Vodka Joe’s















By Lisa Griffith


Prologue



     Have you ever wondered about fate? Do you control your destiny or is it controlled by something else. Then you start wondering about the “myth” of the three fates that were charged to watch the tapestry of life. But if there are three fates out there watching over the tapestry, who’s to say if they’re right about their choices? What if someone devious were to get their hands on the tapestry? Or heck, what if the three fates are staring at your thread and holding some scissors. Is that fate? Or are they really just bored? There’s a lot to contemplate about fate. I have been thinking about that very subject a lot lately.


You know those moments in you’re life that are few and far between which completely change your life and make you feel dizzy and all of the sudden your life will never be the same. I’m sure people feel it on their wedding day. Or maybe you feel it when your baby is born. I’m sure everyone feels it at least once in their life. Well I’ve had one of those moments in my life, and for the first time it wasn’t a negative one.


I guess I should tell you a little about myself. My name is
Lillian Marie James, But everyone calls me Lilly. I had a rough childhood. When I was 5 my mother and father took my big brother to Washington D.C. for an academic competition. They didn’t want to take me to the competition because they knew it would be boring for a child so young so they had me stay at my grandmas. At the time I was having great fun, playing with grandma, helping her around the house, playing with the neighborhood kids. Until one day when I came back inside for lunch and saw my grandmother slumped over in her recliner. I thought she had fallen asleep. She had been acting sickly lately. I thought she had caught a cold. So I grabbed a blanket to drape over her. But when I got closer I saw that her eyes were wide open. I knew right at that moment what death meant. I called the police and told them that my grandmother had died. And of course the operator was quite shocked. I honestly don’t remember what happened after I called the police everything is a blank. But according to the records the police found me curled up in fetus position rocking back and forth, I was “pale as a ghost” and in a state of shock. No matter what they did I wouldn’t take my eyes off my grandmother. Next thing I remember is waking up to the phone ringing. The police had gotten grandma out of the house and into the transportation. And the nice policeman who had stayed with me since he got there started talking to me. Everything was muffled, like I was under water. I stared at grandma’s chair for a little bit then looked at the officer that was on her phone. He looked very bewildered and distressed. He explained what happened to the person on the phone and kept asking if they were SURE that it was them. All of this was in that murmur of underwater speech. Finally the policeman who was trying to catch my attention put his hand on my shoulder. It was as if this whole time I was in this little bubble full of water. And he popped it, all of the sudden all the noise rushed to me and everything went from a slight slow motion effect to this rushed frantic pace. I looked up at the man a bit startled and told him that my mommy was in Washington. I was a bit startled I didn’t know where that sentence came from and I must have looked bewildered because the officer smiled trying to cheer me up. He picked me up and carried me out of the house where I saw all of the neighborhood kids and their parents outside staring at the house.

After everything was sorted out I found out that my family’s plane crashed in the middle of a crop farm in route. I also found out that is what killed my grandma. She received the call and had a heart attack from the shock. So I lived in shelters and orphanages and foster homes until I was 18. After that I went between jobs till I was 21. I got a job as a waitress during the day at “Café Decaf”. I also got a job at “Vodka Joe’s” as a… you guessed it, waitress. I take the drinks to the booths and get the money and my tips (hopefully). Well I suppose this is where it all began. This is why I began to worry about fate. After 5 years at “Vodka Joe’s” my life did a complete 160°. And at first I thought that that one life changing event started that night. But after contemplating fate, I’ve realized it wasn’t at Joe’s bar. It was 20 years ago when my world died and I was forced to live this life. If my parents were alive I’m sure… nay… certain that I wouldn’t be working at Joe’s. So if it weren’t for 20 years ago… My 160 wouldn’t have happened.





Chapter I

Chance or fate




“Night Lilly, we’ll see yah tomorrow?”

“You know it!”

I just finished my shift at Joe’s and it was 2 a.m. and I was slightly tipsy and extremely exhausted. I live right above Joe’s, there’s a little apartment spot for people to rent, and I got a good deal since Joe and I have gotten to be good friends. So usually at the end of the night I crawl up the stairs inside the bar and crash but tonight, I was really hungry, I didn’t eat lunch like I normally do because the café was packed, and there’s never anything in the fridge. So off I went in search of a 7/11 that actually stayed up 24 hours. That was until I passed the alley way between my block and the block that had the 7/11.