No Straight Lines
Life in Smithers does not go in straight lines. Your expected trajectory will be shifted, probably for the better. For instance - I was visiting my son Paul who moved to Smithers a generation ago because, as it is with all Smithereens, he liked the place. I had just come from a Canadian city in what Smithereens call the Far East. Without worrying about jet lag, we were preparing to venture into the mountains for a couple of days. Paul said, “Dad, we need food. Go down Main Street to the Sausage Factory and get two pounds of Bulkley Bangers and three of Susqua Sage. Meet me at Sandra’s office in six minutes.” It was already well into the afternoon, and we needed four hours to get into the cabin. I hurried.
Back at Sandra’s office Paul said, “Okay. I just have a couple of things to do, and we’re set.” So we went to the post office. Simple enough, but at the Post Office Paul met Dan, and Dan said, “Janet at Mountain Eagle has a message for you.” So from the Post Office we went to Mountain Eagle. There Paul returned from talking to Janet with news: “We have just one more stop.”
That’s the way it is in Smithers. There are no straight lines: You can’t simply go straight from here to somewhere else.
So Paul drove us from Mountain Eagle to the Sausage factory. The father objected, “I already got the sausages.” “Yeah,” said the son. “But you still forgot something. Get in there, they’ll have it waiting for you. Inside the store a sparkling resourceful clerk handed me the credit card I had hastily abandoned earlier.
That’s the way it is in Smithers.
