Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 106839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
“Why?”
“Because this mine isn’t a mine, Amon. It’s something else.”
Just as he says that, Rosie comes out the door. “I’ll call you back, Collin.” Then I end the call and turn to Rosie. She’s wearing her waitress uniform and her hair is all pulled up in the usual diner style.
She and I look at each other awkwardly for a moment. Then she says, “You can stay here. I’ll be back around one.” And that’s it. She walks right past me and a minute later, she’s backing out of the driveway.
I don’t know what to do next, but I’m tired and I don’t feel like going home because… well, I just have this bad feeling that if I leave here, I’ll never come back.
So I go inside, get my coffee, and sit down on the couch to wait for news.
Ifeel like my life ended last night during those fireworks and what’s walking around today is just some shell of what I was.
I am never gonna see my son again. I feel this in my soul.
And I’m floundering this morning at work. I can’t take orders right, I can’t pour coffee right, and everyone who comes in stops to look at me with pity eyes. Because of course, news travels fast around these parts and everyone in Revenant knows that Cross is missing.
Both Geraldine and Jonesy tell me to go home. It’s slow, they don’t need me.
But I can’t go home. I can’t. Not with Cross missing. I can’t be in that house without him. So I tell them this and they nod, and look at me with sad eyes, and then Jonesy says, “Amon will get him back. Don’t worry. He’ll be back, Rosie.”
Which does help, I do admit. Because I know that Amon’s trying. I heard him this morning on the phone with Collin. It’s just… well, maybe I didn’t actually hear the conversation, but I can fill in the blanks just from his tone.
Amon said he was one hundred percent positive that my Erol is connected to Blackberry Hill. Just thinking about this makes me sigh because while I don’t know the whole story about what happened up there—Lowyn didn’t want to talk about it—I got lots of third- and fourth-hand gossip from all kinds of people after it happened.
Secret military bases. Underground tunnels or some such. Aliens. The gossip kinda turned into conspiracy theories at that point and stopped having any value, but while aliens might be a tick too far, underground tunnels actually make sense because there are tons of caves in West Virginia.
People always think they know everything because you go online and you look up caves and it pops up a list with a bunch of pictures. And we think to ourselves, Well, that’s that. Those are my choices for caving.
But it’s not true. For every one cave we know about there are probably a hundred that we don’t. We think the internet is God, and it’s not. It’s just a collection of things that we put there. Like the inventory in Lowyn’s shop.
So I would know this underground thing could be true even if my Aunt Ester hadn’t told me once, a long time ago, about a girl Jim Bob needed to save up in the hills because she saw something she shouldn’t have.
That was Lowyn the first time Ike had her, of course.
And isn’t that something those Blackberry Hill people fancy doing? Taking people?
They did try and kidnap Olive.
“Why don’t you go take a break, Rosie?”
“What?” I look up, sighing, and find Jonesy lookin’ down at me with worry crinkles in his forehead.
“If you won’t go home, at least take a break.” He nods his head to the back door. “Go on. Go take a walk or something.”
My mouth makes to form the word ‘no’ but I stop myself from saying it. Because he’s right. Being here isn’t helping. So I take off my apron and nod my head. “All right. I’ll just walk down to the river or something.”
Jonesy places a comforting hand on my shoulder as I pass by him.
When I get outside it’s bright, but quiet. Weekends around here are loud and long, so Monday mornings are always especially soft and slow. But I can hear the river and it’s calling me, so I head across the street towards the teeny-tiny marina. Which is there mostly for atmosphere because Revenant modeled itself after a coastal town for reasons unknown to me. It’s been this way my whole life, so probably this decision got made a hundred years ago, at least.
The only reason the town can pull this esthetic off is because the river has this weird bend in it right here where I’m headed. And this bend happens to be wide, relatively speaking. So on this bank it creates a little bay of sorts and this is where there are seven little sailboats tied up to the dock.