https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33 6 Themes en-us 2021-05-28 20:02:05 UTC 2025-11-07 20:31:23 UTC hello@padlet.com 354358 https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1569603578 "I rolled several yards along the embankment, and when I came to a stop, I was too shocked to cry, with my breath knocked out and grit and pebbles in my eyes and mouth. I lifted my head in time to watch the Green Caboose get smaller and smaller and then disappear around a bend."

Connection: Rex is drinking and smoking which impairs his driving, thus Jeanette is flung out of the car and goes tumbling down the road. Rex is too lost in his drink and his cigarette that he doesn't notice his own daughter is not in that car. ]]> 2021-05-28 20:07:18 UTC https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1569603578 354358 https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1577364915 "Mom, however, told us that the FBI wasn't really after Dad; he just liked to say they were because it was more fun having the FBI on your tail than bill collectors."

Connection: Rex likes to make it seem like he lives a fun and dangerous life or that he lives on the edge in order to impress his kids, but in reality he is lying to his kids and he really is just a criminal on the run for unpaid bills.]]> 2021-06-01 18:58:45 UTC https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1577364915 354358 https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1577416112 I staggered out of the water and sat on the calcified rocks, my chest heaving. Dad came out of the water, too, and tried to hug me, but I wouldn't have anything to do with him, or with Mom, who'd been floating on her back as if nothing were happening, or with Brian and Lori, who gathered around and were congratulating me. Dad kept telling me that he loved me, that he never would have let me drown, but you can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is. "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim." What other reason, he asked, would possibly make him do this?

Connection: Despite Rex throwing his daughter into deep water to "teach her" how to swim and her almost drowning multiple times she forgave him.]]> 2021-06-01 19:19:29 UTC https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1577416112 354358 https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1577426192 One day I found a half­full box of matches. I was thrilled, because I much preferred the wooden matches that came in boxes over the flimsy ones in the cardboard books. I took them upstairs and locked myself in the bathroom. I pulled off some toilet paper, lit it, and when it started burning, I threw it down the toilet. I was torturing the fire, giving it life, and snuffing it out.

Connection: Despite Jeanette's incident with fire as a child she has a strange fascination with it. She seems to almost prefer playing with fire and burning object rather than play with actual toys.]]> 2021-06-01 19:23:23 UTC https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1577426192 354358 https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1577438738 I was standing on a chair in front of the stove, wearing a pink dress my grandmother had bought for me.I was wearing the dress to cook hot dogs, watching them swell and bob in the boiling water as the late­ morning sunlight filtered in through the trailer's small kitchenette window.

Connection: Jeanette is three years old and cooking for herself. Albeit she's just boiling hot dogs in water, fire and boiling water is dangerous, yet she has no adult supervision. ]]> 2021-06-01 19:28:27 UTC https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1577438738 354358 https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1577450481  "It's a special occasion, seeing as how it puts you into double digits," he said. "You're growing up damn fast, Mountain Goat. You'll be on your own in no time, and if there's anything I can do for you now, before you're gone, I want to do it." 
I looked up at the thin swirls of clouds high in the blue Arizona sky. Keeping my eyes fastened on those distant clouds, I took a breath and said. "Do you think you could maybe stop drinking?"

Connection: Jeanette genuinely cares for her father and thinks that if he stopped drinking their family would be a lot happier. Rex does indeed stop drinking for a while for Jeanette.]]> 2021-06-01 19:33:20 UTC https://padlet.com/354358/sqeb5q0tng5ff33/wish/1577450481