I was in the Navy, and I haven’t been back since. God, it must be over thirty years since I was here last. Always loved Oregon, though. You should go camping while you’re here.”
Alex snorted. He’d never camped in his life. Not even in his backyard, since he and his father had lived in a penthouse, and there really wasn’t a place to pitch a tent in the vicinity of their home, seeing as cops tended to think you were homeless when you put up a tent in Central Park. Still, a couple of his classmates used to talk about the fishing trips they took with their dads. Alex had begged his father to take him, too, once upon a time.
“We’ll see in the spring,” his father always said. It took an embarrassingly long time for Alex to catch on to the fact that his dad was never going to take him fishing. He’d stopped asking when he turned twelve.
It took the car another ten minutes down the road that seemingly led nowhere before the first houses appeared from behind the trees. Fuck! This place was even more isolated than Alex had initially thought.
They were an hour away from Portland, the first decent point of civilization. Alex wasn’t even going to count the numerous small towns they’d passed on their way to nowhere land. In Alex’s opinion, a population count smaller than five hundred thousand should have disqualified a place from a city status.
And now he was on his way to Riverton, population two thousand and fifty-one. Things were not looking good. Aside from the obvious shortage of people, Alex also took offense in the name of the town. If your town was situated at Columbia River, surely you could do better than name the place Riverton? Even Alex wasn’t lazy enough to use a name so distinctly lacking any imagination.
The good people of Riverton seemed to disagree as attested to by three different town signs. Welcome to the best Riverton on Earth, the first one declared. It was followed by, You’ll be riveted by Riverton. Alex groaned at that one, but Remy chuckled, seemingly enamored by the questionable humor. The people of Riverton had saved the weirdest for last, though. The third sign was the largest and depicted a flying egg, dressed like a superhero.
“Home of National Egg Throwing Champions,” Alex read out loud.
He leaned as far forward as the seatbelt allowed him and put on his best pleading expression, aiming it toward the rearview mirror. “Remy, if you care about me at all, you’ll turn this car around right this second.”
“No can do,” Remy said cheerfully.
“I’ll pay you.”
“I’m already being paid by your father.”
“I’ll pay more.”
Remy cocked his head to the side. “It’s adorable that you think you can afford me.”
Alex threw his back against the seat again. “You’re way too sassy for an old guy.”
Remy just laughed at that as he steered the car through the town, which, in spite of the kooky signs, looked relatively ordinary. The only thing that made Riverton stand out among other small towns Alex had seen that day was the fact that there were so many trees. It was as if people had decided they’d build a town in the middle of the forest without taking down a single tree.
It took them another ten minutes of driving until they got to the North Oregon Wildlife Center. Alex’s home for the next three months.
Remy turned off the engine, and for a few minutes, they just sat quietly and took in their surroundings. The center was located—surprise, surprise—in the middle of a forest. Although, Alex had to concede, that must have been nice for the animals that lived there. It wasn’t probably the most lucrative business, but Judge Renner’s brother must have been doing something right because the place looked well-maintained, at least, if a bit outdated.
“Fuck it,” Alex muttered as he threw the car door open and got out. It had never been his style to passively wait for life to happen. For better or worse, he’d always charged ahead with full steam, so that was what he was going to do now.
He strode to the back of the car and pulled his suitcase out of the trunk. Remy leaned against the door of the car and watched Alex with an amused expression. “You look like you’re about to go to war, kid,” he commented when Alex stopped next to him.
“Might as well go in with the right mindset.” Alex glared at