Here's a revision trick that's helped me from time to time when a story's not coming together: rewrite the story so that the protagonist from the first attempt is dead & their death is now the story’s inciting incident.

This is real good! Reminds me of a prose style prompt that the House of Sand and Fog guy once put to a local group bringing him in for a talk: write a scene in which yr character has just fled the scene of a murder they committed. Do not directly reference what just happened or why it happened.

little known fact the grandmother was the original protagonist of the crow road

this is PERFECT