Page 59 of Hollow Valley
He gave a nod.“Ah sure, that was before the virus and the whole collapse, like.Our dad was a structural engineer, buildings and all that.We landed in Japan for a couple of years while he worked on earthquake resistance.”He grinned over at me.“Konnichiwa!Genki?”
“What is that?”I asked.“What did you say?”
“That was ‘Hello, how are you?’in Japanese,” Fergus explained.“That’s all that stuck, really.Oh, and ‘orenji.’Orange was my favorite color.”
“What’s it like to travel?”I asked.
“How do you mean?You’ve barely stood still since I met you,” Fergus pointed out.
“No, I mean, torealtravel.Like vacations and the way it used to be with people and different cultures and new foods,” I said.“I don’t really remember anything outside of Canada, and that’s not so terrible, I suppose, but it’s hard when I don’t really know of anything outside of books or the little I’ve seen with my own two eyes.”
“Wouldn’t be fair to say you’ve seen too little,” he countered, shaking his head.“Anyone left breathing’s seen more than enough.But you’re after the old world, aren’t you?The cities full of color and noise, easy food, and trinkets everywhere you looked.”
“The way you describe it makes it sound like it wasn’t that different than Fort Lately with the Revvers,” I said.
He shrugged.“Maybe it wasn’t.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“What for?”he asked, looking over at me in confusion.
“Everything with Dougal.I know I didn’t really invite you along this journey – ”
“You’d swear it was an insult, not an apology,” he interjected dryly.
“No, I only mean that… I never wanted anything bad to happen to you or your brother, or Alphie, or Sienna and Oakley and… and Juniper,” I said, my words choking on the growing lump in my throat.“I wanted to say that I’m sorry that Dougal got wrapped up into this.”
“If you feel you’ve cause to say sorry, I won’t stop you, but don’t be doing it for me or Dougal,” he said.“We made our own way, and you know well we’re not ones to stay put.On the road, and in life, things go sideways now and again.That’s the way of it.It’s not your doing, Stella.If it’s fate you trust in, then maybe it’s no one’s fault.But if you believe in free will, as I do, then it’s Dougal’s.Same as my choices are mine, and yours are yours.”
“You really think it’s that simple?”I asked, my voice catching somewhere between hope and desperation.
“I do,” he said, like it settled the matter.“Simple as anything, and twice as tricky.”
“Do you have the answer for everything?”I asked, and I was only half-kidding.
“I’d say I do, but I’d be lying.I only know about thirty percent of everything, give or take, on a good day.”Then he turned to me, his dark eyes curious as he asked, “You never did say, by the way, about your friend Remy?Did you find anything?”
“According to the woman running the inn, Remy was here, but she left at the end of May,” I said.
He raised a brow.“You’d think that was good news that you’re still on her trail.But you’ve got a face on you like it’s bad.”
“We think she’s trying to get to the northern point of the Alaskan Territory,” I elaborated.
“Well, so you’ll be travelling on after her, won’t you?”Fergus asked.“Sure, wasn’t that as you planned?”
“I wasn’t planning to bring my toddler all the way up the frozen arctic,” I said.“But if I’m being honest the thing that scares me the most is that Boden might think it’s too far.”
“What do you mean?”
I shrugged, not wanting to fully give voice to the fear but finding myself doing it anyway.“Boden will likely think it’s too cold and dangerous, and that he’s gone as far as he can go.That he’ll turn back, and … and we’ll never see Remy again.”
“You think Boden will give up on her?”he asked.
“No, actually.It’s worse than that.I think he would never give up on her,unlessit was to protect me and Fae.If he thinks Cold Shore is too much for us… he’ll let her be.And what if she needs us?”
“Well, then you keep at it, don’t you?”he asked.“You keep going until you can’t anymore.That’s all there is.”
“You know if you keep talking like that you could end up the next leader of the Revvers,” I said.