Janie Mines Quotes

This phone," he says finally. "I want this phone." She laughs. "No. S'mine." Janie, I don't think you understand. I want it." Sorry." It's got photo caller ID; Internet; video, camera, and digital recorder?! Holy Hannah... It's making me warm all over." Oh yeah?" Janie says in a sexy voice. "Wanna play with my phone, baby?" Hell yes, I do.

How dare you steal what is mine. You poisonous bunch-back'd toad!" "Ooh, that's a good one." There was a rustle of paper behind him as Gifford wrote the line down.

Other freshmen were already moving into their dormitory rooms when we arrived, with their parents helping haul. I saw boxes of paperbacks, stereo equipment, Dylan albums and varnished acoustic guitars, home-knitted afghans, none as brilliant as mine, Janis posters, Bowie posters, Day-Glo bedsheets, hacky sacks, stuffed bears. But as we carried my trunk up two flights of stairs terror invaded me. Although I was studying French because I dreamed of going to Paris, I actually dreaded leaving home, and in the end my parents did not want me to leave, either. But this is how children are sacrificed into their futures: I had to go, and here I was. We walked back down the stairs. I was too numb to cry, but I watched my mother and father as they stood beside the car and waved. That moment is a still image; I can call it up as if it were a photograph. My father, so thin and athletic, looked almost frail with shock, while my mother, whose beauty was still remarkable, and who was known on the reservation for her silence and reserve, had left off her characteristic gravity. Her face and my father's were naked with love. It wasn't something thatwe talked about—love. But they allowed me this one clear look at it. It blazed from them. And then they left.

A friend of mine once told me 'For people like us, the meaning is the search for the meaning.

Connor bends down and kisses her head and whispers to her in French, then Janie says to Rose, “I love you, Mommy.” Rose shoots a glare at Connor, but she’s smiling. “You can’t tell our children to tell me they love me, Richard.” “I can if it’s the truth.” He grins again. “It’s not from the heart.” “It’s from someone’s heart. If not theirs, then mine.

Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma’s way, now Ah means tuh live mine.” “What you mean by dat, Janie?” “She was borned in slavery time when folks, dat is black folks, didn’t sit down anytime dey felt lak it. So sittin’ on porches lak de white madam looked lak uh mighty fine thing tuh her. Dat’s whut she wanted for me—don’t keer whut it cost. Git up on uh high chair and sit dere. She didn’t have time tuh think whut tuh do after you got up on de stool uh do nothin’. De object wuz tuh git dere. So Ah got up on de high stool lak she told me, but Pheoby, Ah done nearly languished tuh death up dere.

Then Janie’s baby voice rose above the din. “Ma-ma!” My steps halted. So did my heart. The plaintive cry filled every crevice of my being. “Ma-ma!” The caterwauling ceased. I turned. Ollie’s horror-stricken face told me I’d heard right. Gripping the handle of my suitcase and clenching my teeth, I tried to hold in my own keening. Janie dropped to her pudgy knees in the middle of the road. “Ma-ma!” She fell on her face in the dirt and sobbed. My gaze rose past her to Frank, who stood at the top of the steps. His horror seemed to mirror my own. I’d thought by leaving I’d alleviate his suffering, but it seemed I’d only deepened it. He made his way across the yard, his eyes fixed on mine. He passed his frozen children as if they were merely trees in a human forest and stopped in front of me, so close I could smell Ol’ Bob on his shirt. I tilted my head back, looked into his face. My heart bumped against my chest, though I’d felt sure it had stopped beating altogether. His arms reached for me, then fell back to his side. “Please, Rebekah. Please stay. They need you. I told you that.” “I can’t.” My vision blurred as I shook my head. His thumb caught a tear on my cheek, wiped it dry. I glanced at Janie, still lying heartbroken in the dirt. I ached to go to her, but I didn’t want to make things worse. Ollie seemed to read my thoughts. She picked up her sister, but her attention remained on me. I looked back at Frank. “Can’t you see? I’m giving you your life back. Your whole life. Your house. Your family.” I tasted the salt of my tears. He grabbed my shoulders. “But don’t you understand, Rebekah? I can’t have my whole life back. When I left for the war, I knew nothing would ever be the same. And it isn’t. Clara is gone. I have to make a new life now.” He sucked in a deep breath. “And I want to make it with you.” “Me? Are you saying . . . ” I held my breath, holding the words inside me, afraid they’d meet the air and burst like a soap bubble. His lips curled into a smile that chased every trace of gray from his eyes. “Marry me?

