Downeast by Gigi Georges

Downeast by Gigi Georges

Author:Gigi Georges [Georges, Gigi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-02T00:00:00+00:00


Chapter 14

Searching

In the fall of her freshman year, Vivian arrived at UMO with the optimism of a child. As her time at Narraguagus had drawn to a close, she had tasted the possibility of life beyond Harrington. She looked back on how far she’d traveled since she’d first arrived at the high school—how much energy it had taken to drop her mask, to walk away from the pickup trucks, the social media obsessions, and the skin-tight jeans and camo shirts that distinguished the cool kids. And how relieved she’d been when she’d finally done it. When it came to academics, she’d kept her head about her, even as her adventures beyond the school grounds persisted. She’d graduated third in her high school class and had chosen UMO largely because it was her parents’ alma mater and the top pick of smart local kids who choose not to stray too far. She’d begun to distance herself from the church, while holding on to her belief in something bigger than herself. And she’d laid out a plan to study biology, because writing doesn’t pay the bills.

In the blink of an eye, November came. With each week’s progression, Vivian found herself counting the hours until Friday afternoon, when she could drive two hours north to Houlton to spend two glorious days with Andy. It would be her ninth such trip since she’d arrived at UMO nearly three months earlier. Now, Vivian picked at her chicken tenders in a corner booth at the Bear’s Den Lounge, and worried out loud about the snowstorm that threatened to derail her plans. If she couldn’t get out early enough, she might be stuck in Orono for the weekend. There were worse fates than this, but right now, Vivian couldn’t imagine one.

Vivian swept her arm toward the darkening campus. “It’s so impersonal here,” she lamented. “I can’t even get into my building unless I have my keycard.” With its 2,200-person freshman class, UMO was a far cry from Narraguagus. At Vivian’s high school graduation, she’d stood with forty-four classmates, seventeen of whom she’d known since kindergarten. For years, she had felt stifled by the smallness of Harrington and fantasized about life beyond its clutches. But now, Vivian felt alone. “People see things differently here,” she said. “I’ve made one friend, but we’re not close. I don’t go to a lot of my classes. The food makes my stomach hurt, because it’s horrible. The water makes my stomach hurt, because it’s city water.” She hadn’t yet fallen into a deep-rooted depression. “Not like before.” But Vivian knew that if she didn’t find a way out of Orono, she’d spiral downward.

A few days earlier, Vivian had submitted her application for transfer to the University of Maine at Fort Kent, some two hundred miles north of Orono, just shy of the Canadian border crossing on the far north crown of Maine. It’s a rural school, with a 52-acre campus and an undergraduate student body of fewer than two thousand. Most Mainers also view it as less competitive than UMO.



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