memorable moments:
wild orchid
by beverley brenna
"I'm not behaving badly. In fact, I'm just sitting on my bed, and I have my door locked to prevent myself from being dragged out to the car. The problem is not the car. The problem is that I am not familiar with where we would be going. Also, I know that when people go away, it's possible that they don't come back.
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page 10:"The trouble with my mother is that she isn't very good at weighing decisions. She often just sees her side. It's a good thing she has me to help her with balance."
"I wonder why my mother is loading up the car when we aren't going anywhere. She is often illogical. I imagine she was just born that way."
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page 11:"My oral exam was on The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I had to do an oral exam because, on the written exam, the teacher asked us to think about the ending and draw our own conclusions. I drew stuff all over the page, and she said that wasn't what she had intended. She said that she had meant for us to write an essay to answer what might happen next. ...
Anyway, when we were talking about the novel, I said that Holden and I are exactly alike except for the following:
1. He is sixteen or seventeen, and I am eighteen and a half.
2. He has a red hunting cap.
3. He has had a relationship with a member of the opposite sex and I have not, although this is one of my aspirations.
She asked me in what ways I think we're alike, and I said that most of the time, like Holden, I'm mad and disgusted with people, which is true. I also said that he wasn't looking forward to much and that I'm the same way."
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page 13:"The drive to Waskesiu sucked. I don't like sitting still, and I especially don't like sitting still while perceiving that things around me are moving. I know that really I am moving, while everything else outside the car is stationary, but it feels like the other way around."
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page 15:"What made me mad in this situation is that I have this thing about names. It seems to me that a name really defines the person or thing it describes. Names are important. If I get called by something other than my actual name, such as someone, I start feeling light-headed and anonymous."
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page 18:"'I don't really care about new people,' I said. 'Because new people, if you are using that term correctly, would refer to babies. I would prefer a boyfriend my own age.'"
"Boy, that really was funny - seeing Mom's name on the place - funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha."
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page 23:"When you're out of the house, it's easy to check the time. Clocks, I have noticed, are everywhere. Inside, though, it's a different matter. Dad offered to buy me a watch, but I don't get along very well with watches. They always lose or gain time, I'm not sure why, and there's nothing worse than having a timepiece that isn't correct.
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page 25:"This is why words are very important. They are the bridges between people's thoughts."
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page 28:"For me, it's something new, to be followed by the future, which, so far, is just a black hole sucking me inward."
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page 29:"'So, Taylor, what are your plans for the future?' Danny asked in his typical, nine-word fashion.
'I find it disconcerting to be asked about plans I haven't got,' I said. 'Maybe I'll start a gerbil ranch.'"
"It makes me feel cross when people ask my opinion of things because I have to stop and think for a minute about perspectives. They do not know what I am thinking unless I tell them. This makes life complicated. It would be easier if everybody just felt the same way, and then you wouldn't need to talk about it."
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page 31:"I don't think that's right, to wait until your kids do well and then invite them to visit. I think you should be a parent whether the kids do well or not."
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page 39:"One time I asked my mother about techniques for finding a boyfriend, and she just laughed. She said, 'All in good time.' This is not a rational statement because time has no affect: it cannot be either good or bad. It just exists."
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page 40:"There are seven ways that forests and churches are alike:
1. They both have quiet sounds in them that do not demand much of you.
2. They have a lot of air in them, but it doesn't enter as wind.
3. People talk in softer voices inside forests as well as churches.
4. You feel as though you're in the shade.
5. Both the walls and the trees stretch up high on either side of you.
6. There is a minty smell.
7. Both forest and church have six letters.
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page 42:"Shauna taught me so many things. I like to think of her as a translator. Not that I don't speak English, but sometimes I feel that the English I speak is a different language from everyone else's English."
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page 44:"I hate school when I was young because I wasn't used to the routine. Deep down, I did want to go, but I wished intensely that the other kids weren't there."
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page 55:"It's stupid not to say what you mean."
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page 85:"When you are missing something you've left behind, it could be dead or lost so that you never find it again.You never really know, when you don't have something, what its condition is. That's why you grieve about it to the same degree - because you just don't know."
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page 87:"It's useless when people tell you not to worry, though - there's plenty to worry about in this world."
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page 89:"I wrote an essay about friendship once. I said it was the only kind of ship that could go in more than one direction at the same time. I copied that statement off the Internet. At the time, I didn't really understand what it meant. Now I think I do understand. The direction I'm going is that I want Shauna to be my friend. The direction she's going is just the opposite. Our friendship is pulling us apart."
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page 116:"I have not written for a while week. At first, I felt really bad when I forgot to write, but now, because nothing happened to me for not writing, I think it's okay. It's okay if you make a plan to write every day and then you only do it some of the time. A person has to be satisfied if that's the best you can do."
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page 118:"'I'm staying in with you tonight, okay?' she asked. She was gulping a bit like she does when she's been crying, and I saw that parts of her face were wet.
'Do you want to change your clothes?' I asked. 'Or write something in a journal?' She shook her head. 'How about if I get you some food? I know you like food,' I went on. She shook her head again, and then she laughed a little. I'm not sure what she was laughing at, but I'm glad I cheered her up."
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page 120:"... and the breeze felt confusing because it was hot from the sun and cold from blowing across the water."
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page 148:"Then he laughed, but that's okay because I laughed too."
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page 153:"Four friends are better than none."
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page 155:"I like looking at this picture. I like thinking of how it feels to be in the forest. I can remember the minty smell of the woods, the cathedral ceiling."
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page 156:"If I count my friends on my fingers - Rose, Julie, Paul and Shauna - it makes four. Mom makes five, and even though sometimes she's a pathological liar, she can also be a friend. I'll also count my dad. He is sort of borderline, but it's possible that Thanksgiving will work out. That makes six. Six friends. One day soon, I'm going to get a new gerbil. That will make seven. And seven is a lucky number."
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