As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins

By teen lib

Ry just stepped off the train to make a quick phone call.  And now he finds himself stuck in the middle of nowhere when the train suddenly leaves from its unplanned maintenance stop without him.  The worst part is that he cannot actually reach anyone with his cell phone.  The first call he makes is to his own house to try to speak with his grandfather who is dog-sitting while everyone is away this summer.  But Ry has no luck reaching his grandfather, because while he was walking the dogs, he ended up falling into a 20-foot-deep sinkhole and giving himself a concussion which resulted in amnesia.  The second call Ry tries to make with his one bar of signal and a dying battery is to his parents’ cell phone.  But again, he is not successful in making contact.  This time, the phone just rings and rings because a monkey in the Caribbean where Ry’s parents are vacationing has carried it off to show her family.

Obviously, Ry is not going to make it to his summer camp, but even with a car, a plane, a couple of boats, and his own two feet, Ry isn’t sure he will ever again make contact with anyone in his family again.