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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Toin-home cheerleaders, house cleaners, and editors—Matt, Kilian, and Kennedy—you rock There would be no Janie without your love, help, patience, and support
Special thanks to Dr Diane Blake Harper, le-monkey; to Dr Louis Catron for your kind, priceless critiques; to Ramon Collins for your years of support; and to Tricia, Chris, Erica, Greg, Dawn, Joe, David, Jen, Lisa, Andy, Matthew, Linda, Andie, and Ally for your generous assistance
Finally, warent, Michael Bourret, who believed in Janie and in reat praises for a most terrific team at Simon Pulse—Jennifer Klonsky, Caroline Abbey, Michael del Rosario, and all the others who help make dreams come true
SIX MINUTES
December 9, 2005, 12:55 pm
Janie Hannagan’s e of the table in the school library Everything goes black and silent She sighs and rests her head on the table Tries to pull herself out of it, but fails ry She really doesn’t have time for this
And then
She’s sitting in the bleachers in the football stadiu the roars of the crowd
She glances at the people sitting in the bleachers around her—fellow class to spot the dreamer She can tell this dreamer is afraid, but where is he? Then she looks to the football field Finds him Rolls her eyes
It’s Luke Drake No question about it He is, after all, the only naked player on the field for the hoame
Nobody seems to notice or care Except him The ball is snapped and the lines collide, but Luke is covering hi fro Janie’s fingers tingle and go numb
Luke looks over at Janie, eyes pleading, as the football moves toward him, a bullet in slow motion “Help,” he says
She thinks about helping hie the course of Luke’s dream She even considers that a boost of confidence to the star receiver the day before the big gaional Class A Championship
But Luke’s really a jerk He won’t appreciate it So she resigns herself to watching the debacle She wonders if he’ll choose pride or glory
He’s not as big as he thinks he is
That’s for damn sure
The football nearly reaches Luke when the dreaet ON with it already, Janie thinks She concentrates in her seat on the bleachers and slowly es to stand She tries to walk back under the bleachers for the rest of the drealy, this time, she is able
That’s a bonus
1:01 pm
Janie’sat her usual reers painfully, lifts her head and, when her sight returns, she scours the library
She spies the culprit at a table about fifteen feet away He’s awake now Rubbing his eyes and grinning sheepishly at the two other football players who stand around hi him on the head
Janie shakes her head to clear it and she lifts up her math book, which sits open and facedown on the table where she dropped it Under it, she finds a fun-size Snickers bar She smiles to herself and peers to the left, between rows of bookshelves
But no one is there for her to thank
WHERE IT BEGINS
Evening, December 23, 1996
Janie Hannagan is eight She wears a thin, faded red-print dress with too-short sleeves, off-white tights that sag between her thighs, graybuttons Her long, dirty-blond hair stands up with static She rides on an Ae, Michigan, to Chicago to visit her grandmother Mother reads the Globe across from her There is a picture on the cover of an enorainst the atching her breath make a cloud on it
The cloud blurs Janie’s vision so slowly that she doesn’t realize what is happening She floats in the fog for aat a conference table with five men and three woa presentation, and he is flustered He tries to speak but he can’t get hiscrisp suits They laugh and point at the bald man in his underwear
The bald man looks at Janie
And then he looks at the people who are laughing at him
His face crumples in defeat
He holds his briefcase in front of his privates, and that h harder He runs to the door of the conference roo sliet it open; it squeaks and rattles loudly in his hand, and the people at the table double over TheHe turns to Janie again, with a look of panic and pleading