By Nuchi Xiong
Funny How Things Change by Melissa Wyatt is about a 17 year old boy named Remy Walker who is completely in love with his girlfriend of two years Lisa Perkins. Both recently just graduated, Lisa plans on going to college out of state while Remy isn’t. He plans on staying in the dead end town of Dwyer, West Virginia. Dwyer use to be a coal mining town but since all the coal was used up, the town turned into nothing but a quick stop for tourists to get gas or stay at a hotel. The town is surrounded by mountains. Remy’s family has been in Dwyer for one-hundred and sixty years and even own one of the mountains. The closest town is hours away and with limited jobs many people leave and never come back. Remy’s mother was one of them. Even though this town doesn’t have much to offer, Remy loves Dwyer, the mountains and has a connection with it.
The story starts off with Remy and Lisa in the woods laying around admiring each other when Lisa asks him to go to college in Pennsylvania like they’ve talked about before. Remy quickly says yes to her without giving much thought. He has to leave to work at the auto shop/gas station where he’s worked since high school. Since he didn’t have a car he has to walk in the sun. On the way he stops to cool himself off near a mini-waterfall off the mountain. As he is cooling himself off he hears someone yelling at him. It was a girl in a red Mustang looking for a place to get a drink. She drinks at the mini-waterfall. He finds out her name is Dana, an art major and is here for the summer getting paid by the state to paint the water towers. Remy can’t help but notice how pretty she is.
Remy goes to work and finds out that his best friend Jimmy, who is also a mechanic, is going to propose to his girlfriend. Jimmy and Remy have been friends since grade school when Jimmy protected Remy from a bully. Dana stops by to get gas and sees Remy. They go out to get McDonald’s together and she invites him over the next day to a barbeque she’s having at the place she’s staying at. He says he’ll come but he will bring his girlfriend Lisa along.
Remy goes home, which is a trailer on his family mountain, to his dad, Alvin, sitting on the couch in his boxers smoking a cigarette. His dad doesn’t have a permanent job not because he’s lazy but because he’s coal miner and there isn’t very much of it around anymore. All the mining companies left but his dad doesn’t want to leave the mountain. He makes ends meet by little jobs around town. Remy and his dad love each other though as much as they do the mountains they live on.
The next day Remy and Lisa go to Dana’s barbeque. Remy has a horrible time. Lisa and Dana hit it off but at one point Remy hears Dana telling Lisa that if Remy comes along to college with her he might be more of a hassle than good.
Remy goes to work and finds out that Jimmy hasn’t been showing up for his shifts. Remy eventually meets up with Jimmy and finds out that Jimmy is leaving with his wife to get a better job. Remy and Jimmy go out for the night and sneak into a bar to celebrate. Getting too drunk and into a full bar fight, Remy gets picked up by the town cop Terry, who is actually a relative of Remy’s so he just takes him home to his dad. Remy then tells his dad about his plans to leave with Lisa. His dad thinks it’s a horrible decision. A couple days later before Jimmy leaves, he gives Remy his old car, a ‘74 Chevy Nova. Remy is excited but Lisa isn’t when he tells her he’s going to bring it with them. They get into a fight because of both their parents disapproval.
Remy’s dad, Alvin, finds out that a mining company gave them an offer for the family mountain and he’s going to take it so that he can give Remy some money for when he leaves. Remy tells Lisa and they can’t believe their dream is really happening. But Remy starts to have second thoughts with everything.
Remy doesn’t want to sell the mountain because he knows that the company will destroy it. He’s also starting to have some feeling for Dana even though he in self-denial, telling himself that their just friends. Even though he’s very excited to see her. When she gets kicked out of her friend’s place and Remy helps get a place in his aunts house. She shows up to his family reunion and is a hit with his family. While Lisa is away to see a relative, Remy ends up kissing Dana after she reveals that she likes him. After they kiss and he breaks away from her. He realizes that he can’t go to Pennsylvania with Lisa or stay with her.
He breaks the news to Lisa when she gets back and tells his father that he isn’t going anymore. Summer is ending and Dana is about done painting the water towers. She will go back to college soon. He takes her to a town sort of near by where a lot of artists go for the summer to make art and sell. She plans on coming back for the summer. Remy plans on going to technical school for cars since he’s going to follow his own dreams now, instead of following a girl.
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