July 29

I've done it!  I've finally made the decision to move to Coates Island, North Carolina.  It has taken me more then a year to think about leaving Connecticut, and now that I've put everything into motion, I know I've done the right thing.  Now it's time to let my book club friends know.

    Cherie Renee Thompson reread what she'd written.  She'd begun keeping a journal at fifteen, a month before enrolling in the prestigious prep school where she'd been awarded a full academic scholarship.  Days after moving into her dorm room, she'd found herself writing down her thoughts and reactions to what had become an entirely different lifestyle.  After the first year, her entries decreased from one every night to three or four each week.  And, most times, it was to release her frustration about having to live in two worlds: one when interacting with students who benefited from unlimited funds from their wealthy parents, and the other when returning to her old neighborhood, with low-income housing, where crime and poverty had become the norm rather than the exception.

      Capping her pen, Cherie dropped it and the journal into the tote on the passenger seat.  She started up her car and headed in the direction of the bridge connecting the mainland to the island, and five minutes later she maneuvered into the parking lot of the Seaside Cafe for the last time before returning home.

    Home.

    The word conjured up memories that had made her into the woman she had become.  Connecticut was the state where she'd been born, raised, educated, worked and lived; however, it had taken just two visits to Coates Island for her to conclude she hadn't been living but existing.  She'd lost the only man she'd ever loved, and she'd lost the child they'd made together.  She'd traded the child she'd carried for nine months, in a moment of weakness and madness, for a lifestyle she'd always dreamed about.  She'd made a deal with a man who'd concocted a plan she'd been unable to refuse.  Shaking off the memories, Cherie walked into the restaurant.