Romar Jones Takes a Hike: Runaway or Missing Person …

Meet Romar Jones, 15 ½, basketball player with months to go before the next season and no one who cares about him since Granny died. His dad’s been dead for two years. When his 9th grade language arts teacher says pay attention to the poetry unit or take a hike, Romar opts for the hike, leaves Roseburg, Oregon, and embarks on a journey to find his mother. He knows she’s in prison in Washington. He shrugs on his dad’s trail-guide backpack, and sets out, heading first to the coast to leave some of Granny’s ashes. Within minutes of first chasing waves on the ocean beach, he encounters a derelict man he dubs Meth Mouth. Five days after leaving school he stops at Vesta’s by the Sea near Yachats. Could have been good luck. Could have been Granny steered him there and had a hand in all that happened after.