Chapter 14
ERIN
Erin woke feeling relieved at having unburdened herself to her grandmother.
And really, Martha had taken it surprisingly well.
Erin had braced herself for some serious words, but her nana, she remembered, was never really like that with her.
She didn’t get cross or fly off the handle, she talked things through in a calm manner.
It was one of the things Erin loved about her; how steady she was.
Erin’s mother, Clare, hadn’t been an angry or an aggressive person but she wasn’t always emotionally grounded, and there had been times when Erin had been thrown off balance by an outburst from her.
One thing Martha never said about Clare but one thing Erin remembered very well was that Clare loved a drama.
But now, there would be no more slip-ups from Erin. She would try to be the model teammate.
Noah and Cally arrived just before they set off at seven and then they were back on the road. Erin offered to drive again as she felt it was the least she could do.
‘I’d love a good breakfast this morning,’ Martha said as they left the campsite. ‘I think we could blow a little of the budget on something decent. We haven’t eaten properly since the hotel in Haida Gwaii. What do you say to a hot, cooked breakfast?’
‘God, yes!’ Erin said as she pulled onto the main road towards Edmonton.
Martha looked at her notebook where she wrote down all the useful information she gleaned.
‘It’s about a four-hour drive to Edmonton,’ she said. ‘I suggest we go for a couple of hours and stop anywhere that looks like it might serve us a breakfast.’
‘Sounds good to me,’ Noah said. ‘Our hotel wasn’t serving food before the time we had to leave. I had to make do with a coffee and a packet of biscuits I pinched from the room service trolly.’
‘My heart bleeds for you,’ Martha said, turning to give Noah a half-hearted smile.
‘The thing is, it feels like we’re making great progress but we have no idea what the others are doing. They may have found someone prepared to drive through the night for them.’
Erin glanced at Martha and saw she was fixing Noah with a questioning look but he said nothing.
‘Well, it was worth a try,’ Erin said.
In the end they found a gas station that had a café attached and both Erin and Martha treated themselves to crispy bacon, hash browns, scrambled eggs and sausages with a stack of pancakes covered in maple syrup on the side.
‘We should have just ordered one portion,’ Erin said, her eyes wide as the stacked plates landed in front of them.
‘Eat as much as you can and we’ll doggy bag what we can’t manage. I’m not wasting a morsel,’ Martha said as she dug in.
The waiter came over with two steaming mugs of coffee and it was a good ten minutes before either of them spoke.
Erin felt extremely uncomfortable once they were back on the road. She hadn’t eaten that much in one sitting for a long time and what she really needed to do was walk it off.
‘Don’t worry,’ Martha said when she voiced this. ‘Once we lose the van, we’ll be on our feet until we can find a way to get from Edmonton to Banff. We will need the fuel of breakfast to power us through.’
‘The way I feel right now, you might have to roll me around,’ Erin said.
Martha had the map out on her lap again and Noah was filming her perusing over possible routes out of the city.
When they arrived in Edmonton they marvelled at what a huge place it was and how it had somehow sprung up unexpectedly out of the wilderness they’d travelled through.
They weren’t there for sightseeing, though and parked up at the RV hire place before handing the keys to the man at the front desk.
He thanked them but Erin felt that she and her grandmother were the ones who were grateful.
‘Do you think I could be cheeky and ask you to check out the coach times to Banff please?’ she asked him, and crossed her fingers there would be a few options and she wouldn’t have to run for any of them. ‘Ideally, we’d be there by the end of the day.’
‘Well, you’ve missed the ten thirty, which is a shame as that was a nice easy run to Calgary airport and then on to Banff on the shuttle bus.’
‘You haven’t got another haul back, have you?’ Erin asked hopefully.
‘Sorry, not to Banff, no. And there is no direct public transport to Banff. You can get a taxi but that will cost you over five hundred dollars.’
Erin was exasperated with the difficulties of public transport.
She wanted to say that this was a tourist place and how was it that there were hardly any buses, coaches or trains, but she didn’t.
They were in a race without much money. They weren’t tourists with plenty of time to wait for the next bus while they took in the sights.
And anyway, the lovely man who took the keys back from them was being nothing but helpful.
Erin could hardly expect him to take kindly to her disparaging of his city or indeed his country.
‘You can get a coach to Calgary today,’ he said looking at his screen. ‘And if you can get there before five thirty, you can catch the last shuttle bus from downtown to Banff. You need to hustle, though. The coach leaves in half an hour and you’ll need to get tickets.’
‘Thank you,’ Martha said. ‘You’ve been so helpful.’
Then they ran with their backpacks bouncing around and their brunch lying heavy in their stomachs.
They made it onto the coach with Erin jumping on board after pushing her bag underneath in the baggage area and Martha behind her, wincing a little on each step.
Erin took Martha’s rucksack from her and went back out to store it with her own.
She made sure to put them as close to the front and side as possible so they wouldn’t get buried with the others and Noah filmed her doing it.
Then they all settled into their seats for the three-and-a-half-hour journey.
They would have to run again to catch their connection, but they were on their way and would hopefully be in the hotel in Banff by the end of the day.
‘I think we’re doing so well, don’t you?’ Erin said. ‘I very much doubt anyone else is as fast as us.’
‘Any of them could be as fast if not faster than us,’ Martha said.
‘Don’t fall into the trap of thinking we’re breezing it.
But I do think we are doing our best. If we hadn’t stopped for food, we would have made the earlier coach but then if we hadn’t stopped for food, we’d never have had the energy to run and might have missed this one. ’
Erin couldn’t keep up with her grandmother’s logic and she rested her head back and closed her eyes. She had never driven so far as she had in the last couple of days and hoped it had gone some way to showing Martha how serious she was about this race.
