Page 8 of Happy Harbor
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Updating her résumé wasn’t supposed to be on Josie’s schedule this morning, but here she was. Most of her life was a series of unexpected—and often unfortunate—events that she had to overcome. Sometimes she overcame them, and other times she just pushed past them but continued dragging them through the rest of her life.
She took a long sip of her coffee and sighed. Maybe everyone was right. Maybe she had put herself in this position by being difficult and untrusting, but who could blame her?
Josie had spent most of her childhood being batted around between houses in a small South Carolina town called Happy Harbor, situated between Myrtle Beach and Charleston. For the first few years of her life, she and her mother, Diane, had lived with Josie’s grandmother, Adeline, who owned a restaurant on the riverfront.
According to Adeline, Diane had been troubled from the start. She had gotten into alcohol at a young age and found herself pregnant with Josie when she was sixteen years old. She gave birth a couple of weeks after her seventeenth birthday, but soon started leaving her baby with her mother to continue her partying ways.
In fact, for most of Josie’s life, Diane had been in and out of her world. Her grandmother always stepped in and filled the gap. After Diane moved out, there were a few times when Josie was able to go live with her in a small apartment or a room she’d rented. Those were the short moments in her life when her mother was clean. They never lasted, and she’d end up back at her grandmother’s house again.
Though mostly a refuge, Adeline’s house also served up bad memories of Diane coming back drunk as a skunk or making promises she couldn’t keep. At school, the embarrassment of everyone knowing her mother was the town drunk was horrifying. Tales about Diane Campbell sleeping on park benches, streaking across the field during local high school football games, and passing out in line at the DMV were always floating around. She was the butt of many jokes, and Josie was always the recipient of the stares. Her grandmother had told her to “turn the other cheek” but that often just got her punched. She got bullied until she learned how to stand up for herself. Maybe she should’ve been thankful for those jokes and stares as they gave her a thick skin once she was an adult.
Happy Harbor was what one would call quaint, but Josie found it boring during her adolescence. She was constantly getting into trouble, probably in an attempt to get her mother’s attention. Plus, if people were going to stare at her, she figured she might as well give them something to stare at. Her mother’s reputation had ruined hers, and so she started living up to it.
Of course, she drank a bit and tried some illicit substances, but Josie’s biggest issue as a teenager was anger. Everything made her angry. Then there were the times that Diane tried to come back and be her mother after months or years away. She would just show up, say she was clean, and try to discipline her wayward daughter. Of course, Josie didn’t accept her authority, didn’t trust her, and she surely didn’t respect her.
Her poor nana tried to keep her in line, but Josie would fight anyone for anything at any time. Maybe some of that had carried over into her adulthood, but she wasn’t sure what to do about it now. There was a lot of water under that bridge.
Just as she was finishing up her résumé, the front door opened. She looked up to see Kendra standing in front of her, a look of sheer disgust on her face.
“Why are you home? It’s not even lunchtime.”
Kendra groaned. “I hate that school.”
“What happened?”
“I got sent home for smoking in the bathroom, okay?” Josie looked down at her phone and saw three missed calls from the school. She’d forgotten to turn her ringer back on after her meeting with Sandra.
She stood up. “Kendra! Are you just trying to ruin your life?”
Kendra laughed. “Oh, please, Mom. Smoking a cigarette between classes will not ruin my life. Everybody does it.”
“No, they don’t. Where are they?”
“Where are what?”
“The cigarettes.”
“Relax. I don’t have any. This girl gave me one.”
Josie stared at her. “Do you think I just fell off the turnip truck?”
“The what?”
“Never mind. Let me see your bag.”
“No!” Kendra backed up. “Haven’t you ever heard of privacy?”
Josie laughed. “Honey, you don’t get privacy until you can support yourself. Hand them over.”
Kendra growled like a wildcat. “Fine!” She opened her messenger bag, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and handed them over, not making eye contact with Josie.
“Now, go to your room. Oh, and hand me that phone. And don’t even try connecting through your laptop because I’m turning off the Wi-Fi.”
“Ugh! I hate you!” She stomped up the stairs and slammed her door.
Josie walked to the kitchen and unplugged the router, then fell face-first onto the sofa. Why did life have to be so hard lately? Was she being tested? If so, she was failing miserably.
