Elsa and Little Stevie had heard nothing but glorious things about life in Montreal. They heard there were no soldiers in the streets, and no shortages of food in the stores. There were no spontaneous exchanges of gunfire or loud explosions that forced people into shelters. It sounded like paradise compared to the dark existence they’d known in Detroit since the beginning of the “Crippling Times” in the United States.
Elsa wasn’t poor but having a “comfortable” amount of money hadn’t been a bulwark against experiencing the most damaging impacts of the second American civil war. Now, they readied themselves for the brief but dangerous journey from Detroit to Canada. The border with the United States had been shut for several years but had recently opened up as the fighting across the United States had died down some. They had petitioned to be allowed to move to Canada but were told they needed to make their appeals in person, with the immigration officials at the border.
Elsa had been alone in raising Stevie ever since her partner, Beverly, had abandoned she and Stevie, sneaking off in the middle of the night to fly to Nigeria, years earlier. She hadn’t given any hint that she was preparing to leave, and she left no messages or notes explaining her departure. There had always been tension between she and Stevie, but it had never been anything overly dramatic. Beverly had only sent a package containing a wooden statue of an Igbo elephant spirit and a printed picture of her passionately kissing an African woman. She had used Elsa’s credit card to pay for the flight.
Elsa met Beverly while both were in law school. The two had been active in women’s rights law. Beverly never took a paying job after law school, however. Elsa supported the entire family. She and Beverly always seemed to love each other in a generic manner. That was good enough to satisfy Elsa.
Stevie’s father, Steve, whom Elsa had married right out of high school, had been killed while serving in the Marine Corps during the reinvasion of Afghanistan. They had been married less than a year when he died. Steve was a quiet and kind person. His serene personality was a contrast to Elsa’s abrupt and aggressive style. She wanted to be a lawyer and he wanted to be a Marine. The main interest they shared was passionate sex with little conversation.
Elsa and Stevie were leaving their numerous expensive belongings in Detroit, hoping to attract as little attention as possible. Elsa had deposited a large amount of money into a Canadian bank many months ago after the first rumors surfaced that Canada might reopen the border with the United States. They were going to leave at midnight, traveling a more obscure route towards the Canadian border. They were leaving on Stevie’s 13th birthday, with the hopes that his “gift” would be a new life in Canada.
Their sequestered home in Grosse Point, a section of Detroit that had once been affluent, was surrounded by a high fence and concertina wire. Cameras and other sensors monitored the perimeter of their property. They had spent hours packing.
Out of the blue, Stevie had asked Elsa to find the statue of the elephant spirit. Elsa had packed it, along with most of Beverly’s belongings that she’d left behind, in storage in the basement. Stevie’s request caught Elsa off guard.
“Why do want that thing?” Elsa’s discomfort immediately filled the air.
Stevie shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I just want it. Can I please take it? It’s my birthday.”
Elsa swallowed her annoyance. “Whatever.”
At her first opportunity, she went into the basement and searched through Beverly’s belongings with a flashlight for the statue. The light in the basement had stopped working months before when a pipe bomb had detonated near her home. After locating the statue, she focused the light from the flashlight on it. She took a long look at it. The shape of the face and tusks seemed oddly threatening to her. The thought of traveling with the statue made her uneasy but she recalled that it was Stevie’s birthday. She brought it upstairs and gave it to Stevie. He said nothing and took it into his room to pack.
Elsa and Stevie stood quietly outside while Elsa quickly ran through a checklist of important tasks in her mind. Stevie was being anxious and impatient, not concerned with his mother’s mental well-being.
“Why do we have to leave in the middle of the night? The fighting stopped weeks ago.” Stevie was groggy and hungry. He didn’t relish having to take a road trip with his mom across deserted roads.
“Stop whining, please.” Elsa was tired and hungry as well, but she had been working up her level of determination for months. She realized how dangerous the journey was but was convinced that the next round of fighting was going to involve much worse than what they had seen to date. She was willing to risk everything to leave.
“This is a seriously fucked-up way to spend your first day as a teenager.” Stevie’s expression was sculpted by his disgust.
“It’s better than being dead.” Elsa was tired of his complaints. “If you can’t offer anything encouraging, then just shut the fuck up, okay?”
“Whatever.” Stevie got into the passenger side of the car and slammed the door shut behind him.
Elsa got in on the driver’s side and closed the door. She turned on the car.
The white SUV was packed with all the documents and basic items they would need to start a new life in Canada. It was a huge, expensive electric sport utility vehicle. It had more than enough range for the drive into Canada and was big enough to run down anyone who tried to ambush them along the way.
As the huge front gate opened up and they drove off of their property, the area was unusually quiet. The large groups of people normally walking along the streets were absent, and there were odd colored lights dancing in the distance.
“What’s up with the lights in the distance?,” Stevie asked.
“I don’t know,” Elsa said.
They made their way out of Detroit and onto the less commonly traveled road towards the St. Clair River, where they would cross into Sarnia, Canada. They had been traveling for only twenty minutes before beginning to see huge flashes of white light behind them.
“Those lights are freaking me out,” Elsa said.
“It’s probably just the fighting starting again.” Stevie was abrupt. His annoyance with the hour of the night and his mother’s curtness had not yet dissipated.
“Something feels odd about it. It was too peaceful when we left. It hasn’t been that quiet since before all this shit started.”
“I think—“, Stevie’s sentence was interrupted by a low-flying aircraft that buzzed the car then disappeared back into the dark sky.
Elsa slammed on the brakes and the vehicle stopped dead.
“What the hell was that?” Elsa looked at the landscape in their headlights and at what little she could see in the darkness all around them and saw nothing. She cautiously opened the car door and got out to look in the direction the aircraft was traveling.
“That was faster than anything I’ve ever seen.” Stevie voice held a mixture of excitement and youthful existential anxiety.
“Something’s not right. I don’t know what it is, but I can feel that something’s wrong.” Elsa’s fear was palpable by that point. The image of the elephant statue flashed in her mind for a moment. That image seemed to fit with the odd sensations she was experiencing.
She returned to the driver’s seat and closed the door. They anxiously resumed their journey. They drove for another fifteen minutes before seeing a lot of flashes of light on the horizon ahead of them.
“I don’t like the lights,” Stevie said.
“I don’t know what’s up, but I’d better speed up.” She pressed on the accelerator and the vehicle quietly sped up. “We’re getting close.”
“Good.” Stevie was staring out the side window as he spoke. “I’m scared.” Stevie’s voice was modulated by his fear. It sounded a bit like an unrehearsed yodel.
Elsa noticed that Stevie was clutching the statue of the elephant spirit. She wondered where Stevie’s attraction to the statue came from.
As the pair sped towards the border, an immense flash of white light appeared behind them. It lit up the entire sky like the daytime. A few seconds later, the car stopped moving and all the displays and motors went dead.
“Oh my God!” Elsa screamed with fear. She bounced in her seat as her thoughts raced. “They did it! They did it!”
Stevie grabbed his mother and started crying uncontrollably.
A few moments later, the vaporizing winds arrived. The journey was over. Elsa and Stevie moved on.
