Chap­ter 2 reveals the ear­ly years of the narrator’s fam­i­ly life, set against the back­drop of mod­est begin­nings and a series of chal­lenges. Her par­ents, both young and just start­ing out in life, were strug­gling finan­cial­ly in their small home in Kent­wood. Her moth­er, at 21, was no longer sup­port­ed by her fam­i­ly, while her father, at 23, worked as a welder at oil refineries—jobs that were short-lived but phys­i­cal­ly demand­ing. In 1977, the cou­ple had their first child, Bryan, and lat­er moved to a three-bed­room ranch house as their fam­i­ly grew. This was just the begin­ning of a series of chal­lenges and turn­ing points for the fam­i­ly, with both par­ents nav­i­gat­ing their own per­son­al strug­gles as well as those with­in the fam­i­ly unit.

As her moth­er returned to school to pur­sue a teach­ing career, her father’s drink­ing began to take a more sig­nif­i­cant toll on their lives. The grow­ing strain of his alco­holism led to errat­ic behav­ior, with inci­dents like miss­ing Bryan’s first birth­day par­ty after a drink­ing binge. In 1980, fol­low­ing a Christ­mas morn­ing where her father went miss­ing after get­ting drunk at a par­ty, her moth­er reached her break­ing point. She decid­ed to leave and filed for divorce, but after much plead­ing from both her father and his new wife, she reluc­tant­ly took him back. The insta­bil­i­ty in the fam­i­ly was only tem­porar­i­ly sta­bi­lized when her father shift­ed careers, start­ing a con­struc­tion busi­ness that led to a small peri­od of suc­cess with his gym, Total Fit­ness, which helped him regain some influ­ence in the town.

Dur­ing this peri­od of recov­ery, her father began to estab­lish him­self as one of the most well-known fig­ures in their small town, and the family’s life start­ed to sta­bi­lize. The fam­i­ly enjoyed large back­yard craw­fish boils and par­ties, but it’s clear that there were dark­er under­tones to these gath­er­ings, as the nar­ra­tor sus­pects the use of speed—common in that era—was involved. Mean­while, her moth­er opened a day­care cen­ter with her sis­ter, Aunt San­dra, and the fam­i­ly had a sec­ond child, the nar­ra­tor, born on Decem­ber 2, 1981. Despite the dif­fi­cult labor her moth­er endured with her birth, the narrator’s arrival was met with love and affec­tion, and she grew up sur­round­ed by strong famil­ial con­nec­tions, espe­cial­ly with her aunt San­dra, who became like a sec­ond moth­er to her.

Grow­ing up, the nar­ra­tor had a deep affec­tion for the women in her fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly her Aunt San­dra and cousin Lau­ra Lynne, who was just a few months younger than her. Togeth­er, they shared a bond that was as close as sis­ters, and their child­hood was filled with com­pan­ion­ship and sup­port. Anoth­er cru­cial fig­ure in her ear­ly life was her great-grand­moth­er, Lex­ie Pierce, a woman known for her strength and bold per­son­al­i­ty. Though Lex­ie had been mar­ried sev­en times and had strong opin­ions about cer­tain fam­i­ly mem­bers, includ­ing her son-in-law June, she played an instru­men­tal role in help­ing care for the nar­ra­tor and her sib­lings. Their time togeth­er was pre­cious, filled with the warmth of shared expe­ri­ences, like sleep­overs and lis­ten­ing to slow 1950s bal­lads from Lexie’s record col­lec­tion.

The bond between the nar­ra­tor and her great-grand­moth­er Lex­ie was excep­tion­al­ly close, and she cher­ished every moment spent with her. Her great-grandmother’s love and care pro­vid­ed a sense of com­fort and sta­bil­i­ty dur­ing the narrator’s for­ma­tive years. Lex­ie would often have her over for sleep­overs, where they would go through her make­up cab­i­net, enjoy deli­cious break­fasts, and nap togeth­er. The nar­ra­tor loved the close­ness they shared, the smell of Lexie’s face pow­der and per­fume as she drift­ed off to sleep. How­ev­er, a fright­en­ing inci­dent involv­ing a car acci­dent that Lex­ie caused led to the end of their time togeth­er. Lexie’s involve­ment in a minor car acci­dent, where the car got stuck in a hole and required a tow truck, left the narrator’s moth­er con­cerned, and as a result, she for­bade her daugh­ter from spend­ing any more time with her great-grand­moth­er.

Through these sto­ries, the read­er is intro­duced to the com­plex­i­ties of fam­i­ly life, the chal­lenges of nav­i­gat­ing alco­holism and strained rela­tion­ships, and the resilience of a young girl find­ing strength in her fam­i­ly bonds. The narrator’s con­nec­tion to her par­ents, her broth­er, and her extend­ed fam­i­ly shaped her into some­one who deeply val­ues love, sup­port, and under­stand­ing. Even as she faced the real­i­ties of a dif­fi­cult child­hood, the pres­ence of strong women and a close-knit fam­i­ly gave her the sta­bil­i­ty need­ed to grow. Though moments of pain, loss, and con­fu­sion were part of her jour­ney, they also served as defin­ing moments, influ­enc­ing her path in the years that fol­lowed.