A Perfect Day to go to Alaska

On a lonesome road in the middle of a forest sprinkled in powder snow under the pale-yellow clouds somewhere in Alaska, I Ren Lu am stuck in the backseat of a speeding car Ghislain somehow fit into Waypoint's circle, Jessie sitting in the passenger seat with their arm in a cast, and worst of all, Victoria in the driver's seat. 

How did I end up in such a distressing position? Well, it all started with another FWOOSH from Waypoint that threw a beam of light down on Jessie and me and strained my body worse than the first time it was used on me. 

My stomach curled, my fingers felt like they were prepared to fly off my hands, and like usual my body contorted and stretched giving me almost indescribable pain. Jessie and Victoria were nowhere to be found; I was all alone. And then a strangely wet cushion, equal parts cold and warm caught me at the end of my journey. 

"Urgh, I think I'm going to throw up." I groan in unison with my stomach. My hands dug into the frigid slush and immediately recalled memories of winters back in Seattle. My body could remember this cold cushion anywhere. "But why does the snow smell so weird?" 

"Mister, why are you eating the snow that the dogs pee in?" A small squeaky voice asked. 

"Ptoo!" I jerked my head up from the dirty-smelling and frighteningly yellow snow I landed in to see a little girl swaddled by a brown fur jacket entirely too big for her curiously gazing at me with her clear blue eyes.

"What?" 

"You still have pee snow on you" She pointed to the yellow globs of ice that stuck to my chest. 

"Ghislain you-" 

"Hasn't anyone ever told you to be cautious of yellow snow Ren?" Jessie's remaining functional arm helped me to my feet and my shivering legs knocked the snow I landed in off my chest. 

Snowflakes glistened in the evening sunlight off the wooden roofs of the few dozen homes clumped together around the snowy clearing we were standing in, enclosing us in the center of a quaint Alaskan town. Instead of cars parked in front yards, snowmobiles, sleds and logs of wood took their place. The sounds of dogs and what I thought were moose accompanied the sporadic brisk gusts picking at my hair up. 

The sound of a wooden door creaking open caught my attention, and the woman that came from it similarly caught the attention of the little girl. The woman's face was a mixture of relief and anger, her upper body covered in another fur jacket that I desperately wanted. 

"Pheobe, there you are!" She said, running towards the girl and wrapping her arms around her. "Where were you!?" 

"Me and my friends went to see if we could find any wild reindeer in the woods." 

"I keep telling you, it's not safe in the woods right now. We have to wait for the Curators to come before you can go out and play." 

"But Mommy, how long until they get here?" Pheobe huffed. "I want to go and play!" 

"Right now, young girl!" Jessie proudly interrupted. "We are the Curators your town has been waiting for!" 

"You are!?" The mom trod the snow closer to Jessie's face. She ignored all normal rules of privacy and poked and prodded at their face. 

"Yesh ma'am." They smiled while she stretched the hero's cheeks to their limits.

"You are too!?" The woman brought her face so close our noses nearly touched. 

"Uh... yeah sort of, but I'd appreciate some personal space." I didn't want to give up an Eskimo kiss today. 

"The Curators are here!" She jubilantly cheered. "They're finally here!" 

And her cheers notified every building clumped together in the small town as doors all around us started shooting open and people echoed her words. 

"The Curators are here?" A man asked. 

"They've arrived?" A young lady said. 

"About damn time they got here!" An older voice scolded. 

Townspeople swarmed the town center like it was a holiday, mumbling and smiling about our arrival. But the first one to reach us, specifically me, was a large husky dog that ran up to me, knocked me to the ground, and used its rough tongue to turn my face into a popsicle. 

"Down boy!" A bearded young man ran to pry the dog off me. "He's just being friendly." 

Pheobe ran to the dog and giggled when it redirected its assault toward her. At this point, the townspeople had us trapped in a circle, intent on asking me a million questions I could never answer. Not because they were particularly complex, but because I couldn't pick out a single word since they were talking over one and another. I looked to Jessie for help, but they were basking in the attention like it was their birthday. 

"If you need some extra support, I'd be happy to help. Back in my hay day, I was a Curator myself. One of the finest in the country too!" The old man chuckled. 

"Thanks for the offer, but we've got more than enough help to see this through." Jessie laughed back. 

"Do you want to try some of our town's signature grilled salmon?" 

"I'd love to!" They said before I saw them eat a concerning bite of the most burnt piece of food I had ever seen. 

"Can you sign my dog?" A young boy held a husky puppy up to Jessie. 

"Get me a pen and I'll get right on it!" Jessie promised. 

Jessie was so engulfed in their love for attention, they didn't notice another circle opening up behind us. And from the blue beam of light that projected after the circle's completion came Victoria's car. My stomach drops worse than when I rode Waypoint. But either out of optimistic hope or some sort of coping mechanism, I didn't want to believe she was inside the car. Maybe someone else is inside, or maybe it got teleported on accident.

Those thoughts gave me little comfort from reality however, as she stuck her head out the window until her eyes found mine and she furiously honked the horn to get the crowd's and Jessie's attention.

The sight of her scrubs the color from my face. "What is she doing here?" 

"Yo! It's cold out here let's go! If I had balls they'd have shriveled up and fallen off by now!" Victoria furiously screamed out the driver's side window. 

"There she is!" Jessie grabbed me and dragged me through the crowd of people toward the car. "Sorry everyone, but it's time to go to work! I'll sign your dog when we get back!" 

"Just leave me here! You two can handle whatever the mission is today! Take the money I'll get for it too! Just don't make me get in that damn car!"

Jessie did let me go, inside the back seat and crawled to Victoria's side at the front. "You came to Headquarters with Ren, how are you late?" 

"I needed to let the chief know I couldn't work in finances today. And then I had to escape before she killed me. On an unrelated note, the chief wants to see you when we get back Phantom." 

"Got it!" 

"What was up with them anyway!?" I huffed after wiping the snow off my numb butt. 

"What was what?" Jessie asked. 

"The people! Why'd they surround us?" 

"Because they're excited to see us! We're here to help them today!" 

"Back away from the vehicle you shitheads! We have a gun, and I am not afraid to make them shoot!" The townspeople parted from the path leading out of the town after hearing Victoria's threats, and when it was clear, she slammed her foot on the gas and kicked up snow with her tires. 

"Good luck!" Even though Victoria just threatened to shoot them, all of the townspeople gave us bright smiles and waved us good luck. 

"Bye-bye!" Pheobe waved to us before our car treaded along the pathway into an uncharted tree line beyond the town.