By Rachel Keener
Memory often slips away with age or certain injuries. Sometimes it is so well covered up, that it seems to be lost, until something, anything small happens to remind you of the event that is hidden from the light. This book is about a troubled adopted baby and her life to the finding of her mom. Within its three parts and its three hundred sixty five pages, it really shows you how many problems a child has, let alone just being adopted. From a lousy home life to looking forward to school simply because of the free lunches, this really makes you think about what being human really entails.
PART 1
Hannahs family was religious. Hannah had an adopted sister named Bethlehem Rose. Everyone called Bethlehem Bethie for short. Hannah was six months older than Bethie, and she was a genius in school. Bethie, on the other hand, didn't talk until she was six. She went to speech classes because of this. She also learned sign language.
Hannah wanted a job in a kitchen. Her mother told her she would have to go to church because of this. Her job was in the kitchen doing odds and ends. She took Bethie with her. At church she saw Cora, a girl she worked with at the Steampot, and she and Bethie ran out.
When both sisters arrived home, their mother made a picnic and they went to the beach. Her mother than told her she wanted her to marry and have children. Her father promised her she would go to college. Her mother greatly objected. Hannah received books from her father encouraging her to think while Bethie only got knitting kits from her mother.
Hannah's father told her about her about Aunt Leah, who was outcasted from the family because she had gotten divorced two times by the time she was 30. She always made a scene when she was with the family. Hannahs mother feared she would end up like her.
Hannah liked Sam, the Steampots delivery boy. She went on his boat after work; and went to an old house.
PART 2
The Swarm's owned a farm. They would help Janie's family by letting them stay at Black Snake Trailer for free. Janie would sometimes go to school unshowered, because they were that poor.
They were so down that their dinner usually comprised of table scraps from the Swarms. They forgot how to eat real food. Janie had an adopted sister, Angel. She was adopted at six months by the family. Janie taught Angel to drink, dance sexy, steal and prostitute herself.
Mr. Swarm, the person who owned the farm where they were living died. Their father left. Their mom remarried and left. Angel burnt the camper and their was nothing left of their previous life. Angel got a job at Biscuits and Things, a local restaurant. She was barely living off chips an coke. She looked like a ghost.
PART 3
Hannah went to the house where she and Sam where supposed to docs up and move in to. She saw a spirit of a mother combing her daughters hair and then the girl having her period.
Then Hannahs father ambushed her and brought her home. Mother found her lying on the bed where her father put her. She was pregnant. Mother blamed it on father because he introduced her to new thoughts in those books. She wanted to leave the church and have the child.
She took a bath and almost drowned in the water. Her sister, Bethie, saved her. They gave the baby away.
Mother opened up the house which was a perfect distraction for the family. Her father got her a green bike just like she had when she worked. However, she wouldn't ride it because of the memories attached.
Hannah was was taking a pottery class and was good.Her father built a work room for her. She was using the pottery as an outlet for losing her baby. She started selling her peices. She met Daniel who was not only interested in her peices but in her as well. Daniel visited the hotel where Hannah lived, and watched her create another plate to complete her mothers set.
Sam had boyish good looks
Daniel was more manly. Daniel asked for Hannahs hand in marriage. Hannah made the dishes for her wedding. Her mom made her dress.
Bethie started talking and worked at a hospital. Hannah and Daniel got a house and were trying to get pregnant. Hannah saw a doctor and found she couldn't conceive
Daniel hired Hannah as a secartary to distract her from this. Her art was suffering.
A person with a child called them for an adoption. But the family wound up keeping the baby. Daniel asked Hannah's mom if she knew who called about the baby
PART 4
Angel was found freezing in the woods and almost died.
She was brought to a hospital as a missing person. Someone came into her room and offered her room and board for work. She was brought to a mansion overlooking her fields. She wasn't used to this rich living. She got a mysterious letter after talking with the owners wife. Angels mom tried to give her to the preachers wife, but she was having her own baby. Angel was born with twisted legs, early and very thin. The woman who owned the house was Angels grandma.
She was.going to leave with $25,000. Angel remembered her father shooting her sisters, Janes dog, because she took some of his secret candy. Jane hit her daddy because of this so hard he fell over. This caused her to never go back to school in fear of what her father would do. Angel never left the hotel. Angel never left the hotel and was in solitary confinement with food delivered.
Bethie still remembered Hannah. Bethie was pregnant and Hannah threw up and went crazy when she told.
Hannah was locked up in an insane asylum. Bethie had a son and named him Corbin.Bethie got pregnant again.
She missed her sister. Bethie went to the hospital visiting her sister. Hannah's mental state may have been worsened when her parents forced her to give up the baby.
She had a major breakthrough when a chair was placed in her room. Hannah calls the doctors "Legion" from the Bible meaning many. Hannah never looked at Bethie while she was in the hospital, because she believed the doctors told her not to.
Angel woke up in a hospital bound to a bed. The old woman turns out to be Angels grandma. She is trying to reunite the family. Angles real name is Lily Adams. Angel turns out to be Hannahs daughter.
It took Angel a month to make a story about her childhood to tell Hannah. Bethie screamed "she's your miracle." Hannah found that Daniel knew about the baby she gave up.
Daniel and Bethie rescued Angel from the hospital. Daniel told Angel a story
Hannah grew roses, every day picked some and put them out in the house, one day there was a bad storm, but this didn't stop Hannah from picking the rose stems the storm left, when Daniel inquired why, she responded they were still roses even without their petals. The old women came to their house in morning.
