a few nights stay, the toilet bag and a carry-on bag with a change of clothes.

She threw herself on the bed, bouncing up and down; then she checked out the bathroom.

Wow, you got a tub and all, she said enthusiastically.

Of course! he replied. Three days on the road, we’ll need to soak the grime off!

It was not three days! she protested.

Bloody well was, he retorted, and you slept through most of it.

I was tired! she whined. You would’ve been too, if you had been through what I have been through these last three months.

Remind me again, he purred, while I run you a bath and take those dirty clothes off you. Punish me with quotes from your thesis. Thrill me with arguments and counter arguments in favor of this or that. Sound off about the professor that wanted no numbers and the other one that wanted them all. You are done, D-O-N-E, done Baby, done! You said you would do it and you did. I am so proud of you, really, really proud. Get in while the water is hot, I have plans for you when you are nice and clean. Assuming you can stay awake that is.

Ten minutes later, he was the one who surrendered to sleep first - it was always like that after they made love. With his legs still twitching from the physical exertion of sex, his head rolled to the side and he fell fast asleep. But she woke up, not in any sensible way, just the picture show of mindless worry. Ideas and images flickered away in the corner of her vision. The only cure was to focus on something else. No book. Where’s the remote?

She turned on the square TV that sat on a shelf a foot from the edge of their bed. Barack Obama was on the local Phoenix news station, the overdone perky blond practically cheered his name. They were calling him the harbinger of hope. What could one man do with this wreck of a country anyway? It wasn’t just that the oaf of a President before him brought down the country morally and economically in just 8 years, it was the people who voted for him the second time that got her blood boiling. The ones that were too busy driving SUV’s and buying cadmium laced toys from China to see where their country was headed. Or care.

She shut the television off again; it wasn’t helping, and snuggled into the floral polyester quilt. It was coarse on her dry skin. She glanced at her snoring companion. He was out. Maybe she could cuddle up a bit to him without waking him. Oh, that felt nice, skin on skin.

She tried to remember when it first started happening to her: the visions; the early ones that she had ignored.The first few months of 2008, she thought, long before she met him. She wanted to tell him about it, but he was the type of guy who was all science, all black and white and no purple. This was attractive in certain situations but not at all useful in this case. It was hard to know what to make of the very real images, complete with tastes, smells, emotions, like she was living in the future for brief moments. His body was radiating heat. She cuddled in some more, allowed the heat sensation to take over and finally drifted off to sleep.

The next morning they woke up to the screeching sound of a chair moving on the floor above them at 6 am. And kids were screaming. You got what you paid for, she supposed. $40 did not include insulation, didn’t need it for the cold so didn’t have it for the noise.

Well Cowboy, what are we doing today? She asked as she jumped on her drowsy lover.

Is it sunny? he asked.

Of course, it is, silly! We’re in the desert. Let’s check the weather everywhere else so we can feel even better. She flipped on the news.

Omigod!

What is it? He looked up when he heard the strange tone.

He’s here! In Phoenix.

Who? Who is, Babe?

She started stuffing her clothes in their shared bag.

We have to go! Now! Did you use your credit card Daniel? she demanded. Can anybody find out where we are?

I didn’t, he thought out loud, scratching his stubbly cheek. Had tons of American from when the exchange was at par so I used cash. They did ask for the license plate. It didn’t look like they used any kind of electronic registration system though.

Shave first then, while I pack up and we can have a quick shower. We don’t know when we will get the chance again. I am so sorry. I don’t know how he is tracking us, she said amidst a few sniffles.

Are you sure he is tracking you, Babe, aren’t you reading a lot into seeing him in Phoenix? There is such a thing as coincidence, you know.

It is more than that! She answered, I know it is not just coincidence! Something really strange has happened to my life. I am being followed and watched. I know I am!

But, why! Why would he be tracking YOU, what could he possibly want from you. Get real Kat, the stress of your thesis is really getting to you. You have to stop this weird shit. What are you not telling me? he almost yelled at her. He grabbed her arms and spun her around so she was forced to make eye contact. He knew from her body language that she was trying to keep something from him.

I`ll tell you, in the truck, once we get out of here. He probably just guessed Arizona, it would be here or California he would look first, easy to get to and logical that I would seek the heat, she stated calmingly as she was thinking things through.

Back in the truck they skirted the main part of town and headed South to Yuma, as it was easier to get lost in crowds of snowbirds with their Canadian plates. She finally decided to come clean and tell him of the visions, hoping it would turn out better than when she had confided in one of her fellow students, Chuck. She clutched her body in a self-protective, pretzel pose as she slowly shared her secret with him.

I have visions. Don’t laugh, this is serious stuff. In these visions it is always cold, freezing cold, bone chilling cold, flaky skin cold, I hate it there, she confessed.

I get the idea, he said. So why is it cold and where are you?

