And even though these pills prevented things from happening to my body that I was rapidly losing control over, I was paying a different price for them.
“Young lady, take your medication. Otherwise, you can forget about me driving you to university every time. There's an old bike in our garage, too!”
Not only her mischievous I'm-your-mother-and-you're-not-an-adult-yet-grin, but also my bewildered look spoke volumes.
I hated bicycles, and there was a good reason for that. I had been in an accident when I was four. I couldn't remember anything except the bike. My mother had then told me about the car and the slippery road. The reason why a six-centimeter-long scar stretched below my breast. From that day on, I had vowed to never sit my bum on one of those devilish things again.
Mum was still holding the pills out to me, looking worried, while at the same time concentrating on driving.
Reluctantly, I reached for the little box.
Bayla Adams was written in block letters on the label. The plastic box was still new and filled to the brim, as it always was when Mum gave me a new one.
I opened it, took out a pill, and swallowed it. Then I slammed the lit of the container shut again and put it in my jacket pocket. I had to think of something to get rid of these pills. And hopefully, this time, there wouldn’t be any new ones.
I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes, we were no longer on the endless highway but on a two-lane road in the middle of the forest. The sunlight that had woken me made its way through the lush leaf canopy and tickled my skin.
A pleasant tingling sensation ran through me, and I sat up straight. Only now did I see the wide shore stretching a few meters beyond the trees, glimmering as if in an almost too-beautiful fairy tale. Although it was still summer, some of the leaves on the maple trees had turned yellow, making the picture even more beautiful.
I had to blink and when I looked more closely, I recognized a tower on the other side of the water, a few miles away...or was it a church? Wait...
And then I saw that there, in the middle of the changing nature, was a whole city with a harbor, a church, and two modern skyscrapers.
Even further in the distance, in the middle of the needle forest, I spotted a gigantic gothic tower rising out of the woods. Deep forest stretched around it, kissed by the colors of autumn. But it was too far away to recognize everything.
“Is that…?” I began, but I had forgotten the name of the town.
“Yes, my darling, that's Blairville.”
Mum smiled at me, and now I understood what she meant by idyllic. The sun turned the water's surface into a shining mirror, and the curvy road we drove beside the railway tracks led us further and further into a magnificent forest of tall trees. The forest along the road became denser as we drove around a long bend, and the town disappeared from my view.
About two minutes later, a large, noble - though already very old - wooden sign appeared at the side of the road, on which Welcome to Blairville was written in elegant capital letters. A noble black bird sat on the edge, brushing its feathers. A raven.
Mum's radio began to buzz, and I was beginning to think the signal was gone again, as it was so often on this endless drive, but to my surprise, the tune of a News Station rang out, and shortly afterward, a man began to speak.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Blairville Daily with the Bexleys and the latest local news so you will always know what's going on in our beautiful hometown!” the newscaster began far too enthusiastically as if he had been waiting for us to come to Blairville. It was a wonder that a small town even had such a thing. “Today with Joe Bexley and...” He stopped so a woman could announce herself, “Harriet Bexley!”
“Oh God, so those two have actually taken over Joe's parents' radio station...”
I looked at Mum in surprise.
She knew these people?
“And yet again, gigantic wild wolves have been spotted in the Copelands' woods.”
I tried to concentrate on the words of the over-motivated Joe as the sky above the forest closed in with thick gray clouds.
Wild wolves? In Blairville? And why did the name Copeland ring a bell? Wasn't that the name of Mum's doctor?
“First, near Vanderwood University, now, even at the abandoned Psychic Fun Fair, according to neighborhood teens. Harriet, with more details on the wolf reports.”
Harriet, who had a calmer voice, began to speak as raindrops settled on the windscreen of Mum's Jeep.
“What particular species the wild wolves are, and whether they are just regular wolves or a serious threat to Blairville residents, is unclear. However, the witness statements speak for themselves.”
A frantic girl began to babble, and I turned the radio up louder as the rain became heavier.
“I had been out with my boyfriend and his guys in the woods near the abandoned Psychic Fun Fair. It was just a night hike, and the guys had already drunk a lot, which is why they wanted to continue toward the amusement park.” The girl was getting more hysterical. “The fact that this one is closed and abandoned didn't put them off as much as it did me... It was dark and strangely quiet. But suddenly, there had been this cracking sound behind us. I had turned around. And there it was. A huge white wolf, bigger than me, with a beastly mouth, bared teeth, and yellow glowing eyes. I've never run so fast in my life.”
I felt a chill run down my spine.
The pleasant feeling of seeing the town so fairytale-like in the distance was gone now, washed away by the girl's words and the rain on Mum's windscreen.
Just the thought that oversized wild animals were living out there in the woods around us, daring to get so close to people, was massively unsettling.
The woman, Harriet, began to speak again, “Head of the police, Sheriff Bardot, gives the warning that wolves do not attack people unless they feel threatened. However, another witness reports...”
Mum abruptly turned off the knob on the radio station.
“Hey...”, I started and went to turn the radio back up, but Mum slapped my hand away rudely. “That was interesting.”
“It's just town gossip. Nothing that should worry you unnecessarily.”
Of course... She dragged me off to nowhere in Canada but didn't want me to face reality. I wanted to know damn well if I was going to walk in those beautiful woods or be snatched away like Little Red Riding Hood.
But I left it at that. If the wolves in the woods were really problematic, I would find out in time anyway.
I leaned back in my seat and decided to do research later, even though everything about the thought of dealing with this new town turned me off.
