The Vanishing Vacation

Something starts going wrong with the power steering on the rented Toyota Sequoia driven by Avery Winchester.

Something starts going wrong with the power steering on the rented Toyota Sequoia driven by Avery Winchester. He tries not to show his concern to his wife, Montine, who is looking out the window at the forest green scenic sights. His pre-adolescent children, Seth and Libby, are entertaining themselves with video games while his invited close friends, Troy and Celeste Quay, are talking to different people via their Nokia cell phones.

Being the end of August, his destination is to take all of them to experience a unique vacation plus a magical attraction known as the Tofino Lantern Festival, which he read about online. The roads are curvy on this remote section of Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, BC.

Avery’s steering responses are not controlling the car’s turns which doesn’t stop him from continuing to press the gas pedal beyond the speed limit. After feeling dizzy from the wobbling movements, Montine comments “Are you going to sleep at the wheel? “Pull over and let Troy drive.” With his face showing concern and worry, Avery, not paying her any attention, continues to show his superiority to drive on. Troy speaks from the back, “Avery, what’s wrong?” “You’re making us and the kids’ sick back here playing obstacle course.” The kids look out the window as if something is on the road. Seth responds, “Is it a bear?” “If so, pull over, I want to see it.” Libby looks at her brother and quips, “I don’t want to see a bear, especially a grizzly.”

Avery’s hands are gripping the steering wheel with such force, his knuckles are turning white. His eyes look somewhat back and forth as if trying to find a solution to his problem before stopping the vehicle. Suddenly, the SUV comes upon cars parked on both sides of the road for as far as he can see through the winding curves.

Montine has had enough. Moving up close to his right ear, she blares, “Pull this car over now or I’m going to do something drastic.” He looks at her giving a blank stare. Then, turns back to look at the road. Immediately, he pumps on his brakes realizing that he is coming upon a car trying to park in a tight space between vehicles. The tires screech to a halt, a few screams are heard from the back seat, and everyone is thrown forward. Now, sitting there in the road, everyone slowly recovers from the invisible impact.

Celeste notices a sign off to the left where she is sitting. It reads, “Tune in to Radio 610 AM For Information About Tofino Traffic Conditions.” Restrained from her seat belt, she stretches from the back to speak to the Winchesters. “Turn the radio on to station 610 for traffic reports.”

Montine quickly turns the radio on and finds the station. After a few comments about free shuttle service to the cars, a significant announcement comes across the airways. ”Please find a parking space anywhere you can." People are parking on both sides of the highway at least one mile out from Tofino. Avery alerts the others, “I know this is going to be a lot of trouble, but let’s park here and walk in until I can catch a shuttle back to the car to unload our things.”

Montine responds, “Maybe we should have planned another place for vacation this year. I didn’t expect this.” The entire group gets out of the car carrying only back packs or bags. They start walking in the direction of the popular city.

Although summer, they sense the swift breeze of cooler air filtering through the trees giving them an early taste of fall. Oddly enough, they don’t see any other people walking into the town making the group sense that everyone has beaten them into the one-way road to town. No traffic appears to be coming from behind them either like no one else was late for any beginning activities.

Finally, they start seeing people entering town in front of them. The sounds of merriment increase to that of a happy festival mood. They enter the town looking at the various buildings, scenic views of Clayoquot Sound, and the unusually large gathering of diverse, ethnic people that have made their way into this small village atmosphere. They are getting tired from walking, the long drive from Nanaimo, and still lagging from the ferry ride from Vancouver.

Avery sees a sign indicating a welcome center ahead and remarks, “Let take a break from walking and check out this welcome center. Maybe we can get some good ideas of where to stay and eat?" Troy answers, “Thank Goodness for that. I’m starving and I’m sure the kids are.” Libby chimes in, “I hope someone has funnel cake. I love that white sugar that tickles your tongue.” Her brother Seth also responds, “I think I want a hamburger and plenty of pickles.”

As they enter the welcome center, a hostess gets their attention amidst the other numerous people in the place, “Please take a few moments to watch our short video about Tofino. We have more going on here during other parts of the year besides summer.” She guides them to take seats in a small auditorium where the video is looped to play continuously.

Once seated, their attention is transfixed on the last part of the presentation. It shows the coastline with tremendous waves crashing on the rocky shores and sandy beaches. A voice narrates, “The waves from winter storms can reach heights of twelve to fourteen meters. This is the location you can witness a perfect storm.”

Avery looks over to observe others in the room. A family of five: a man, a woman, and three children are sitting there looking at the video. With at first a casual glance, he soon notices they all have a cherry red left earlobe and an earring within it. Avery stares at them from a side view. Suddenly, as if they detected his gaze, they all turn in slow orchestrated movements to look at him giving a blank stare. Avery’s eyes light up in fear as if he has pressed some kind of button to activate a group of robots.

The video ends. Everyone seems to instinctively get up and leave the premises. Avery and his family walk outside. Montine speaks up, “Let’s get something to eat now. Find us a restaurant.” Avery leads his family out into the streets of Tofino to look for a sandwich shop. Weirdly, the visiting tourist crowds seem to get heavier as they walk the streets. Soon, the crowds are so dense that Avery and his family and friends are pressed up against people.

Their group tries to hold hands as they pass through the crowd. Soon, the crowds are so dense that Avery is separated from his family and friends. He looks around trying to find them amongst the thick groupings of live bodies. The family is now entirely separated with only Avery appearing to have some control in the crowd.

He begins to hear languages different from English. Their sounds give the eerie reflection of some foreign tongue of ancient tribes. The faces of the pressing crowd start looking more foreign as if they were from another place in time. Avery is now very worried. All he can think about is "am I experiencing a modern day Tower of Babel event?"