Divorce is not just about the separation of two individuals. It’s the separation of families. A drawing of lines, never to be crossed. My family is now solely mine. Your family is yours. His family is his.

Stevie remembers seeing Janis Joplin (when a band she and Lindsey were a part of in San Francisco several years ago opened Joplin’s show). “I walked away from that show saying, ‘Okay, Stevie, there’s your competition. If you ever, ever do anything good, then you’re going to have to try and at least capture the feeling that she gave out.’ I could never be like Janis and I wouldn’t want to be like her. She was her own, unique self, but I do want to capture the charisma she had. And I think maybe I’ve touched the surface of it and I will continue—that is the goal. I want to make films on record. If I say ‘I wish you were mine/I’ll give you up even though I’ll never hold you again’ I want people to go ‘Oh yeah, I know how that feels.’ That’s really all I want to leave behind. A little bit of a good memory in people’s heads so they don’t just write it off as something that went by.

Ollie took a step toward us, Janie filling her arms. Frank loosened his grip on my shoulders, his eyes searching mine. “I came home afraid of being alone. But I wasn’t alone. You were here.” He put his hands on his hips, laughed, shook his head. “You exasperated me sometimes, Rebekah. No doubt about that. But you made me feel alive. And you taught my heart to love again. I never expected it to happen so soon.” My suitcase dropped to the ground with a thud, but my mouth refused to move. He laid his hand on my cheek. I leaned into it, eyes closed. A breeze swept past me, scented with the promise of spring. But this time I had no desire to fly on its fickle path. This time, my feet remained contently atop solid ground. “We’ll never be rich or modern, but we have lots of love to give.” He moved closer, his body almost touching mine. My eyes flew open as joy curled up from my toes, lifting my mouth into a smile. “I can’t think of anything more I could ask for.” Then a giggle rose up through my tears. I bit my lip, but it refused to stay inside. “Except maybe an automobile of our own.” Frank’s laughter rang out across the Blackland Prairie. “I’ll even teach you to drive it. I promise.” His arms circled me, pulled me close. The children danced around us, cheering happily. And the moment Frank’s lips touched mine, I knew that in this seemingly ordinary life I’d encounter nothing less than one adventure after another.

Frank looks good.” Irene’s voice at my ear. “When did he get home?” “Yesterday.” “And?” I glanced at the sheriff, who still hovered beside me. I forced a smile to my face. “Everything’s fine. We’ll get things figured out soon. He was exhausted last night. We all went to bed early.” Blood rushed into my face. “Of course he slept in the barn, and . . .” Irene’s head tipped back as she laughed. Sheriff Jeffries’s mouth twisted into a scowl. From across the yard, Frank’s gaze locked on mine. He raised his eyebrows and nodded toward the buggy. “Good-bye, Irene.” I gave her a quick hug, wondering if I would see her again before Frank sent me home. Then I turned to the sheriff. Instead of a good-bye, he held his elbow crooked in my direction. “I’d be happy to escort you to the house.” Sheriff Jeffries’s eyes begged me to say yes. And I knew I ought to oblige. But I found myself wanting to be with my kids again. I didn’t know how much longer I’d have with them. I didn’t want to miss a moment. My mind whirled like the sheriff’s hat. “Thank you, I . . .” Frank had the older kids in the buggy now. He turned toward me with a look of expectancy. “I think I’d better help with the children.” His smile faded a bit, although he seemed to work to make it stay. He walked me to the buggy as if my words hadn’t disappointed him and helped me up to the seat. “Good to have you back, Frank.” Frank nodded. The sheriff touched the brim of his hat and backed away, his gaze undistracted from my face. But Frank’s hard-set jaw and narrowed eyes broke into my line of vision as he plopped Janie in my lap. “If you’re done socializing, we can get on home.” He stalked to the other side of the buggy and hopped up on the seat. I stared at his profile, that rugged face on which I’d seen such vulnerable emotions. But I’d also seen his look of disapproval in church. Now he appeared haughty, almost condescending. My eyes narrowed. What cause did he have to chastise me?

