At dusk, Jeannette finally gets her first glimpse of New York City. She is excited, but can only hope that New Yorkers look at her the same way Dad does. She is met by Evan, Lori's friend, who takes her to the restaurant where Lori works. Lori is in the middle of her shift so Jeannette wanders around waiting for her. She frequently gets lost and learns that New Yorkers are not rude; they're just cautious and very helpful when they realize you're not looking for a handout.
During the first night at Lori's rooms, Jeannette is amazed at how the whole sky seems alight as if from a fire. Lori explains it's the effect of pollution, and it keeps you from seeing the stars. The next day she lands a job at a hamburger joint and realizes she'll be taking home over $80 a week. She also gets 20% off her meals, so she eats a lot of hamburgers and milkshakes.
In the middle of the summer, Lori finds an apartment in a neighborhood they can afford in the South Bronx. It has its problems, but as Mom would say, it has good bones. It doesn't bother Jeannette that it is a rough neighborhood, because she has lived in rough neighborhoods. However, she refuses to just give up her money when she is jumped. She fights back every time, winning some and losing some.
In the fall, Lori finds a high school where Jeannette can serve an internship, and that's how she ends up on the staff of The Phoenix, a weekly newspaper whose owner is always in debt, but hates the idea of losing the paper. She is never happier in her whole life, running all over creation, and making $125 a week, if the check doesn't bounce.
Jeannette writes long letters to Brian describing her experiences. Brian's letters in return explain that Dad is drunk all the time when he isn't in jail, while Mom has completely withdrawn into her own world. Maureen is more or less living with neighbors, and he still has to sleep under the rubber raft, because the roof leaks so badly. So Lori and Jeannette decide Brian needs to move to New York, too, and after completing his junior year, he arrives by bus in the Big Apple. He still has the habit of protecting Jeannette, because he always waits until she is off work, so they can take the subway home together.
In the meantime, Jeannette's boss catches her doing research on simple topics that she should know, so he tells her she needs to go to college so she can go on to bigger and better journalism opportunities. She is accepted at Barnard and receives enough money in grants and loans to help her pay most of her tuition. To cover the remainder of her expenses, she answers the phones for a year at a Wall Street firm and takes a room with a psychologist in exchange for looking after her toddlers. She also finds a weekend job in an art gallery and eventually becomes the news editor for the Barnard Bulletin. She has to give that up, however, when she is hired as an editorial assistant three days a week at one of the biggest magazines in the city.
Mom and Dad call them every once in a while, but all their news is negative,
especially about how the house is falling apart. After Maureen falls on
the rickety steps and gashes her head, Lori and Jeannette think she too
needs to come to New York. Mom is all for the idea, but Dad disowns Lori
for stealing his children. Nonetheless, Maureen arrives in early winter.
The four of them meet on the weekends in Lori's apartment where they eat
and laugh so hard at the idea of all that craziness in Welch that their
eyes water.
Slowly but surely all the Walls children find their way out of Welch,
on to New York, and away from Mom and Dad. The two adults at the same
time regress further and further into their drunken and withdrawn states.
Dad becomes angry at Lori and says she is stealing his children, but the
truth is he gave them up long ago. To the kids, Welch is becoming more
and more of a distant bit of craziness they can now laugh at.
Three years after she moves to New York, Jeannette hears on the radio that there is quite a traffic jam due to a white van breaking down on the freeway. Later, she receives a phone call from Mom, announcing that she and Dad have come to New York. The white van on the freeway is theirs, and it had been quite a drama on the road when Dad began arguing with the police. However, they are now here, and the next day, Jeannette goes to Lori's apartment to see them. Dad and Mom insist they have already moved for good, and when Jeannette rudely asks why, Dad says so they can be a family again.
Mom and Dad find a room in a boarding house a few blocks from Lori's
apartment, but they fall behind on their rent, and the landlord throws
them out. Then, they move to a six-story flophouse where Dad sets the
place on fire by falling asleep with a burning cigarette in his hand.
Brian won't allow them to live with him, because he believes they need
to be forced to be responsible. So Lori gives in and allows them to come
to her apartment. Mom immediately begins trashing the place with her paintings
and other collectibles. However, it is Dad who drives Lori crazy, because
he has mysterious ways of finding drinking money and comes home drunk
and gunning for an argument. She says he has to go, and so Brian says
Dad can live with him. Brian locks up all the liquor in his cabinet, but
Dad pries off the door and drinks everything in there at once. So Brian
tells him he can only stay if he stops drinking while he lives there.
Dad gives his usual smart mouth answer, . . . it'll be a chilly day in
hell before I bow to my own son. As a result, he moves into the van,
and when Lori tells Mom she has to get out, Mom willingly goes to live
in the van with Dad and the dog as well. Unfortunately, that doesn't last
either, when they leave it in a no-parking zone, and it's towed away.
Rose Mary and Rex Walls are homeless.
Rose Mary and Rex Walls are two individuals who have no chance to ever live out their lives happily. They cannot give up their self-centered ways and so are doomed. Their children are at the point where they refuse to deal with their addictions, and the two are down and out with no home.
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
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