Raine Rassaby has been described as the Greta Thunberg of fiction. She visualizes her childhood bedroom on the West side of Manhattan floating down the Hudson River and longs to help combat climate change. But before she can act (ultimately ending up in the Federal penitentiary) she finds herself pregnant and reluctantly agrees to let friends of her parents adopt the baby. But when Raine looks deeply into the still gray eyes of her newborn, she decides to run off with him to the country place where Alvin Klepatar, her 46-year-old guidance counselor, has gone to recover from his wife's infidelity. Longing to be alone on the dilapidated sheep farm he inherited from his grandmother, he grudgingly agrees to take in this eccentric, idealistic teenager and her baby. Although it's temporary, temporary soon becomes permanent . She posts a sign on Al's refrigerator: WHY WERE YOU BORN? WHAT'S THE NATURE OF YOUR UNIQUE GENIUS? WHAT GIFTS TO YOU HAVE TO OFFER THE WORLD? Her favorite t-shirt says, I DIDN'T COME FROM YOUR RIB, YOU CAME FROM MY VAGINA.
Al is law-abiding; Raine is not. He simplifies the world for her, she complicates it for him.
Like my grandmother, I believed in karma, in messages sent from the universe, and the karma I received after my baby was born concerned my guidance counselor, Mr. Klepatar. I knew he spent his summers on a farm outside the city, and without thinking much about it, without weighing all the possibilities, I decided to get on the train and head for the village of Cold Spring. It seemed like a perfect plan. Mr. Klepatar could provide the house, I'd provide the optimism, and the baby would provide the joy.
Al is law-abiding; Raine is not. He simplifies the world for her, she complicates it for him.
Like my grandmother, I believed in karma, in messages sent from the universe, and the karma I received after my baby was born concerned my guidance counselor, Mr. Klepatar. I knew he spent his summers on a farm outside the city, and without thinking much about it, without weighing all the possibilities, I decided to get on the train and head for the village of Cold Spring. It seemed like a perfect plan. Mr. Klepatar could provide the house, I'd provide the optimism, and the baby would provide the joy.