orcas

travolta called. zacharia p. leck. from orcas island. it is the best place i have ever been. i dont' know if i can describe it. it's a small horseshaped island off the coast of washington. i arrived on a boat and had to switch boats at another small island on my way. on the island before orcas, travolta showed up to meet me unexpected. i had met him on the train the year earlier. him and matt and i became fast friends and travelled from toronto to vancouver together. matt went up vancouver island fly-fishing. travolta was going to seattle to an underwater welding school. i wandered around out west. and the next time i was out there i contacted him and he said, let's meet on orcas. so i went.

back to the island before orcas. he found me and we must have just smiled. i made friends with a dog and we got on the boat and the water was the bluest i had seen. on my way over, i felt how good the place i was going to was and i was completely at peace. he had an old 67 truck and we drove around the island. we stopped in at people's houses who we didn't know and made dinner and drank wine. we camped at one end of the island. on easter morning zach hid an easter egg in his touque for me.

i won't get into the intensity with which i felt that peace because i don't think it can be described. strange and wonderful things happened and the whole thing was like a dream sequence. even the photo's i have look like someone climbed into my mind while i slept and took pictures.

four years ago travolta called and left me a message that he was passing through winnipeg and said when his train would be in. i got to the station late or the train was early and i couldnt' find him. i asked everyone where he was, all the other people on their one hour stop. i made friends with a group of people who all met travelling and for that hour i was away. the people at the train station were paging him and trying to help me find him. they could see it. i found him just in time. he came up and hugged me and picked me up right off the ground, over and over. everyone around was smiling that we found each other. i said, stay. he said, come. we both wanted both. one of the train staff told him to go get his bag off the train and stay with me. they let me past the gate with him and we got on the train together and sat on the train with each other and it was amazing. we sat there and wanted more time. he went and i stayed and i have not talked to him since.

until today. i had tried a few months ago to reach him but it was an old number and he has always been all over the place. sometimes he's in a jungle somewhere, sometimes he's in other countries. sometimes he's on orcas where he was born.

he has a daughter now. she is 3 and a half and he lives next door to the mother on orcas. they are not together, but it's nice that they live right next to each other and their daughter gets to have them both near.

but now i want to see his daughter and i want to see him and i want to see orcas again. so i will go. i got off the phone and looked up flights. i want to be away. i want to be on orcas. so i will go.

i should go soon.