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…15 and in 10th grade. Her mother announces that the evil ogre and herself are reconciling. Janice changes into street clothes and walks out calmly. She goes to the runaway shelter on West 41st Street called Covenant House. She is one of three white girls out of the [approximately] 150 girls there. She sleeps on a mat on the floor with her jacket on and gives away her cigarettes. She is no dummy.

FACT: Janice feels great. Scared, but great.

FACT: Janice’s mother is a bitch.

FACT: Janice had warned her mother that in the event of a reconciliation, she would haul ass out of there.

FACT: Janice’s mother insisted that the evil ogre was not coming back up until the day before she told the truth.

FACT: Janice would like to kill her mother, because her mother said, “Yes, I knew if I took Dick back you’d run away,” but she did it anyway.

FACT: I feel like crying right now.

“The fifth-floor lounge was crowded.”