Some of the next six months will be spent on vacation. Dalton and I hope to get a bit of time off. Anders is going to stay with his sister’s family for a month. Petra plans a six-week European backpacking trip. April will spend a few weeks attending symposiums, which is her idea of a vacation. The rest of the time we’ll be flying into the forest looking at the terrain, poring over geographical surveys and historical records.
As for where we’ll be based during all that, it’s émilie to the rescue again. She has leased a luxury lodge somewhere along the west coast. Ironically, it’s the kind of place I suspect most of our residents expected to go when the council flew them out. They’d apparently ended up pretty much where Phil had expected: a rundown lodge quickly patched up for new guests. They are safe, though. We know that. Which is where our concern for them must end. Our focus is here, on these remaining residents.
Who is left? Anders, of course. He’s ready to rebuild. Ready to permanently commit to New Rockton? We aren’t asking that of anyone. Maybe, having confessed his past, he’ll decide it’s time to go back down south. I hope not, but that’s just me being selfish.
Isabel is staying. I still don’t know her backstory, but she has no inclination to return down south. While she’ll never be joining us on hikes and campouts, she has found something in Rockton that suits her, and so she will stay.
Mathias is a similar case. I do know his backstory, and I know why he isn’t eager to go back. He could, though, if he wanted. He doesn’t. So he’ll follow us.
Petra is another who simply seems in no rush to ever go back. For her, there is the allure of the forest, too. With a new town, she’d also have more freedom to come and go, and I think she’ll enjoy that.
As for my sister, she has declared herself indispensable. I’ve tried to broach the subject of whether she wants to come, but I’ve discovered there’s no way to do that without her wrongly concluding I’m trying to get rid of her. I must console myself with knowing duty would not keep her here if she really wanted to leave.
Kenny’s coming, and I hope that’s part of the appeal for April. I also hope her going is part of the appeal for him. I’m just happy to have them both along, two more friendly faces in our new Rockton.
Speaking of friendly faces, Jen got her invitation, at least to the lodge. From there, we’ll figure it out. Where does that leave her relationship with Cypher? Unknown at the moment. We do plan to relocate in the general area of our old town, if that helps.
Relocating to that region would also help Sebastian. He’s joining us, but I get the feeling if we aren’t rebuilding close enough to the First Settlement, it may be a temporary stay.
As for Jacob and Nicole, they’re coming to the lodge. That’s best for Nicole’s pregnancy. If they don’t like the close quarters, émilie has promised the setting is wild enough for them to make camp elsewhere. They’d also like it if we relocated in the rough area of the former Rockton, but if we can’t, they’ll move near wherever we end up.
Diana is still with us. She’s coming to the lodge at April’s request/demand. From there, we’ll work it out, as we will with Jen, deciding exactly how far that invitation will extend. In Diana’s case, I’m not sure she’d even go for New Rockton. We’ll see.
Maryanne will be joining us. She’s come back from her dental-surgery getaway and is helping with the deconstruction. I don’t know whether she’d make New Rockton her home, but she isn’t ready to leave just yet, and we’ll give her as long as she needs.
Phil is coming to the lodge. That’s all we know. I suspect it’s all Isabel knows, too, and I also suspect he has no intentions of joining us in New Rockton. He just doesn’t want to say so. He’ll take the winter to help us and to be with Isabel, and then he’ll head south. The council has promised him his bonus pay and a glowing reference. That’s all he ever wanted, and I cannot fault him for that.
Devon and Brian are coming, too. We’d kept them on the cleanup crew, and they’d overheard enough for Devon to flat-out ask, as Diana had. They want to stay, at least for now.
We stand there, watching our house come down, board by board. Storm wanders over from wherever she’d been playing with Raoul. Both dogs have been off their food for a few days, barely tempted by choice cuts Mathias saved for them. They sense our tension, and they are confused by the changes happening around them.
I bend to pet Storm. “How about a walk?” I glance up at Dalton. “Our deconstruction shift doesn’t start for another hour.”
He nods, and we’re about to leave when Phil strides over.
“Tamara is on the line,” he says.
“And she can stay there,” Dalton says. “Tell her you couldn’t find us. We’ll talk later.”
“It’s not just Tamara,” he says. “It’s the whole council. They have something to say to you.”
“I’m sure they do.”
Phil shakes his head. “Not like that. They think you’ll want to hear this, and they seem quite pleased with themselves, which means they’re about to play Father Christmas.”
“A parting gift?” Dalton glances from the main tent to the forest. Then he grumbles, “Fine. I won’t be pissy. Let them bestow their generous bonus on me.” He looks at me. “What do you think? Five hundred bucks?”
“Gold watch,” I say. “The traditional parting gift for a valued employee.”
“Can I pawn it for five hundred bucks?”
I smile and wave for him to go with Phil, but he tugs me along, saying, “You gotta keep me from saying anything smart-ass. We’re near the finish line. Just let us get there before I blast them.”
“I will ensure your response is no more than mildly sarcastic.”
Dalton opens the tent flap. It’s a big canvas structure, nothing like the little pop-up tents we use for our overnights. Anders was in charge of telling the council what we needed, giving us a sturdy base camp we can use both now and for our New Rockton phase one. I’m sure the council expects the tents back, but I’m equally sure they won’t notice if they don’t get them.
This tent is our communal area, and it holds leftover chairs from old Rockton. We settle into two as Phil tells Tamara that Dalton is here.
“Hello, Sheriff Dalton,” she says, as if greeting an old friend. “So glad you could join us.”
“Not like I have anywhere else to be.”
Her laugh grates across the airwaves. “True enough. Which is why the council called you in this afternoon. They would like to recognize your loyal service over all these years.”
“This is where I get the gold watch, right?”
“If you’d like one. However, the council has another idea.” She pauses. “May I presume Detective Butler is there? And that Phil hasn’t left?”
“You presume correctly.”
“Excellent. Is there anyone else in the tent?”
“No, ma’am.”
“What I am about to say is, for the time being, for your ears only. Others may be invited to share the information, but for now, it is just you three. Primarily you, Sheriff Dalton, though we don’t mind Casey and Phil listening in.”
“All right. What is it?”
Another voice answers. A man’s. “We’ve had a change of heart, Eric.”
“About what?”
“Closing Rockton.”