Hetero (Supermoon Factor #1)

On the Road to Banff

I patiently waited outside my Calgary apartment for Ralph to show up. I periodically checked my wristwatch to estimate the time Ralph would show. He lived out in Banff, and the drive usually took him an hour and a half from Banff to Calgary. He texted at seven this morning, telling me he was on the road and to be out around 8:30. Every other weekend, we spent the day hiking the Banff trails, and there were a lot of them. This weekend will be my last living in Calgary, as the movers will be driving my stuff to the new address while I am on this hike with him. Ralph didn’t know yet, and that was the plan, to keep it a surprise.

My hiking wear was just my everyday wear with a sweater over top. Nothing more than a red T-shirt and blue jeans capped with a thin, plain grey sweater, while my footwear just consisted of some old cargo boots I wore to every hike, there was a lot of dirt and mud in those forests.

Eventually, Ralph did pull up in his classic small town car, a blue 2006 Ford F-150. He’s had that old truck since I first met him, and he never wants to let it go. During these hikes, he always brought his own backpack but told me not to worry about getting my own; he packed it for both of us. I’ve offered to carry it many times, but every time, he just shrugged me off. Told me not to worry.

“There he is, hop on in, kid!” Ralph said.

“Ralph, I’ve told you there’s no need to call me ‘kid.’ I’m not even a decade younger than you are,” I said.

“Ah, Carlos. Anyone in their twenties will always be a kid,” he resumed as I hopped in. And that was my good friend, Ralph Fitzstov. He was 32 and six years older than me, but half the time he acted 43. I first met him when I was 18 in 2016; he was 23. I just got a job at a cafe downtown, and he was a regular every morning. He was so strict about a schedule and never missed a day. My colleagues always joked that if he didn’t show up for his daily coffee, he would either be dead or injured somewhere.

My manager always made me serve him his drink because no one else could handle his chattiness. I didn’t mind it; I was a kid and loved hearing stories, especially those of avid hikers like he was. He talked about Banff like it was some fairy tale garden, and absolutely majestic. My parents knew him, but I somehow didn’t. One day, however, he offered to take me on one of his hikes he had that weekend, as long as I was off. My parents were fine with him, and we kept in touch after he moved to Banff.

Nine years later, I now worked a boring desk job, and the hikes with Ralph were my escape from the city. Ralph often wore a cowboy hat atop his blond hair with a brown leather jacket draped over a simple black shirt, along with beige track pants and black combat boots for the hikes.

“Did you dye your hair?” Ralph asked as he turned the key in the ignition. I quickly turned toward him, giving him a confused look. “My hair? No, it’s always been brown.”

“Ah... shit. I just don’t remember it being like that.”

“Can we just hit the road?” I asked, already looking out the window as he hit the gas, and I watched as the movers loaded up the last of the boxes. The first half hour of the drive was endured in silence as I looked out the window toward the Trans-Canada Highway as it flew behind us.

“The city driving you nuts or what?” Ralph asked, bringing up the most random topic, so we had something to talk about.

“Eh... I guess so, I’m just happy to be moving out of Calgary,” I responded, and Ralph’s eyes went wide. “Mo... Moving out? To where?” He asked. “Not too much further, I hope.”

“I saw this really nice house on Grizzly Street,” I said, and Ralph’s face lit up with glee before he composed himself and asked... “Grizzly? Is it that neighbourhood with all the animal street names? Like Caribou, Otter, Muskrat, that place?”

“Yeah, that neighbourhood.” Ralph honked the horn multiple times with the excitement of a young child. It startled me out of my thoughts, and I slowly turned my head toward him before we laughed it off.

“That’s fantastic, Carlos! There are some really fucking nice houses on Grizzly, ha! You’re gonna make me jealous. I’m down over on Cougar Place, a little white house, but hey... I have a sunroom at least,” Ralph resumed, and all I gave him was an eyebrow raise.

“On the other side of town, ya dunse. Don’t worry, you’ll get to know Banff like me after a year or two. Like how I know you moved into a house near a cemetery, so... yeah.”

“Hey, I’ll trade being a cemetery’s neighbour if it means I get to live in Banff.”

“Even if it’s Old Banff?” Ralph asked, and I slowly nodded. I was pretty stoked about moving to Banff. It was going to be such a change of pace from the fast pace of the big city to the slow pace of a little town. From 1.7 million down to 8 or 9 thousand. That was a change I could get used to. I used to be a fan of life in the big city when I was younger, but that changed once I reached my mid-twenties. I just wanted peace, and a small town was where I would get it.

Ralph kept his eyes ahead until he suddenly slammed on the brakes. “Vor dem abbiegen schauen, arschloch!” He muttered, and I raised my eyebrow. “Bless you?” I asked.

“Oh, sorry. Just... road rage, it happens to the best of us, right?”

“I get that, but what was that?”

“Oh... I don’t think I’ve told you this before, but both of my Parents moved here from Germany before I was born... and we still used German in our household, so... yeah, a guy just cut me off, called him an asshole, you know how it is.” I slowly nodded, unsure whether to be concerned or entertained, because I had to admit, it was kind of entertaining in a language that relied on rather harsh pronunciation.

