[Writer Laura Trethewey recently travelled across Canada by train, and sent us five postcards on the way, from B.C. to Northern Ontario. The “Prairie Postcard Project” chronicles that leg of her trip and the people she met along the way. Visit her blog for the whole story. Click the postcard images to enlarge.]

Dearest This:

I arrive late at night in an Albertan station, loaded down with luggage and anxious to find a bed. Chris, the cab driver who collects me, is not pleased with driving me to the out-of-town place I’m staying at. He complies anyway, but not without informing me he’s the boss of this cab company and normally doesn’t do jobs like this. On the way there, we stop first in a gas station parking lot to have a smoke with Chris’ sole employee and then pick up and deliver a pizza (a side business of Chris’).

When we arrive at the hotel, I find out my room’s been given away. Quite naturally, I start to curse. Chris is horrified. He bungles me back into the cab and tells me that I’ll catch more flies with honey. Even so, he helps me. We drive back into the fully booked town. He drops me at a hotel, where a guy who works the front desk is a pal of his. Chris promises his pal will find me a room. And he does.

Right before I head to bed, Chris drops back in to make sure I found a spot and to take a long break with his friend between pizza runs. I’m convinced Chris is running this whole town.

Laura