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SPLITTING
HARRIET EXCERPT
PROLOGUE
Don’t want to think about anything. Which isn’t all that hard to
do when you’ve had one too many drinks. So I do what comes
naturally under the circumstances—I feel. And who cares what
happens, ’cause it’s not likely I’ll remember anything in the
morning. And if I do, it’ll all be fuzzy.
So feel away, girl! Forget all your troubles. Forget
Harley—the pig! Jason—the swine! Blade, the oinker! Oh, and
don’t forget to forget your family—church and otherwise. Just
feel.
Closing my eyes, I command my body to feel the
beat of the music that pounds from the speakers as I move
against…
Um, let’s call him Contestant Number One.
He presses nearer, his hands everywhere they shouldn’t
be on a good girl. Fortunately for him, I don’t fall into that
category. At least, not anymore. This twenty-year-old preacher’s
kid—a.k.a. “PK”—is four years beyond that. And counting.
So tired of counting—
And I’m tired of this stupid little voice in my head that has
been gathering volume ever since I was the recipient of a black
eye and found myself homeless three months ago. Fortunately, a
drinking buddy took me in. Unfortunately, she’s more of a mess
than I, which is how she ended up in an ambulance after I found
her on the bathroom floor this morning. The good news is that
she’ll be all right—at least until she begs, borrows, or steals
enough money to finance her “habit.” The bad news is that it
shook me. Good thing I don’t do drugs.
What do you call the alcohol swimming through your
veins?
“It’s legal,” I slur, conveniently overlooking that I’m
still considered a minor. “Yep, legal.”
Contestant Number One pulls back. “What?”
I’d be embarrassed if I weren’t so numb. I smile—at
least, I think that’s what I do with my mouth—and drop my
forehead to the shoulder of his sweat-soaked T-shirt. Ew! Wish
my sense of smell were as numb as the rest of me.
He chuckles, slides a rough hand across my exposed
belly, and tweaks the gold hoop piercing the flesh above my
navel. He thinks it’s a done deal.
Doesn’t have to be. You could slip out. Ditch him
and his friends. Start fresh again tomorrow, good intentions and
all.
Right. Like I did today, after the ambulance lights
disappeared from view?
Fingers graze my wrist, trail upward, linger over the
crown of thorns tattoo encircling my upper arm, slide around the
back of my neck, then thrust up through my cropped, pink-tinted
hair. Getting a grip on it, Contestant Number One pulls my head
back, and our nicotine- and alcohol-scented breath mingle as I
try to focus on his face.
What they say about ugly girls getting progressively
better looking with each drink a guy downs? Well, it goes both
ways. Sometime during the two hours since I strutted into the
biker bar, this guy has gone from one step above Gomer Pyle to
only a dozen steps below Antonio Banderas. See, sometimes it’s
good to be numb. And I wish I were more so when his mouth
descends.
Oh, God, here I go again. And I do mean God as
in “the big guy”, even though it seems years since I’ve spoken
to or thought about Him without pairing His name with a curse. I
don’t want to be here. Don’t want to do this. I want to…to…
“Oh, my girl! It is you!” squawks a voice whose
distinctive Katharine Hepburn warble identifies her despite my
smog-laden brain. “What are you doing?!”
Barely escaping a meeting of the mouths, I look over my
shoulder into the wrinkled, dark-skinned face of my namesake,
Harriet Evans. Though it has been two years since I’ve seen her,
she looks the same. As does her companion standing shoulder to
shoulder with her—Pam Worth, whose wigs are legend at my
father’s church. Against the backdrop of bikers, beer bottles,
and bars that run the length of two walls, the little old women
are so out of place that there exists the possibility this is a
dream. Meaning, I may not have to start fresh again tomorrow…
Harriet puts her fists on her hips. “You’re drunk,
Harriet Josephine Bisset!”
She sure seems real, especially those fiery eyes of
hers. I shake my head. “What are you doing here?”
“Not what you’re doing. My car died just down
the road. And here I come in to use the phone, and what do I
find? You! Actin’ like and lookin’ like”—she waves a hand down
me—“a floozy.”
“Hey! Who are these old biddies?” demands Contestant
Number One.
Biddies? It might’ve been a while since I’ve seen
Harriet or Pam, and my brain may be temporarily defunct, but
they aren’t going to take that sitting down…er, standing up.
“Biddies?” Harriet stomps her foot and Pam follows
suit. “You, Cro-Magnon, need a lesson in how to speak to your
elders. Now take your filthy hands off that young lady.”