I am in this underground army camp in Nevada, some tree name bunker, with a bunch of other smart, fertile, thirty year old women, she said gazing to the upper left recalling her first vision, reliving the memory. He knew from her body language that she was not making this up.

But, you are only 27 and how did you know it was Nevada? he gasped.

I figured it out later, she said, read all that 2012 stuff and remembered seeing a road sign and then Google-mapped the place. Definitely the top of Nevada. Right elevation, good water source; perfectly placed to survive the event if you ignore all the hogwash about discarded weaponry. Wish I had never told Chuck anything, he went right off the deep end and applied to the American forces so he could get a spot on Noah`s next ark. Can you believe it, a Canuck in Uncle Sam’s army?

I am not following you now, he said. Whadya mean `Noah`s next ark'?

The heads of state, everywhere, they are planning to save a few folks, start off the world again once things stabilize. I bet Barack is in on it and those jerks we have are probably calling all those elections just to see who gets to go and who doesn`t, she ranted.

But if something was going to happen, you would want somebody to try and save mankind, wouldn’t you? Daniel interrupted.

I don`t know, I just don’t know. How do you choose who to save? she mused. But then Chuck just disappeared and that guy showed up everywhere. I have been really scared. I have been having more and more visions and it is always cold. That is why we are here, you know, I can’t stand the cold anymore. I have to get warm or I think I might die. It is so painfully cold there. The visions are realer than reality as my reality became just finishing the damned thesis. And I have lost so much weight, that hasn’t helped at all. I can’t take it anymore!

Kat sobbed uncontrollably for the next thirty minutes. When she stopped she said, no more questions for now, eh? I am so confused. Let’s just get something to eat when you are ready. And then I want to have a nice long walk in the sun.

CHAPTER 2

Daniel coasted the truck to a stop at the next Taco Bell drive thru when his stomach grumbling reminded him it was dinnertime. While she went in for a bathroom break, he took some time over his Burrito Supreme to digest what she had told him. He wasn’t surprised, not surprised at all! What was surprising was how long it took her to confide in him. They had been dating for 9 months now and time was ticking by. Ever since the carefully orchestrated 'chance' meeting that launched their relationship last year, he had been waiting for the big reveal.

And he wasn’t sorry to hear about Chuck’s disappearance – he hadn’t really liked the guy and he wasn’t convinced that Chuck’s intentions were all platonic.

He picked up his phone but it was dead. He must have forgotten to charge it last night in his haste to get into the motel room. He really needed to check in.

What did you get for me? She hopped back into the ’05 Ford pick-up.

7-Layer Burrr-eee-toooo and a diet coke. He said as he passed her a limp burrito. So tell me more about that 2012 shit.

Oh yum. Fast food Mexican tastes so much better down here. She bit into her burrito and sipped her drink. OK. Where to start? The Meso-Americans or Mayans predicted a cataclysmic event will happen on the winter solstice that will end civilization on earth, some think. Or, somehow or other, elevate it to a place with higher spiritual being. There are whole websites about the Apocalypse 2012.

OK Professor Wikipedia, he said, mockingly.

People believe some disaster will end the world! Kat protested. They do, you know. Some of them think a planet will collide with us and knock us right off kilter and we will become extinct like dinosaurs. Some people even think we deserve that fate after we ruined the earth. She took another bite of her burrito.

As dangerous as Y2K maybe, you think? Daniel facetiously brought up the mass hysteria movement of 1999.

I'm serious!.Lots of people are making plans and learning skills to survive 2012 just in case. There is a whole spiritual enlightenment movement. People are starting to try and think only good thoughts. There are lots of crazies in the world; maybe some of them are planning on making the prophecy come true. Who knows? She knew this would be a hard sell to such a skeptic.

So what does that one guy have to do with it all and what do you think he wants with you? Daniel asked.

Has that car been following us? I think I saw it at the last rest stop yesterday? She choked down her mouthful of food and swiveled her head around to get a better look.

What? Which one? He jumped on the accelerator.

That Prius. The red one. She started to feel nervous; her fine golden arm hairs all standing tall.

Naawww. Just some smug yuppie driving around in his vagmobile. He put a warm hand on her bare knee to reassure her.

There are two of them in it, can’t you see? Mafia types, not yuppies at all. Kat strained to look backwards but the car was lost in the traffic with all the lane changes he had made.

The desert sun was starting to set and they needed to figure out where they would spend the night. What corner of the earth could they claim as theirs for a night to cuddle up and ride out her storm? There were some things she needed to know and he had tell her soon but tonight was not the night. She was so jumpy and suspicious; he needed her to trust him more. This girl wasn’t letting him in easily – perhaps she had been really hurt in the past, or maybe she was just intuitive about his own murky intentions.

What does Shelia say about the next town? He had named the GPS’ robotic voice Sheila after some past girlfriend. Kat? Kat?

Her eyes were squeezed closed, she was shivering uncontrollably and she winced as if in pain. And when she opened them again, she shuddered. When she turned to look at him, he saw what could only be described as