The Town Of Stine

How It Begins

Now; 2019

A ripped Polaroid blows in the wind. It is torn in half. The happy family depicted is now buried six feet under. This is the aftermath. This is the torment. Seeing the family being ripped apart, person by person. This is how it ends. But let me tell you how it begins.

Then; 2009

Shaun Sobleski, a fit man at age fifty, tried to pull his daughter, Harriet, from her phone with no success.

Beverly, another one of Shaun's daughters, took up most of the dining room with her lesson plans, papers strewn, both pen and hair flying, one in the wind and one on the paper.

Juniper, the last of Shaun's daughters, was curled up in the foyer of their beach cottage, otherwise known as her bedroom, on a rocking chair, reading the latest young adult novel, twisting her short brown hair on her finger, and rocking slowly back and forth.

Janice and Drew Cruz were in their tiny yet cozy bedroom, huddled together under a blanket despite the heat and watching reality tv on the small box television.

Trixie Jones had not arrived yet; the paparazzi held up her flight.

Harriet finally turned away from her father and flung herself into the room that her and Beverly share, her blond hair almost getting caught in the slamming door. She hungrily texted her ex again, begging her to take her back. Her texts were left unread. She sighed, and to stop herself from crying pulled a Marlboro pack out of her bag, took one out, and smoked it in front of an open window. The smoke easily calmed her nerves and she texts the love of her life again. She will go like this forever if it means her ex, Kimi, will be with her again.

Shaun sighed and slumped on one of the counter stools. He checked to make sure that Juniper and Beverly weren't watching and then grabbed a small flask of whiskey from his pocket. He took a swig and allowed for the burning alcohol to settle in his mouth before swallowing it down, leaving a scratching feeling in his throat.

Beverly talked to herself while flipping through possible teaching tactics. She just got a job at the University of Massachusetts as a sociology professor and would prefer to keep it. This week is her only week away from the university but she has to start planning for the school year early or else the load will burden her. At least that's what she used as an excuse to ignore her family.

Janice and Drew Cruz weren't really watching the Real Housewives. Yes, it was on, but they were not listening. They were talking. Talking about their mutual ex, Shaun, their seven-year-old son, Kevin, and how they could connect with Janice's daughters, Beverly and Harriet. The married couple has had their quarrels in the past, but this could top them all. Each had different opinions on each subject. Janice thought that Shaun was crazy for inviting them there; Drew thought it was Shaun's way of connecting them all. Both had different relationships with Shaun, if you couldn't tell. Janice believed that it was rude of Shaun not to invite Kevin, her own little miracle, and that her and Drew were bad parents for leaving him with Drew's brother, Frank. Drew believed that Shaun didn't want an extra head in the house, which makes sense, and that the time away from Kevin will do both their son and them some good. Janice reasoned that she needed to have her daughters warm up to her first before putting Drew into the equation; Drew reasoned that it was just the opposite.

"It would be better for them hearing all this from a different perspective," he told her. "They're 25 and 17 and both have long outgrown their need for their mother to sugarcoat everything for them and serve it on a silver platter." Both had completely different approaches to parenting and life in general. But opposites attract, right? For their case, a very rare one, it did. They kept their arguing quiet. There isn't supposed to be trouble in paradise.