Her neighbor thinks she’s missing.
Her mother doesn’t want her back.
Her grandparents don’t know she’s coming.
Working Title: Follow Fifty Home
Willie Fortune never expected to be on her own in the middle of nowhere at thirteen, but it’s safer than staying home.
Always moving from place to place when her mom didn’t make the rent, Willie longs for a better life and a family that loves her. After an accident injures her mom, a boyfriend moves in and threatens Willie’s safety.
With only loose change in her pocket from her mother’s tip jar, Willie heads west on her bicycle, determined to find her grandparents—grandparents her mother once claimed were dead. Using clues from old photographs to guide her, Willie follows US Highway 50 toward what she hopes will be a better life.
Follow Fifty Home is grounded in the sights and sounds of the 1970s, with stakes both physical and emotional. It blends the shifting ground of what it means to be a family with a journey of self-discovery.