Chapter 1 — The Kid Who Missed Every Trend
In Cedar Ridge, missing your moment was practically a sport.
The town had missed the highway expansion in the '80s, the tourism boom in the '90s, and whatever cryptocurrency was supposed to be in 2017. Cedar Ridge didn't do "next big things." It did pie contests and high school football and arguing about whether the diner's coffee had gotten weaker since 2003.
Eli Turner fit right in.
At seventeen, he'd tried to start a fall lemonade stand called "Autumn Citrus Experience." He said it was "ironic." People said it was cold.
At twenty-two, he invested his entire savings into glow-in-the-dark shoelaces.
"Night safety meets fashion," he'd said.
The shipment arrived the same week Crocs became trendy.
Eli still had three boxes in his mother's attic.
So by twenty-eight, most of Cedar Ridge had decided Eli was harmless, optimistic, and destined to someday try selling soup-flavored popsicles.
Which is why no one paid attention the morning he sat in the Rusty Mug Diner with a legal pad covered in scribbles and a look in his eyes usually reserved for people about to make very questionable life choices.
Marlene, who had worked at the diner since the invention of toast, topped off his coffee.
"Tell me this one doesn't involve footwear," she said.
"It involves deer," Eli replied.
She froze mid-pour. "Alive or… wall-mounted?"
"Alive," he said. "Famous, ideally."
Marlene slowly set the pot down.
"Eli," she said gently, "I say this with love. That sentence worries me."