Whatever Happened To Janie? Quotes
"For years, Jodie thought this pattern was normal."
"From his fourth-grade heart had come the hidden rage they all felt and never dared say out loud."
"Years of worry had torn the family’s guts apart, like a tornado peeling the house walls away."
"They were not six people knit close in tight, warm threads of family, but travelers accidentally in the same motel."
"The squeeze went around the circle, and the Lord must have been there, because the lump in Jodie’s throat dissolved."
"The thing Jodie could not get over, now that her sister Jennie turned out to be alive and coming home, was that there had never been a horror."
"It was incredible, when Jodie thought of the lancing fear the rest of them had endured for eleven and a half years."
"Jodie opened her bureau drawers and looked at the empty halves. She was so proud of herself, opening up her life, just like a drawer, to take Jennie in."
"Worry was like another person living in the house. A person who, unlike Jennie, never left."
"But all too well Jodie understood what happened to her family because of it."
"How, thought Janie Johnson, do I go on being happy, when it turns out I enjoyed being kidnapped?"
"Reeve’s heart softened, thinking of Reeve, who was still funny. But I’ve lost him, too, she thought. My first boyfriend. My only boyfriend."
"Except the Johnsons weren’t your real family," said Mr. Spring carefully. "They were wonderful people, and we will always be in debt to them, because they took care of our daughter for us."
"It’s okay to relax here, Jennie. It’s okay to have a good time, or laugh, or even let somebody hug you."
"Three months before I can talk to Reeve again, thought Janie. I can’t believe we agreed to three months of silence!"
"A sort of home video played in Janie’s mind. She saw not the new faces around her, but the old ones she should have been with on a Monday."
"Knowing what her voice would do to the harmony, Janie did not even attempt to sing."
"It’s hard here, too." No mother is made of material tough enough to give away her baby without weeping."
"I love our town. I love our school. I love my friends."
"Instead, the house filled with Spring children and Spring friends."
"I wonder if I’ll ever get used to this, she thought. The way they live. The noise they make."
"Everybody in this family—well, everybody but Stephen—is nice. Yet all I want to do is hurt them."
"In this field of wrongs, there has to be a right somewhere. And it’s right for you to be back with your real family."
"Talk about blackmail, thought Janie resentfully."
"What they had been through together, she and this notebook!"
"But that’s what my parents mean, thought Janie Johnson. Stop being a hostile enemy daughter."
"One by one, she wrote, not New Year’s Resolutions, but New Family Resolutions."
"How awful Janie must feel, he suddenly thought, so light and fragile, a person whose position can be shifted by anybody stronger."
"His arms and legs had thickened. Weight lifting and track, which he loved because the sports taxed him and because they were almost, but not quite, solitary, had come through for him."
"You’re the young man who drove her down here last fall," said Mr. Spring.
""Jennie," Mr. Spring corrected him. "Yes, she is.""
"The sight of Janie Johnson made him laugh and want to throw things."
"How much easier to follow rules when she’d been ordered to! And maybe easier, too, because they were written down, and Janie could refer to them, like commandments."
"But mostly it was easier because she had Reeve again."
"Every now and then Janie knew they were sisters; she could feel the bond of it and it was surprisingly precious."
"The unlikable qualities of this family had been her problem."
"She wanted her mother, the one who had loved her and brought her up."
"I’m her father," said Mr. Spring, "and I’m not leaving."
"Janie turned her hand over, curled her fingers one by one, and held her mother’s hand."
"Hannah was a weak teenager in bad times. Every turn in her life, she made the worst choice."
""It isn’t Mr. Mollison’s fault that Hannah came to this, Jennie. Don’t yell at Mr. Mollison.""
"I’m not sorry anymore that I saw the milk carton. I’m glad they don’t have to worry."
"Anybody can destroy the world, even a Hannah."
"And stepped in, and let him hold her, and became his daughter."
"The only person to blame is Hannah, and Hannah is out of reach. There’s no point in laying blame."
"Life had hit them too many times, and too hard."
"For better or for worse, she had not tried this hard in New Jersey."
"We’ve gotten past everything else and we’re going to get past this."
"It’s Hannah’s fault," said Stephen. His eyes were bright with rage and hatred.
"We could not get revenge through hurting Janie. She really was their sister, and they really had not been acting. They really had been glad to have her home."
"This is real, she thought. These people are really hungry."
"I want to hurt her back," said Jodie. "The police aren’t really looking."
"When you do the right thing, thought Janie, it should be right all the way around. It shouldn’t leave harsh edges. Just being right should be enough. But it isn’t. I will be right, but I will be mean."
"Pretty girl like that, if she wanted to go home, she’d go home. Maybe you better leave it alone. Pretty girl like that, maybe you doan wanna know what’s she doin’ now."
"It was unfathomable, how many people were out at noon in the summer sun."
"We were fools to think about it for a minute, let alone come into the city and try."
"He just wanted to get home without anybody finding out what a jerk he was."
"You got a family that loves you, and Jennie’s got a family that loves her. What else is there?"
"She would write to Janie after all. Like a sister."
"People listening to him. People saying Hey, shut up, everybody, Reeve Shields is coming on."
"I dated a dizzy redhead. Dizzy is a compliment. Janie was light and airy. Like hope and joy."