“Young lady?!” He jerks me closer. “You had it right
the first time—floozy.” With that, he puts his mouth to the
crook of my neck, and I think I’m going to be sick. Yep. Right
across the back of his sweaty T-shirt.
Though, normally, I’d be horrified—at least, as
horrified as one can be in my state—when he lurches back and
spits curses that ought to rain hellfire down on him, I laugh
against the back of the hand I wipe across my mouth.
“Humph!” Harriet takes my arm. “Can’t think of a more
fitting punishment.”
As Pam takes my other arm and they lead me across the
bar, I become aware of the attention we’ve attracted. Everyone’s
watching—from the bartenders to the biker guys and gals to
Contestant Number One’s friends, whose faces no longer reflect
drunken merriment. This could be bad.
“Harriet. Pam.” I swallow bile. “You should go.”
“Not without you.” Harriet tugs me toward the door.
“Come on, girl.”
Outside, the chill night air hits like a bucket of ice
water, causing me to gasp.
“Where’s your car?” Harriet asks.
“I don’t”—burp—“have a car. Friend dropped me
off.”
“A friend, hmm?” She shakes her head. “You got a cell
phone?”
Stomach threatening to erupt again, I pry the phone
from my back pocket and thrust it at her. No sooner do our hands
clear than it happens again, and I’m on my knees in the
dirt-paved parking lot.
While Pam pats my back, I hear Harriet’s voice but have
no idea who she’s talking to. Not that I care.
Then we’re waiting—for what, I don’t know. And, again,
I don’t care. I just want my stomach to stop heaving and my
throat to stop burning. I want to feel normal again.
When was the last time you experienced normal?
Behind us I hear the whine of rusted hinges as the door
thrusts open. Then men’s voices, among them Contestant Number
One’s. Harriet’s. Then Pam’s. Not a nice exchange, and fear
binds me as I focus past Pam to where little Harriet faces a
bare-chested Contestant Number One and what would have been
Contestant Number Two if not for the interruption on the dance
floor.
“You get back in there!” Harriet jabs a finger toward
the bar behind them. “Leave her alone, you hear?”
“I bought her three drinks,” Contestant Number One
snarls. “I deserve something for my money. And my ruined shirt.”
“A paddlin’s all you deserve.”
“Oh, yeah?” He takes a step toward her. “You wanna try,
old biddy?”
I struggle to my feet. “Harriet! It’s okay. You and Pam
get out of here. I’ll—”
“You’ll do nothin’!” Harriet throws me a “look” over
her shoulder.
Pam grips my arm and, with her other hand, starts
fishing in her purse. “Don’t you worry, Harri.” She holds up a
black object and presses a button that causes a bolt of blue to
arc and crackle between two metal pins. “We old biddies can take
care of ourselves.”
No, they can’t. They have no idea—
Suddenly, tires squeal behind us as they churn up dirt
and crunch to a halt. A car door opens and slams, then I hear a
voice I haven’t heard in years. “Back off!”
Heart struggling to find its beat, I peer over my
shoulder, but Tyler doesn’t look at me, his eyes on the two men
who pushed past Harriet to advance on him.
“You her boyfriend?” Contestant Number Two asks.
“Her brother,” Tyler says. “Now if you don’t want
trouble, I suggest you go cuddle up with another beer.”
“Beer ain’t what I had in mind.” Number One grabs me in
passing where no man ought to grab a woman, especially in front
of her brother.
As Pam screeches and swings her purse at his backside,
a growl rips from Tyler. A moment later, his fist connects with
Number One’s jaw and sends the man stumbling back. Number Two
lunges forward, landing a blow to Tyler’s gut as I cry out and
strain to break Pam’s hold.
“Stop it, Harri!” She jerks me back. “Tyler can take
him.”
And he does, though not without sustaining injuries of
his own that make me turn my face away.
“There, now,” Pam says. “It’s over.”
At least until Number One gets in on it again. And as
the two men throw punches, Number Two struggles to his feet.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Harriet looks to Pam. “Toss me that
stun thing of yours.”
She tosses it, Harriet jabs, and the man jerks and
drops.
A moment later, Number One’s on his back again, and
Tyler’s dragging me to his car with Pam and Harriet following.
“She’ll be back! You can take ’em out of the bar, but
you can’t take the bar out of ’em. It’s in their blood.”
As Tyler pushes me into the backseat, we come face to
bloody face and I see the question in his eyes. Will I come
back? Is it in my blood?
I close my eyes, and when Harriet settles in beside me
and presses my head into her lap, I begin to blubber. “I want to
go home, Harriet.”
A trembling hand smoothes back my hair. “Of course you
do, my girl. ’Course you do.”
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