"Cooney, Caroline B - Janie Johnson 02 - Whatever Happened to Janie" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cooney Caroline B)

Get a grip, Janie told herself over and over.
She tried breathing deeply, she tried meditating, she tried lecturing herself, she even tried praymg which she had never come across before Her family was not religious. But the Springs were.
They prayed every night before supper, a lengthy grace, during which they held hands.
Who were these people? They could not be her family.
Mrs. Spring was very talkative. Stories about her day poured out of her. She laughed, teased, and interrogated her kids about every quiz, ball game, and book report. She was revved up at high speed. whipping through her own workday, charging Into her kids' afterschool activities. She was always out of breath and halfway into her next move.
Mr. Spring was very physical with his kids. He picked them up as if they were still toddlers. He wrestled with the boys, he bearhugged, he threw pillows at them, he raced them to see who would get the TV remote control. Janie shrank back, keeping
herself near a wall or large furniture, lest he hoist her into the air, too.
The house even smelled different. The scrubbed quiet of the Johnson home was such a contrast to
this house full of boys' sneakers and athletic jackets thrown on the floor while baseballs, bats, and mitts were left for anybody to trip over in the hallways.
Nothing was right. Even breakfast was wrong. The Springs had apple juice, not orange juice. Anybody knew you had to start the day with orange juice. They had instant oatmeal, the flavored kind in individual envelopes. It tasted like cedar chips for hamsters. She wanted cinnamon toast and half a grapefruit. They didn't even have bread in their house! Nobody ate sandwiches. How could you get through life without sandwiches?
Homesickness actually made her sick. Her stomach hurt. Once with Reeve, who had in mind driving around to find a dark secluded spot to be alone with his girl, Janie had gotten so sick from what she was starting to understand that she made Reeve pull over so she could throw up in the bushes. She felt that way all the time here.
I'll never be able to swallow again, she thought, so what difference does it make if they don't have sandwiches?
There was only one bathroom.
Janie had had her own bath all her life.
She could not believe she had to share a bathroom with six other people! They had a timer you had to set before you took a shower. You could use hot water for exactly three minutes, then you had to get out. Three minutes! Janie couldn't even get wet that fast.
Nor was there room in the bathroom to keep anything but your toothbrush in there. Everybody
had a plastic pail in which to carry their shampoo and shower cap and stuff back and forth.
People were always lined up for the bathroom. And if Janle got in, they grilled her. "What are you going to do in there?" they demanded. "Hurry up. I have to do my makeup." "I have to leave in five min
utes." "You wait for me Instead, JennIe.'~
This family did not know what leisure was.
They were stacked up like planes for landing.
When they were not studying her, or in line ahead of her, or serving her food that was completely different from the food she had grown up on, they were asking her trick questions.
"Would you like to look at your baby pictures?" said Mrs. Spring.
On the one hand, Janie would love to see her baby pictures. On the other hand, that was one of the things that had forced Janie's back against the
wall in Connecticut: her parents had no photographs of Janie as a little girl. After a pause in which Janie weighed the possibility of looking at these baby pictures, and seeing herself among these people as a family, in their arms, in their high chair, In their car seat, she pressed her lips together and shook her head no.
"It isn't being disloyal to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson to start liking us, Jennie," said Mrs. Spring softly.
Janie began to cry.
"I know you're not ready to call me Mom, or call your father Dad," said Mrs. Spring, beginning to cry
herself. "I know those are precious syllables. I know this is going to take time, and it's going to hurt. But
It's okay to relax here, Jennie. It's okay to have a good time, or laugh, or even let somebody hug you."
I'm not Jennie! she thought. I'm Janie! She managed a nod. She managed to let Mrs. Spring put both arms around her. She stood very still inside the hug and could not imagine that she would ever hug back. But she was able to receive one.
"Whew!" teased Brendan. Or Brian. "Wipe the sweat off your brow, Jennie. You survived a hug! Give that girl a medal!"
She did have to laugh.
"Pretend it's overnight camp," said Jodie. Jodie had the same large brown eyes as the twins. She tossed her head in the same teasing stance as her mother. "So you're a little homesick the first week. Pretty soon it's the best time you've ever had."
The best time she had ever had? Janie choked. She had been there only one weekend, and it felt like a hundred abandoned years. Her thoughts were so chaotic they did not even feel like thoughts. but a jumble of nightmare that meant nothing and went nowhere.
This time it was Mr. Spring who tried to hug her. He was so big and his red beard so foreign and intrusive. She backed away from him as if he were a grizzly bear. Behind the curling mustache, his face collapsed. She had hurt him. Stephen and Jodie exchanged looks that Janie could not read. Only the twins seemed disinterested. As for Mrs. Spring- Janie could not look at her. How could your mother
-the most important person in your childhood- turn out to be somebody else? She could never, never, never use the word "mother" on Mrs. Spring.
Be our good girL Make us proud. Show them we were good parents to you.
"I'm sorry," Janle said. "I'm trying. I really am. But it's-it's hard. I've been taken away from my real family twice." She didn't want to cry. She didn't want them to see how scared she was.
"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. But you're back with your real family, sweetie."
She didn't want strangers calling her sweetie.
"Anyway," said Jodie, getting mad, "we didn't take you from the Johnsons. You called us. You're
the one who recognized yourself on the milk carton. You wanted to come here."
"I didn't want to come," Janie mumbled. "I just wanted you to know that I was all right. I wanted you to stop worrying." Now it was her parents in Connecticut doing the worrying. They too had lost a daughter twice. Oh, Mommy! she thought, her lungs flaring up like bonfires. I can't even breathe here, Mommy. I want to go home!
"We love you, Jennie," said Mrs. Spring. She ran her fingers through Janie's hair as if she owned Janie. As if she were Janle's mother. "And we're very, very glad to have you home."
CHAPTER
6.
The first day of school," said Mrs. Spring, "will probably be difficult for you. Jennie. There's been a lot of publicity."
Janie had always loved Mondays. because she had always loved school. School was where your friends waited for you, where your boyfriend waved to you. and where your teachers thought you were terrific.
A new family on Friday and a new school on Monday. It was too much!