Book Title: THE PECULIAR GIFT OF JULY
Character Name: Anita Odom, proprietor of the Island Grocery
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
I grew up here at the Island Grocery. It was just the three of us—Dad, Mom and me—running the shop and living in the apartment above the store. I’ve been working the cash register since I was nine. Ebey’s End is a small town on a small island. Everyone needs groceries, so they came to us. We didn’t go out much. After Mom died, it was just me and Dad. He needed me, so there was no going anywhere after that. Now, I’m in my 40s, live in the apartment I grew up in and run the shop by myself. I’m not saying it’s great, but it’s comfortable. Then July showed up. Technically, we’re cousins, but until the social worker called, I didn’t know she existed. Now she lives here with me. And look, I’m glad and all, I’m just saying someone might have mentioned the whole weirdly-specific-psychic-ability thing. That’s the sort of situation you want to prepare yourself for.
What was your greatest talent?
I am very good at this. Show me your grocery cart, and it’s like I have been reading your diary. I know who’s hosting holiday dinners and who’s alone, who’s been told to watch their cholesterol and who’s fallen off the wagon. I know when you’re on vacation and when you have houseguests. I can tell when someone in your house is sick or pregnant. I know when money is tight and when it’s not. I have predicted birthdays, engagements and, on at least two occasions, divorces. It would be a party trick, if I ever went to parties, which, of course, I don’t.
Significant other?
There was someone many, many years ago. It did not work out because it couldn’t ever work out. He still shops in my store and so does his wife. It’s awkward.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
July says I confuse knowing facts about people (see grocery cart analyzing) with actually knowing them as people. She’s in the process of trying to change that for me. This is also awkward.
Where do you live?
I don’t know what people imagine when I say I live in an apartment over a grocery store, but it’s pretty much like you took a house from the 1950s and shrank it. Technically, the apartment is my father’s. I have a trailer that doesn’t look like a trailer on a decent piece of land outside of town. But after his stroke, Dad couldn’t manage the shop or the stairs. So he moved into my place and, once he could be on his own, I moved back in here. My furniture fits in the trailer, and his fits here. So we left things that way. This means I sleep on my father’s bed, sit on his sofa and eat off his dishes, which are all the same dishes we used when I was a kid. There is a lot any two-bit shrink could do with that.
Do you have any enemies?
Ebey’s End is a small place. Even if you don’t like somebody, you’re going to have to deal with them, so it’s best to keep it mannerly. That said, Gordy, over at the post office, who has that out-of-control chicken situation, is a real piece of work. Then there’s Carol. She’s the wife of my old paramour. Let’s just say, that’s a relationship that’s a little tense. A lot of history is flowing under that bridge.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I thought I wanted to when I was young, before Mom died. But now? No. I know everyone, and everyone knows me. It’s not perfect, not by a longshot. But it’s home.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
I have a fourteen-year-old girl living in my house. I don’t know if I can say I have children. I’m July’s guardian, not her mom. The relationship we have is…It’s good, but it’s different. We’re a different sort of family. Dad, of course, has the two dogs, Gideon and Samson. We’re lucky those two haven’t gotten us banished, especially Gideon. (July loves them, of course.)
What do you do for a living?
I run the Island Grocery here in Ebey’s End. Most people think I own it, but technically it still belongs to my dad, Mack. He likes to come in, drive me insane for a while, then head over to Tiny’s Bakeshop. He meets up with all the other men of a certain age. They call themselves the Old Philosopher’s Club. I’d like to say they mean that in jest. I’d like to, but I won’t.
Greatest disappointment?
Maybe July is right. Maybe I am more comfortable having customers rather than friends. I’m working on it.
Greatest source of joy?
July, the girl not the month. I didn’t see that coming. When she showed up, I was certain the entire situation was doomed to failure. I’m not saying there aren’t bumps, but here we are.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
I have seen every episode of Law & Order, including the spinoffs. Go ahead. Ask me anything.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
Ask Carol. She’ll be more generous than I would be talking about myself.
What keeps you awake at night?
Everything. I’m a terrible sleeper. Have been my entire life. July doesn’t sleep either. We keep each other company.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
Dad’s not getting younger, and the books aren’t getting any easier to balance. Also I’m pretty sure the new butcher we hired isn’t going to work out. I’ve met dogs smarter than that boy.
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
God, I hope not. That’s what July does, you know. She has this sixth sense for what customers in the store need, and she gives it to them. Then suddenly their whole life changes because of a coconut cream pie. I’m pretty sure she’s been doing it to me on the sly already. And I have to tell you, I’d like it to stop. There has been way too much change recently for my liking.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
If there is a life-changing bagel that child hasn’t slipped into my kitchen, I’m going to assume it’s just my prayers being answered.
A Novel
With a dash of magic and an ensemble cast of oddball, small-town characters, this feel-good novel explores forgiveness, family, and the sense of humor it takes to live with the ones we love the most.
Ebey’s End is a small town on an island off the Pacific coast, reachable only by ferry (assuming the gods are with you and it’s not a Tuesday). It’s a comfortable, familiar (but okay, fine, sometimes lonely) life for its resident grocer Anita Odom. That is, until fourteen-year-old July shows up on her doorstep.
Taking in the recently orphaned daughter of an estranged cousin had not been on Anita’s to-do list. In fact, it’s a terrible idea. Anita is ill-suited, ill-prepared, and absolutely certain the entire enterprise will end in disaster—for both of them.
From the moment she arrives, July seems to “know” what each customer at the Island Grocery needs. They’re small things: a housekeeping magazine slipped into old Mr. Daly’s basket or a coconut cream pie pressed into the hands of Pastor Chet. But one by one, these gifts start to change the lives of nearly everyone in town in ways much larger than they—or July—could have imagined.
It's not long before secrets are exposed and questions emerge, and everyone in Ebey’s End has to open their hearts a little wider to make room for it all.
Fantasy Magical Realism | Women's Fiction Friendship [Dutton, On Sale: July 1, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593853726 / eISBN: 9780593853740]
Ashley Ream got her first job at a newspaper when she was sixteen. After working in newsrooms across Missouri, Florida, and Texas, she gave up the deadlines to pursue fiction. She lives in Los Angeles and works in the nonprofit sector.
No comments posted.
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy