Whitecaps and the Northwind

I had I strange dream the other night. Among robbing a convenience store with my family backing me up TF2-style and various other nonsensical escapades, I met an old childhood friend of mine, J. I haven't seen or talked to her in maybe fifteen years.

I used to live in a small fishing village on the Pacific, way up in northern BC. I could literally see Alaska from our living room window. The rain forest was my back yard, the ocean was my front, and there was not a paved road or sidewalk to be found inbetween. There was a massive tree in front of our house where bald eagles would just sit and hang out. They watch you go about your business inside, as if they're just waiting for you to step outside. If you keep looking ahead beyond the birds you'd unavoidably lock gazes with the Pacific. It was right there. Boom. Some islands dot the horizon and, if you're lucky, you can catch the odd glimpse of a pod of killer whales. In the winter you barely get four hours of light during the day and during the summer you need to wait for 11PM before the sun starts setting. To get in or out of the town you have two luxurious options: A two-hour boat ride that bounces you from wave to wave, or a 40-minute float plane ride that bounces you from turbulence to turbulence before touching down and bouncing from wave to wave.

But I digress.

There were three houses up on a hill, and they were generally given to the school and health clinic workers. Being that most of these people came from other parts of the province, our little hill contained the majority of the white/Caucasian population of the village. But my friend, J, was native. We were in the same grade for the three/four years I attended school there. And towards the end, she was the only friend there. It's funny how that worked out - I still remember the day where I went to school and discovered that my "friends" would no longer have anything to do with me. When asked why, they responded, and I quote, "Because you're a white man". Mind you, this was only in grade two or three and so it wasn't the end of the world. I still got along fine for class activities, but when recess rolled around there wasn't much to do. It certainly makes you wonder, though, how this thought magically got into their heads when we weren't even eight years old. But that whole cultural divide is a much bigger fish to fry, so I won't bother.

The point is that J and I spent countless hours mucking around the woods and occupying ourselves. Birthday parties, school assignments, all that jazz that small kids like to have best buddies for. About a year or so before we moved away ourselves, J had likewise left. I haven't seen her since... I had one conversation with her over the phone, shortly after we moved.

Not to sound harsh, but no one with a lot of aspirations stayed there for long. There wasn't any local high school to graduate from, there were 2-3 convenience stores or shops, and a canning facility with loads of fishing boats to match. If you wanted to do something that didn't involve fish you were pretty much out of luck.

I don't know why she showed up in my dream. I get the impression that her appearance there was how she should look now, as an adult. There was an atmosphere of comfort around her for some reason. Something to do with the small and secure vision of the world from a seven year-old's point of view, perhaps.

The dream prompted me to look her up. "Right!" I say to myself, "This is what all this Facebook shenanigans is supposed to be about!" So I logged in for the first time in... months... and did a search. To no avail, of course. Google was equally unhelpful, but that didn't surprise me. Maybe it's one more reason for me to finally turf my social networking accounts, like Facebook. Social networking sites... Are likewise a very large and stinky fish to fry, which I will refrain from getting into here.

But it got me to thinking, what would I say? "HI! You might not remember me, but we used to know each other fifteen years ago and you were in my dream the other night. How are things?" Part of you wants to pick up where you left off, and part of you knows that there's nothing left of what once was. I'm just completely baffled that someone I haven't even thought about in so long decides to pop up into my mind. Certainly makes you wonder about the significance of dreams. Is it just your brain back-firing and trying to process a garglemesh of odd informations, or is it some unconscious level of your mind trying to make something obvious?

One thing is for sure... I need to go back to that village some day. I really miss it, for all those reasons that are hard to articulate. I went to my grandparent's anniversary a few summers ago, and while the two locations are still 200KM apart... The climate sent shivers up my spine. The mountains, the vegetation, the air all felt so vaguely familiar and enticing. I'd be undoubtedly neat to take a few days off this summer, fly up, and backpack around the area. But where would you stay in a village without a hotel? Where would you go once you get there? Can you even find a place to go to for lunch?

This past week I've been searching the depths of the interwebs and digging up whatever pictures I can find of the place. I've forgotten how incredibly... Expansive the west cost is. The ocean keeps going in one direction and the mountains keep going in another.

Looks like I can get a plane ticket for $380 that'd get me to a surrounding town via a stop in Vancouver. It'd be about 4hrs of traveling, including a layover. Then I'd need to find a floatplane to take me the rest of the way. But it'd all be early in the morning, and I bet the flight would be spectacular. I'd need to get a camera and a big backpack. Hmph, something to ponder. I bet I'd get a bunch of funny looks walking around the place if I ever got there. I doubt they have any kind of tourism anything. But that's okay, I wouldn't be walking around a locations so much as an old box of memories.
-Cril

Oh, there's nothing like an ocean
Catch your breath with every wave come crashing in
Oh, got mixed emotions
Sure feels good to ride along that western wind
Hope it brings me back again
There's nothing like an ocean

Rankin Family - Nothing Like an Ocean