We spent so long thinking about what to talk about next that when something finally came to mind, we had already arrived at the entrance to Banff National Park. It looked pretty busy, and cars were parked everywhere. Ralph had a hell of a time trying to find an available parking spot, and when he did, he went ahead and quickly pulled into it. He stepped out of the truck and grabbed the bag from the truck bed. “I can help you with that, Ralph,” I said.

“Not today, kid. Not today or any day,” he said.

“I’ve told you about calling me ‘kid,’ Ralph.”

“And I’ve told you that anyone in their twenties is a kid to me, even if it’s their late twenties.” I dramatically sighed before he led me to the entrance. “Alright, Moraine Lake, eh?” Ralph asked, and I nodded. I was quite familiar with Moraine Lake, and ever since we discovered it last year, we’ve been taking many different paths that lead to it and even making up our own ways by going down paths we haven’t seen before, returning to the usual route.

It’s a glacial lake in the park, and hands down, it had to be one of the most gorgeous lakes in all of Canada, if not the most. Moraine Lake was always our end goal, down every different path in the park. Ralph always vowed to be in front because, between the two of us, he was the more experienced hiker. I usually followed behind, but every few minutes he’d look back to check on me.

Ralph led me into the park, where we were greeted by my least favourite part about these hikes, the massive hill at the beginning. I managed to climb my way up that, and Ralph was the one falling behind this time around, such an oddity. He usually sprinted up the hill. “You really are getting old,” I teased.

“Shut up,” Ralph said, chuckling to himself. The top of the hill led you to a split of four paths, each path having its own web of paths that led to Moraine Lake. “What path are we heading down this time?” I asked Ralph.

“I picked last time, it’s your pick now,” Ralph responded, and I nodded, feeling the slightest bit of stupidity that I had forgotten about two weeks ago. “Uhm... this one,” I said, pointing to one of the middle paths, one on the right.

“Aha, good choice. We don’t give that path enough love,” Ralph said, and I just rolled my eyes, shoving him down the path to get him moving. “Ow! Violent much,” he whined with a smirk he had difficulty hiding. “Just keep walking, ya damn Dodo bird.”

“Hm... that’s one I haven’t heard before.” Ralph shrugged, looking back at me with a wide grin before he got a little pep in his step. He didn’t say too much to me as he kept ahead. We had finally been on a path we hadn’t been down before, and came to a bridge that didn’t look very trustworthy. It bridged a small ravine that cut through the forest. The wind, however, quickly picked up, and the bridge began swinging. “Maybe we picked a bad day to hike,” I said, pointing to the storm clouds rolling in.

“Eh, we’re fine,” Ralph responded as he ran across the rickety bridge way too fast for my comfort. It wasn’t hard to tell that many people didn’t come down this path often, as this bridge was undermaintained. I gulped nervously and held my breath as I finally gained the courage to cross. “Just... don’t look down!” Ralph shouted back to me, and I gave him my typical deadpan stare as I slowly crossed. “Just trying to help.”

“Well, you’re not doing a very good job.” All I got from Ralph was a simple ‘oh well’ shrug. I shook my head as I continued following behind, until something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. The sound of leaves crushing as I saw a black... thing running away from us. I turned toward Ralph, who I assumed didn’t see anything as he kept to it.

I froze in my tracks as the leaves moved from something that wasn’t wind. “Hey, psst, Ralph,” I whispered just loud enough for him to hear, and he came running back to where I stood. I pointed out the unnatural movements of the leaves, no source in sight. “You see that, right?” I asked him.

“I see... a deer,” Ralph said.

“What, no, I...” I immediately paused when I saw a Doe come out of the bush. “See? You’re overthinking it, Carlos. C’mon, let’s get going.” Ralph grabbed my arm and dragged me down the path a little bit more, and when I looked back, I saw two mismatched eyes in the shadows. “There, there!” I said, and Ralph looked back, the eyes were gone.

“Are you good, Carlos?” He asked.

“I... I don’t know,” I responded.

“Honestly, I think you might just be hallucinating.”

“Yeah... yeah, I probably am.”

“You are, c’mon, let’s get to Moriane Lake.”

“Right back at ya, Ralph,” I said as I resumed following behind him. He kept moving like nothing happened. Meanwhile, I couldn’t seem to get my eyes off where I thought I saw those eyes, but Ralph looked back, noticing my state and just laughed. “If you’re waiting for the Deer to come back, it won’t sign an autograph.” I shook myself out of it with a quick smack to the face and slowly rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah, yeah, sorry. I’m coming now,” I said, running to catch up to him. After a little while, the storm clouds finally came in, and the rain came down harder than I ever thought it could.

I could see Ralph making it through the rain as he disappeared around a bend up ahead. I could see bolts of lightning striking the visible peaks as they looked darker at the mountains' base. I tried to catch up to him, and I came to a fork in the paths. I had no idea which one led to the truck, and well... The path I chose was nowhere near being close to right. The one we used was well-maintained, used daily, but the one I found myself on was nowhere near as polished, and I couldn't tell until it was too late.