Part 4

Okay so at this point Lori got to NYC, and Jeannette arrived shortly after. Since Jeannette worked at a newspaper company, she had unlimited acess to a typewriter. Jeannette constantly wrote to Brian. Eventually, both sisters wanted Brian to come live with them.
I wrote Brian long letters describing the sweet life in New York City. He wrote back saying things in

Welch were still going downhill. Dad was drunk all the time except when he was in jail; Mom had

completely withdrawn into her own world; and Maureen was more or less living with neighbors. The

ceiling in the bedroom had collapsed, and Brian had moved his bed onto the porch. He made walls by

nailing boards along the railings, but it leaked pretty badly out there, too, so he still slept under the

inflatable raft.

I told Lori that Brian should come live with us in New York, and she agreed. But I was afraid Brian

would want to stay in Welch. He seemed more of a country boy than a city kid. He was always

wandering through the woods, tinkering with a discarded twostroke

engine, chopping wood, or carving

a block of wood into an animal head. He never complained about Welch, and unlike Lori and me, he'd

made a lot of friends there. But I thought it was in Brian's longterm

interest to get out of the town. I

made a list of reasons he should move to New York, so I could argue him into it.

I called him at Grandpa's and presented my case. He'd need to get a job to pay his share of the rent and

groceries, I said, but jobs were going begging in the city. He could share the living room with me—

there was plenty of space for a second bed—the toilet flushed, and the ceiling never leaked.

When I finished, Brian was silent for a moment. Then he said, "When's the soonest I can come?"


I don't think I have felt so happy during the whole book. If you just skimmed that pasted in section, I know you are thinking, "How could she feel happy at this moment?" Well...read to the end, all the siblings (except for Maureen) are going to be together. Honestly, I don't feel like Maureen is in as bad as a situation as the other children. Like Brian said, she is [more or less] living with the neighbors. I understand that this is a less than fortunate situation, BUT she has friends. *END OF RANT ABOUT MAUREEN* Seriously though, I think that it is incredibly hard for any of us to imagine what the bond and connection between these siblings are.

1. These siblings had to sleep with each other until they were teenagers.
2. Their parents were out of it, and they basically took care of each other.
3. They didn't have friends and entertained each other.
4. Multiple times the siblings would stick up for each other.

Its completely normal for us to do #4 and [maybe] 3 with our siblings, but the rest shouldn't happen to anyone. (UNLESS BY CHOICE).