Page 3 of Stranded With An Insatiable Shifter

“You think this is a good idea?” Carly asks her in disbelief.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Grandma says. “Freedom on the open road. That beats being locked up in an air-conditioned boardroom all day.”

Carly looks like she’s trying really hard not to roll her eyes.

Grandma smiles at me and it gives me a boost of confidence. Carly takes after our parents, but I think I take after my grandmother. While I’ve been staying here the past week, I’ve realized we’re more alike than I ever knew.

“If I was a few years younger,” Grandma says, “I’d be heading out with you.”

“Grandma, she’s going to be taking dumps in a bus!” Carly shrieks. “What’s wonderful about that?!”

She’ll never understand. None of my family will.

I’m just built different than they are. It’s time to embrace it instead of trying to smother it down.

Living in the mountains, bathing in streams, eating wild fruits and berries—I can’t wait for it all.

It’s time to get started on making my dream a reality.

“Quit your yapping and pass me that hacksaw,” I say with a grin. “We have twenty-eight benches to cut out.”

Carly’s face goes white. “What do you mean we?”

two

. . .

Jemma

“Keep going and you’re going to be my customer of the month,” the guy behind the counter at the general store says as I add more food onto the counter. He’s about sixty years old with deep-set crow’s feet around his eyes and a large Adam’s apple that bobs in his throat whenever he talks.

I’m in a small Montana town called Caldwell. There’s a barber shop, which is also a used bookstore, a diner, a gas station, and this general store. It’s not much of a town, but the location is incredible. Stunning mountains and pristine forests stretch out as far as the eye can see. Some of the peaks are snow-capped and all of them are gorgeous. I can’t believe this place is real. It’s exactly what I had in mind when I was working on my bus a few months ago.

“What can I tell you?” I say with a grin as I put another few boxes of Pop-Tarts onto the counter. “I’ve got a heck of an appetite.”

He looks over the mountain of food with a keen eye. “Even with the heartiest of appetites, you got yourself enough food here for months. You must be going a long way.”

“Nope,” I say with a smile. “I’m going a short way for a long time.”

I grab a few boxes of matches and try to find room for them on the packed counter.

He takes them and puts them on the counter behind him, making more room for me.

“Are you staying at the campground in Hollar?”

“No,” I say as I glance out the window. “I’m parking in those mountains and just living for a while.”

He cranes his head to look out the window at my parked bus. “In that?”

“Yup!”

“Sounds like an adventure.”

“I know, right?”

“Did you convert that yourself?”

“I did,” I say proudly. It took all summer and a lot of blood, sweat, and frustration, but I did it. My skoolie turned out even better than I imagined.

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