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Janie doesn’t knohat to do

She freezes

The train’s brakes whine

And the scene grows cloudy and is lost in fog

“Janie!” Janie’s in, and her straggly hair falls over one eye “Janie, I said,fancy doll store I thought you would be excited about that, but I guess not” Janie’s mother sips from a flask in her ratty old purse

Janie focuses on her h she doesn’t like dolls She would rather have new tights She wriggles on the seat, trying to adjust theh She thinks about the bald man and scrunches her eyes Weird

When the train stops, they take their bags and step into the aisle In front of Janie’s es from his compartment

He wipes his face with a handkerchief

Janie stares at him

Her jaw drops “Whoa,” she whispers

The , and turns to exit the train

September 6, 1999, 3:05 pm

Janie sprints to catch the bus after her first day of sixth grade Melinda Jeffers, one of the Fieldridge North Side girls, sticks her foot out, sending Janie sprawling across the gravel Melinda laughs all the way to her e to cry, and dusts herself off She climbs on the bus, flops into the front seat, and looks at the dirt and blood on the palms of her hands, and the rip in the knee of her already orn pants

Sixth grade makes her throat hurt

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She leans her head against the

When she gets ho Guiding Light and drinking fro hands carefully, dries the she’ll notice Hoping she’ll say so

But Janie’s mother is asleep now

Her mouth is open

She snores lightly

The bottle tips in her hand

Janie sighs, sets the bottle on the beat-up coffee table, and starts her homework

Halfway through her math homework, the room turns black

Janie is rushed into a bright tunnel, like a multicolored kaleidoscope There’s no floor, and Janie is floating while the walls spin around her Itup

Next to Janie in the tunnel is her mother, and a man who looks like a blond Jesus Christ TheThey look happy Janie yells, but no sound comes out She wants it to stop

She feels the pencil fall froers

Feels her body slump to the arm of the couch

Tries to sit up, but with all the whirling colors around her, she can’t tell which way is upright She overcompensates and falls the other way, onto her mother

The colors stop, and everything goes black

Janie hears her

Feels her shove