"Maybe one of your friends makes figurines? I'd totally go to an exhibit like that."
Yeah, right… Out here in the middle of nowhere, you'd take any exhibit you could get.
I strained to recall if I’d seen that number before, but something else caught my eye—another ad I hadn’t noticed earlier.
"MOTORCYCLE FOR SALE. GOOD CONDITION."
"I remember buying my bike thanks to an ad just like this," I smiled, suddenly picturing my old steel companion. "Never regretted it for a second."
"Your parents must've worried about you," Oscar said. "My grandpa always says bikes are dangerous. That you get addicted to speed without even noticing. Not that I'd know—I've only got a bicycle, but he keeps warning me anyway."
"My grandfather was the same," I replied. "Always cautious when it came to family, but a total daredevil himself."
"When I grow up, I'm getting a motorcycle too," the kid declared proudly. "Then I won’t have to sit at this bus stop forever."
"You know what?" I slapped my knees and stood up. "You're right. Enough waiting around."
"Wait, where are you going?" Oscar scrambled to his feet.
"Back to the house. I'm done with this."
I tore off the phone number and headed toward the cabin, grabbing the kid's backpack on the way.
"Tomorrow I’ll call about the ad and see if the owner can bring the bike here."
"Wait—you actually have money to buy it?" Oscar asked skeptically.
"I’ll figure that out later," I said, scratching my sunburnt forehead. "At the very least, I’ll ask for a taxi number so one can actually come out here. Since this godforsaken place has no internet… Christ, it’s boiling."
"Hey," Oscar bristled, "don’t call my home ‘godforsaken.’"
"Sorry, you know what I mean," I muttered, embarrassed. "What’ve you got in this backpack, bricks?"
"Just the essentials!" he declared.
I smirked at the way he scrunched his nose indignantly, then glanced back one last time at the bus stop—now just a sliver of its roof visible through the reeds.
"Weird," I mused after a moment. "Why so many torn-off ads if this place is so remote? Barely anyone comes through here."
"Who knows?" The kid shrugged. "Maybe this stop was a starting point more often than you’d think."