“What are you guys doing here?” I asked.
“You didn’t show up at school,” DeMarco said, “so I talked to Costanzo. He said the police were looking for you. Was it Austin again?”
“Yeah. And Jacob. I think I may have broken his arm.”
“Are you joking?” Alexis said.
“I didn’t mean to. What’s with those two anyway?”
DeMarco shook his head. “They’ve been like that ever since I can remember. I could always get them to lighten up on me. But you, Cody, you must’ve pushed all the wrong buttons.”
I took a gulp of air. “Look. I’ve realized something. I don’t belong here. I don’t belong in your school and I don’t belong in this city. I’m leaving.”
“Where are you gonna go?” Alexis asked, real concern in her voice.
“Home. Where else can I go?”
“But your parents are here, Cody,” DeMarco said. “You’d be all alone out there in the woods.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“How are you going to get there?” Alexis asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“We’ll go with you,” DeMarco said. “We’ll figure something out.” Alexis looked me in the eye and nodded.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But let’s get out of here before someone comes looking for me.”
We walked down the stairs, through the crowded lobby and out into the bright, cool morning. “Good day for an adventure,” Alexis said, trying to put a good spin on it. “I say we get down to the harbor and take the ferry first. That will get you out of town, Cody, and headed in the right direction. We’ll figure out something from there.”
“Sure.” I’d seen the ferry from the bridge over the harbor when we had first come into the city. The ferry was just the first leg of the journey. Once we got to the other side, we’d have to find a bus that would take us part of the way down the shore. But after that we’d be on our own. We’d have to hitchhike maybe.
Alexis guided us to the waterfront and paid for all of us to get on the ferry. We walked around the boat on the outside deck, and I breathed in the sweet salt air. It was intoxicating. I felt better already. DeMarco stood looking over the rail and down into the water. Alexis was studying me. “So that’s what you look like when you smile,” she said.
“Was I smiling?”
“Well, you didn’t have that beaten-dog look you’ve been wearing.”
The ferry began to move away from the dock. The motion felt good. I was going home. “I’d never be able to fit in here.”
“You’re not alone,” Alexis said. “I know I’m not the same as you, but I’ve felt that way most of my life. So I stopped trying.”
“But you grew up here. Your home is here.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
I started to walk to the back of the ferry. Alexis and DeMarco followed. We watched as the buildings of the city grew smaller in the distance. “Ever since my dad got sick, everything changed. First he said it was nothing, that he was going to be all right. But he kept getting worse. Against his wishes, my mom took him to a doctor. He had some tests. Then we had to come here. He hated making us leave our home and come to the city.”
“What were your parents thinking anyway?” Alexis asked. “When they moved so far away and dropped out of everything?”
“It was before I was born. They were very idealistic. They wanted to live a simple life. I heard my dad’s speech a million times. They didn’t want to be corrupted by money or possessions—anything more than what they needed to survive. My dad would say, We don’t want to be a burden to the planet. I know that sounds whacked. But you don’t know my parents. We grew most of our own food. My dad homeschooled me. He had to write up reports for the government, but everyone pretty much left us alone.”
“I think it sounds amazing,” Alexis said. “I mean, I know all kinds of people who claim to be environmentally aware, but they’re all hypocrites. Even me.”
“For them it’s more than that. It’s like a religion, I guess. They were trying to live according to what they believed. Self-sufficiency, being at one with nature, avoiding what my dad would call all the corruption of modern living.”
“Man, that’s some heavy shit,” DeMarco said. “I don’t think I’ve ever met people like that. Must be kind of weird being raised by a couple of saints.”
“Well, they aren’t exactly perfect, but they are unique. They’ve lived what they truly believe to be right. That’s the only life I know. And they’ve taught me well. They’ve taught me to be true to myself.”
“Amen,” DeMarco said. “What else did they teach you?”
“Survival skills. Good survival skills. The only problem is, the rules of survival in the city are a whole lot different from the rules of wilderness survival.”
DeMarco looked serious. “So if we get to your old homestead, Cody, you might have to teach us some of those survival skills. I’m assuming you can’t walk to the corner 7-Eleven for a snack whenever you feel like it. We gonna have to fight off bears or what?”
“You don’t fight with bears, believe me.” I turned and smiled at him. But as I looked over his shoulder through the window of the inside passenger area, something caught my eye.
It was Ernest, slumped over in a seat.