When #metoo appeared on the scene, my daughter confided in me that she is always conscious of her surroundings, planning her escape route, how loud she would need to scream. Although I’m glad she can articulate that awareness, I’m devastated that her fears seem grounded in something much more concrete than the nebulous stranger offering candy from a van we were warned about when I was a kid.
Revisiting that time in Vendela Vida’s new novel We Run
the Tides, I realized navigating a teen girl’s friendship might have been
more harrowing than our fears of kidnapping. Eulabee and her best friend Maria
Fabiola attend an all-girls’ school in the Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Fransisco.
They watch The Breakfast Club, wear Laura Ashley, play Centipede, and
scale the cliffs of their local beach. When the girls disagree on an incident
involving a man in a white car, Eulabee finds herself on the outside of her clique.
When Maria goes missing, reports of her kidnapping rock the enclave. But Eulabee
suspects the whole thing is a hoax and goads the police officers interviewing
her:
“Have they ever made you feel uncomfortable?”
“Everyone makes me feel uncomfortable,” I say. “I feel
uncomfortable right now.”
From adults who take advantage to awkward solutions to
unwanted body hair, We Run the Tides captures the discomfort, and yes,
even trauma, of being a teenager.
In the final chapter, Eulabee, now almost fifty, randomly
encounters Maria at a seaside resort. She reminds us that we all still carry
that thirteen-year-old inside. Along with her insecurities, fabrications,
and longing to grow up.
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