Luck Of The Shaman

Campbell River, B.C.
July ’80

It was Sunday and unless I could come up with the right screw I
wasn’t going anywhere. At the last chance gas station--the hardware
places were all closed and I had already covered the other gas
stations--I came up empty. As I sat down on the sidewalk, an old guy
asked me if I wanted to look in his toolbox. I didn’t expect to find
anything in his fifty-year-old toolbox, but I looked anyway. There
were a few rusty screws on the bottom, but nothing that came close to
the metric screw I needed. In a word, I was screwed. (I had to say
that because all day long everybody else did). Just as I was about to
walk away, the old guy said here try this one, as he picked a screw up
from out of his toolbox. It fit. It was magic. I was amazed.

It took five hours, but I was finally back on the highway, pedaling north.
Originally my destination was Kelsey Bay, sixty miles up island, but
in Campbell River I found out that the ferry didn’t dock there
anymore. It docked at the tip of the island, another 150 miles north.
After they paved the gravel road to Port Hardy, the ferry’s home base
moved there. That was both surprising and discouraging news. When,
however, I found out the ferry didn’t leave until Tuesday, I felt a
little better. That gave me just enough time to reach there.