‘I just wish we had some way of knowing how the others are doing,’ Martha said and Erin opened her eyes. ‘All the others.’
‘How much money have we got left?’ Erin asked but Martha put a finger to her lips and nodded her head back to Noah sitting behind them.
‘You’ve got 81 per cent of your budget,’ Noah suddenly said.
‘Cally makes a note of exactly what you’re spending.
We’ll be doing a running commentary on each of the contestant’s progress and give the viewer a percentage of your available funds after each checkpoint.
Don’t forget that each of the producers are talking to one another about what’s going on.
They’re trying to capture the best and the worst moments.
You guys will see this as a personal race but for us, we’re making a TV show. ’
‘How does 81 per cent compare to the others?’ Martha asked, and Noah laughed.
‘As if,’ he said. ‘Cally and the other producers will be talking about how to get the best out of you all but just as she and I aren’t telling the others about your progress, you won’t be finding out about theirs.’
‘Fine,’ said Martha. ‘I promise not to ask again.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ Noah said and picked up his camera. ‘Why don’t we get a moment of you talking about how you feel your race is going?’
They spent a good while discussing their plans to catch the bus to Banff and how the timings were going to be tight.
They talked about where they thought they might be going next and how challenging it might be, but Erin felt it was all a bit forced and she didn’t imagine for one moment that they were making great TV at all, especially as she kept yawning.
Then, somehow, despite the constant bumping of the coach, the scratchiness of the seats and the fact it was only the afternoon, she fell asleep.
‘Look lively.’
Martha’s voice cut through Erin’s dream about her hanging from a mountain with Sam at the top, his arm down to help her and her slapping his hand away.
‘We’re just pulling into Calgary, get ready to run,’ Martha said. ‘You too, Noah.’
And then they were off with their bags collected from underneath the coach. The driver gave them a quick tip on a shortcut to where they needed to get tickets and pick up the next bus.
‘Good luck,’ he called after them as they set off towards downtown Calgary with Noah running after them and filming as they went.
They were in and out of the ticket office like lightning and more cash was handed over in pursuit of getting them to the checkpoint.
‘Down here,’ called Erin as she saw a sign for where they needed to be. ‘And over the road, and across this walkway. There, I can see the shuttle bus, I can see the bus!’
Erin picked up her pace, desperate not to miss their connection. And then, just as she ran along the pavement, her arm extended and waving, the bus started pulling away.
‘NO!’ she shouted, and with an extra push and a bit of luck that the bus was stuck behind a taxi, she was at the back of it and banging on the window. The door hissed open and she ran to see the look of surprise on the driver’s face.
‘I’m so sorry for banging on your bus,’ she said breathlessly, but he smiled.
‘I’m your last bus out to Banff today,’ he said. ‘I’d have banged too. Jump on.’
Erin, Martha and Noah climbed onto the second bus of the day as Cally drove past them in her producer’s car. She’d spoken to Noah on his phone and apparently now she wanted to get to Banff for their last sprint to the checkpoint.
Erin was beginning to feel nervous again.
After a couple of days of fairly gentle travelling it was going to be another sprint to the finish.
One in which she could easily be neck and neck with Sam.
She shook off the image and looked down the bus for their seats.
And that was when she saw Priya and Tara smiling up at them from the back seat.
She walked down the aisle to join them with Martha following behind her.
‘I can’t believe we’re on the same bus,’ Martha said, sinking down onto a seat in front of the two women.
‘You only just made it,’ Priya said. ‘I was trying to get the driver to ignore you.’
Martha laughed but Erin didn’t.
‘Hardly good sportswoman-like behaviour,’ she said.
‘Here,’ Tara said, handing out a bag of chocolate to Erin. ‘We’re in a race and this is all you’ll get from me.’
‘I’d have done the same,’ Martha said. ‘So how is your race going so far?’
‘Honestly, I think I’m too old for this,’ Priya said. ‘I’m so glad we have thirty-six hours in the next hotel. I want to sleep, eat and get some clothes washed.’
‘Just need to get there first,’ Erin said. ‘And then I’m going to do the same.’
‘Have you seen any of the others?’ Martha asked.
‘Femi and Liz are in the taxi in front of the bus,’ Priya said. ‘That’s going to cost them.’
‘It means they’ll get there way before us. I’m not sure how many stops this bus makes but the taxi won’t be stopping for anything,’ said Erin. ‘I thought we were doing so well.’
‘Better than poor Don,’ Tara said. ‘I was sorry to see them out of the race.’
‘Same,’ said Martha.
‘Does make it easier with one team down, though,’ Priya said, and her daughter gave her a hard stare. ‘What? It’s true.’
‘Any sign of the other two men?’ Martha asked.
Erin could hear her grandmother try to play down her interest in the answer to that question, but Erin wasn’t fooled.
‘Haven’t seen anything of them since we left Prince Rupert,’ Tara said. ‘No idea how they’re doing, and our camera woman isn’t saying anything.’
‘Ours the same. Mouths zipped,’ Erin said.
At that moment, Noah and Priya’s camera woman were deep in discussion.
Erin leaned forward in her seat to see what she could hear.
The first word she heard was Harrison and then something about a breakdown.
Whatever vehicle they were in was stuck outside Edmonton.
Erin reached into her rucksack and pulled out her journal then she ripped a page from the back and scribbled a note before handing it to Martha.
Harrison and Sam have broken down outside Edmonton!!!
‘Excellent,’ Martha whispered. ‘That has completely made my day.’