Kennedy followed Maliki’s finger as it ran along the fine lines of the map. She was fascinated by it. Never being one to travel, she had no need to use any form of map, except the GPS on her phone to find places in her local area.
“From there, you head to Deep River and into Montreal.” Looking up at Cree, Maliki watched his cousin follow the course on the map. “Four days, Cree, and you have Kennedy back in Montreal.”
“Where would we cross the border?” Kennedy asked, still staring at the map.
“Here.” Maliki put his finger on the map. “Sault St. Marie.”
“How many hours a day?” she asked, waiting for Cree to say something.
“All but the last day, six hours without stopping.”
“And the last day?”
“Four hours,” Cree finally spoke.
“So, we add an hour for fuel, food, and the bathroom.”
“Once we make Sault Ste. Marie, we’ll be in Canada and we won’t have to push so hard. It’ll just be the first two days.” Cree liked the route. Pulling up each area on a weather app, he looked at the daily forecast and road conditions, scribbling down the high and low for each day. He made notes about wind conditions, precipitation, and chance of snow and ice.
“I don’t like the forecast. Even during the sunny days, it’s freezing temps. We can’t run in that for four straight days.”
“Could you do it for two days, just to get across the border?” Maliki knew Cree could make the run without any issue. His cousin was worried about his woman. Maliki couldn’t blame Cree, because if it was him, he would be concerned for his woman in this situation.
Cree looked from Maliki to the map, back to the notes he’d made, until he finally locked eyes with Kennedy, who nodded. He knew she wouldn’t say no. He took her hand when she reached for his. “We’ll need better gear.”
“Give me sizes and I’ll get everything you both need. I hate to say it, but you, Kennedy,” Maliki levelled a hard look at her, “can’t leave the house until you guys are ready to go.”
“I can stay inside and out of sight. That’s not a problem for me.”
Cree again focused on the map and weather predications. If the weather report was correct, they would leave Red Lake and head to Bad River Reservation in two days. The high that day would be twenty-seven and clear. They would have to deal with winds, but those would be minimal, and there was no snow in the forecast. Two hundred seventy-nine miles meant two gas stops.
“Kennedy, when we leave here and head to Red Lake, we won’t be able to stop for the night until we get to our destination.”
“I can make it. I made it from Hill City all the way here in a day. Well, a hundred miles out, but still, I did that. Don’t count me out, Cree.”
“I’m not. I’m making sure you know the commitment we’re both making by leaving the safety of Red Lake.”
“When do we leave?”
“In two days. So, you can’t even take a step outside until we leave.”
“That’s not a problem.” The last thing she wanted to do was get back on the bike in freezing temperatures, but it was better than staying on the reservation with Dino and Chuckie nosing around.
“Tell me again the entire trip.”
“Okay. We’ll head out from here and head to Bad River. We’ll spend the night in Bad River, unless we decide to keep going farther. From there, we’ll head here.” Cree pointed to Sault Ste. Marie, in Ontario, Canada. “That leg of the trip will take us six hours. It’s three hundred thirty-five miles. We’ll have to make three gas stops.”
“What’s the temperature for the second day?”
“It looks like the high will be twenty-eight.”
Kennedy nodded. “And from there, where are we headed?”
“From Sault Ste. Marie, we’ll head to Deep River. This will be our longest day. It’s almost seven hours.”
“How many miles?” She needed the numbers to make sense of what he was asking her to do.
“Three hundred sixty-four miles. Three gas stops.” Glancing down, he found the temperature for that day. “It’ll be twenty-six degrees that day.” Cree glanced up at Kennedy before continuing. “The last day, we’ll run from Deep River to Old Town in Montreal. Four hours. That will be our shortest day.”