I won’t be here this afternoon, Ollie. I’m going home to Oklahoma, to my mama and daddy.” She cocked her head, a quizzical expression on her face. “When are you coming back?” “I’m not. I mean, I’m not coming back to live here. I’ll come to visit, maybe. And you can come and visit me.” Her hand separated from mine. She stared at me, her mouth hanging open. “But we need you, Rebekah.” I shook my head. “No, you don’t. Your daddy will take care of you, I promise.” “You can’t go.” Tears dripped down her pale cheeks, her voice escalating into hysteria. “You can’t leave us!” Then I noticed the back door standing open, James and Dan gaping at their sister, confusion screwing up their faces. Frank stood behind them, Janie in his arms. I wanted to crawl in a hole. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. My lips trembled, looking for words to comfort them. To comfort me. James bolted through the hallway and wrapped his arms around Ollie, buried his head in her chest. I squatted down in front of them, determined to hold back my emotions but sensing them rising out of my control. The children weren’t supposed to care as much as I did. I laid my hand on the back of James’s head as if giving him a blessing. “Good-bye, little man. I’ll miss you.” “Me, too?” Dan bowled into me now, Janie toddling behind. “You, too, Dan.” I wrapped my arm around him, my nose near the scruffy skin of his neck. I breathed in the peculiar little-boy scent, like a wet dog in a closed room. Then I lifted Janie and kissed her nose before setting her back on the floor.

Then I trudged around to the side of the house, set the basket on the ground, and pulled the clothespins near. Maybe if I got this all done quickly, Frank would leave me alone. Not that I didn’t enjoy his nearness. I enjoyed it far too much. And that made it harder to push him from my mind. I jammed a clothespin over a fold of cloth on the line. Help me, Lord. Help me to trust Your plans. Halfway through my task, Frank appeared again, his easy grin spinning my stomach and thumping my heart. His hand brushed mine, tingling the skin all the way up my arm. “I guess you haven’t had any driving adventures lately.” He picked up one of Janie’s dresses, so small in his hands. He frowned at it. Turned it upside down, then right side up. “Let me help.” I took the dress from him, shook it out, hung the shoulders over the line, and pinned them in place. Then I shook out one of Ollie’s dresses. “No. No driving lately.” “Did you tell your mother about that adventure?” He chuckled as he pinned one of Dan’s small shirts to the line. “No!” I laughed, reaching for another piece of clothing. “She’d never understand that.” “I imagine not.” He sidled an amused glance in my direction. “But you’d do it again, wouldn’t you?” I stopped working, faced him full on. “Yes, I would. I’d like to drive more. All by myself.” A smile tugged at the corner of my lips. “Of course, I’d do my best not to knock down your fence again.” His eyes shone with held-in laughter. “And I’d thank you for that.

I’m an… old friend of Huck’s.” “Yes, he’s told me.” Kelsey leaned even closer to Janie, and the table came to a complete hush. “I’m going to say this only once. If you don’t get the message, then that’s on you, and whatever shit rains down on you, you brought on yourself, hear me?” A stunned Janie only nodded. Huck was so shocked he couldn’t even jump in, not that Kelsey needed him to. “Then here it is, Janie. Huck is mine. I don’t share what’s mine. So… fuck off.

Chapter 6 ‘My dear Poirot,’ I said coldly, ‘it is not for me to dictate to you. You have a right to your own opinion, just as I have to mine.’ The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie

My dear Poirot,’ I said coldly, ‘it is not for me to dictate to you. You have a right to your own opinion, just as I have to mine.’ The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie

Then, in his quiet way that always disarmed me, he said, “I missed you today.” I sighed again, this time because his sweet words chased the breath out of me. I grinned like a content cat—which didn’t make any sense, because no other animals but humans smile in order to demonstrate pleasure. I pressed my lips together to keep from relating this as a fact. Quinn’s gaze narrowed on mine. He must’ve perceived that I was suppressing a tangent, because he said, “Say it.” “What?” He lifted his eyebrows, dipped his chin, and issued me a very effective glare that said, You know what. I shook my head. “It’s nothing.” “Tell me.” “It’s completely unnecessary information.” “I want to know.” He dropped his voice nearly an octave and held me against him as though to emphasize his point. This only served to make me more deliciously agitated. “Quinn...” I whispered. I didn’t know why I whispered. “Janie, everything you say is fascinating.” He whispered too. “No, it’s not. And the fact that you think I’ll believe that you believe that I’ll believe a statement so patently false is somewhat concerning to me.” He took a moment to sort through the tangled web of my words before he responded. “I’m not really sure what that means. However, the fact that you think I’d say something patently false to you is very concerning to me.” We held each other’s eyes, a showdown of manufactured guilt. He won. “Fine. You want to know? I was just thinking that I was smiling like a contented cat, which troubled me as an analogy because no animals other than humans smile as a demonstration of pleasure. Some people think animals do, especially cats and dogs, but those people are mistaken. The mouth curve is incidental. Cats purr to demonstrate pleasure, and dogs wag their tails.