Heart Of Gold

Close Encounters

"What the hell man!"

Will threw a punch at Jake's shoulder that managed to sting through his thick varsity jacket and several layers of flannel. After four hours of shut-eye at a motel on the Manitoba-Ontario border, they had gotten back on the roads and decided to try and power through Manitoba and Saskatchewan – often known as the most boring chunk of highway in the country. 

Twelve hours in, Jake had just nearly killed them both by falling asleep at the wheel.

He was sure he had only blinked for a split second, fully intending to open his eyes again. But that slight rest felt so good that he'd let them stay like that for just a second longer. That second turned into another and before he knew it, Will's punch jerked him back to life.

Jake's heart erupted in his chest as he wrenched the wheel hard to the left.

The old Mustang groaned, but managed to just miss driving off the road. 

Deep ditches bent off on either side of the highway. All around, frozen fields stretched for as far as the eye could see. Driving off the road would definitely have left them stranded – cell phone reception was probably sketchy at best. 

He slammed the brakes, a fist clenched tight around his throat, and the car screeched to a halt.

"I told you to wake me up if you got tired of driving! You could've turned us into buckwheat pancakes. We would have froze to death out here, waiting for some farmer to find our guts strewn everywhere!"

Will's eyes bulged and his face would have been comical if they hadn't just nearly died. 

Jake didn't even bother to defend himself.

"I know, I'm sorry," he started. "I don't know what happened, I closed my eyes for literally a second and before I knew it ..."

"Whatever, it's fine."

They sat in stunned silence for a minute before Will let out a jubilant whoop.

"Oh man, after all the time your mom always spent worrying about what a bad influence I am, it would have been you, not me, who finally ended up doing us in!

The words were a knife in Jake's gut. His mom's face flashed in his mind, glint of laughter always lurking at the corner of her green eyes, so like his. For a moment, he couldn't speak.

Will made a sound like choking on his own words. "Shit, I ..." He faded off, rubbing at his face. "I don't know why I brought your mom up. I wasn't thinking."

For the first time in a long time, the grief faded as memories of his mother's surprised face filled his exhausted mind. Jake almost laughed, emotions flipping on a dime. "You remember Operation Gopher Glue?"

Will's snort filled the freezing air. "How could I forget?"

Jake's mom had always thought it was Will who pulled Jake into the senior year incident involving a rival team's football captain, superglue and their biology class's pet gopher. 

Operation Gopher Glue, as it came to be known, had gotten them both suspended for two weeks. But little did she know the whole thing had been Jake's idea, a fact his proud teammates never forgot. Even after they graduated, he hadn't had to buy his own beer at their local pub.

Both boys laughed, and the pain in Jake's gut eased -- though didn't fully disappear.

Maybe it never will, he thought.

"I'm really sorry," Jake said. "We haven't seen a Tim's for hours, there's not even a dive joint to stop for coffee. Where are we anyways?"