Out of the Easy

by Ruta Sepetys

The men who stayed the whole night had a lot of money, but also a lack of something else, like they had a hole in their soul too big to be patched.

One day when I was fourteen, I told Charlie that I hated Mother. “Don’t hate her, Jo,” he told me. “Feel sorry for her. She’s not near as smart as you. She wasn’t born with your compass, so she wanders around, bumping into all sorts of walls. That’s sad.”