Page 23 of Happy Harbor
Nevertheless, Josie had almost followed in her mother’s footsteps. Thankfully, she’d never developed an addiction like Diane did, and she often wondered why. Maybe it was because she rarely drank, and when she did, she only had a glass of wine or two. She’d always stopped herself, unwilling to go down that path.
“Ready to go inside?” Joe asked, interrupting her thoughts. “The place is shut down for a couple of days in honor of Adeline, but it’ll reopen soon. Anyway, nobody is here. I thought that’d be easier for you?”
“Yes. Thanks.”
The three of them walked across the small bridge and onto the creaky front porch. Joe unlocked the door and the group stepped inside. The first thing she noticed was the smell—a mixture of cornbread, butter, and fish. It sounded gross, but it smelled like home more than she’d imagined it would.
Everything looked much the same. The walls were covered with Scottish memorabilia and old family pictures. The Scottish flag hung above the cash register, which hadn’t been upgraded to anything even remotely modern. Adeline had believed that people should pay cash, and their change should be counted out in their hands. Credit and debit cards weren’t accepted there, but she’d take a personal check in a pinch.
Josie stood in the middle of the room, her eyes bleary from the tears now streaking down her cheeks. Adeline Campbell had taken so much pride in the restaurant she’d built with her late husband. Over fifty years of hard work cooking, cleaning, and taking care of customers was now over. The place was quiet. Deserted. Sad.
“You okay?” Joe asked tentatively.
Josie couldn’t believe her grandmother was gone. The funeral had been uplifting, as Adeline requested, but now Josie stood there alone and grieving.
“No. None of this is okay.”
“She was a special woman, that Adeline.”
Specialdidn’t even begin to cover it. Her grandmother had been a saint.
“She was very special. I can feel her here, Joe. This restaurant is like a shrine to her.” Josie walked over to the cash register and pressed one of the keys. The numbers had long since worn away, but Adeline had known where each one was. In her older years, diabetes and partial blindness hadn’t taken away her ability or her desire to work. Even in her last days, she’d stood behind that counter taking orders and welcoming people to Campbell’s, according to Ethel.
Josie hadn’t expected to feel such a flood of good emotions when she walked into the space. She’d feared feeling sad or even angry about her mother. Instead, she felt peace. She felt comfort. She felt Nana. Her spirit hung in the air like a thick fog, and Josie never wanted to leave. She felt like closing her eyes and hugging herself, but she didn’t want Joe to think she’d lost her mind.
“Can I walk down the Riverwalk a bit?” Kendra asked.
Josie nodded. “Just don’t make me come looking for you.”
As her daughter left, Josie wandered around the restaurant, touching the black-and-white checkered plastic tablecloths, the pictures on the wall, and the stair rail leading to the storage area upstairs. Maybe she could turn that area into another dining room, she thought before remembering she hadn’t agreed to stay. Happy Harbor—or maybe Adeline Campbell—was trying to reel her in already.
“Well, what do you think?” Joe finally asked when it was apparent that Josie wasn’t going to leave the restaurant on her own.
“I think I need to go to the house.” That statement surprised even her. All she knew was that she needed her grandmother, and maybe she’d feel her more at her home.
CHAPTERSIX
Josie and Kendra walked along the sidewalks of Happy Harbor, the sun disappearing over the horizon. Josie remembered watching sunsets over the marsh when she was a kid, and those were some of her happiest memories. The sounds of the marsh were hard to describe. A mixture of mud sucking and bird squawks, it soothed her. And the smells were also hard to describe to someone who didn’t come from the Lowcountry.
“Explain to me again why we couldn’t ride with Joe? Or take our car?” Kendra complained.
“Because Nana’s house is in the historic district, and it’s only a couple of blocks over. A nice walk will do us good.”
“Ugh,” Kendra replied in true teenager fashion.
“Do you really think you could go to school here?”
“Sure. Why couldn’t I?”
“You haven’t exactly been focused on academics lately.”
“Fresh starts are supposed to be a good thing, aren’t they?”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had one.”
Kendra looked at her. “You left here and went to Atlanta. Wasn’t that a fresh start?”
Josie thought for a moment. “It never felt like one. A lot happened here, and just changing locations didn’t take that away. Problems are sticky, and they like to follow you. That’s why I’m worried that you’ll have the same issues here, Kendra.”
