My sister keeper why was anna born

My father gave it to me when I was six after the bone marrow harvest, because he said anyone who was giving her sister such a major present deserved one of her own.

Seeing it there, on the counter, my neck feels shivery and naked. The owner puts a loop up to his eye, which makes it seem almost normal size. I pick up the locket, resigned to sealing the deal, and the strangest thing happens — my hand, it just clamps shut like the Jaws of Life.

My face goes red with the effort to peel apart my fingers. His eyes stay on my face, softer now. If Mr. Webster had decided to put the word freak in his dictionary, Anna Fitzgerald would be the best definition he could give.

No, God was obviously in some kind of mood on my birthday, because he added to this fabulous physical combination the bigger picture; the household into which I was born.

The truth is, I was never really a kid. To be honest, neither were Kate and Jesse. Well, I never once believed that. How could I, when we practically set a place for Death at the dinner table? Kate has acute promyelocytic leukemia. As I am coming up the stairs, my mother comes out of her room wearing another ball gown. I zip it up and watch her twirl. The gown is all the colors of a sunset, and made out of material that swishes when she moves. My mother twists her hair into a knot and holds it in place.

On her bed are three other dresses — one slinky and black, one bugle— beaded, one that looks impossibly small. She holds up a hand, shushing me, her ear cocked to the open doorway. She marches down the hall and opens up our bedroom door to find my sister hysterical on her bed, and just like that the world collapses again. My father, a closet astronomer, has tried to explain black holes to me, how they are so heavy they absorb everything, even light, right into their center.

Kate hugs a pillow to her stomach, and tears keep streaming down her face. I stand frozen in the doorway of my own room, waiting for instructions: Call Daddy. Call Call Dr. My mother goes so far as to shake a better explanation out of Kate, grabbing her shoulders, but Kate only wipes her face and tries to speak.

On the screen, a blond hottie gives a longing look to a woman crying almost as hard as my sister, and then he slams the door.

Do you? At different times this summer she has been crazy for Callahan, Wyatt, and Liam, the male leads on this soap. I actually followed that story line; Kate made me tape the show during her dialysis sessions.

For two months, anyway. After my mother leaves, Kate sinks a little. As she gets sicker, she fades a little, until I am afraid one day I will wake up and not be able to see her at all. I fluff my pillows up under my head. I hold out my hand too. My father says that a fire will burn itself out, unless you open a window and give it fuel.

So when Kate falls asleep from her meds I take the leather binder I keep between my mattress and box spring and go into the bathroom for privacy. I count the money a second time, just in case the bills have miraculously reproduced, but math is math and the total stays the same. And then I read the newspaper clippings. Campbell Alexander. It sounds like a bar drink that costs too much, or a brokerage firm. Blocking the stairs to his place are four snow tires, a small wall of cartons, and an oak desk tipped onto its side.

Sometimes I think Jesse sets up these obstacles himself, just to make getting to him more of a challenge. It takes nearly five whole minutes before he hears me knocking. He thinks twice, then steps back to let me enter. The room is a sea of dirty clothes and magazines and leftover Chinese take— out cartons; it smells like the sweaty tongue of a hockey skate.

Jesse ignores me, going back to whatever he was doing on the far side of the mess. A nasty grin itches over his face. For a still made out of spit and glue, it produces pretty potent whiskey. An inferno races so fast through my belly and legs I fall back onto the couch. I lose my voice again, for nearly a whole minute.

Jesse laughs and takes a swig, too, although for him it goes down easier. Sort of. I can still taste the fire. You owe me. He scans them, then looks me right in the eye. His are the palest shade of silver, so surprising that sometimes when he stares at you, you can completely forget what you were planning to say.

At least we get to know Anna before she dies, which is more than we can say about her parents. As we said, her mom, Sara, pretty much sees her as a walking meat sack. Her dad, Brian, pays a little more attention to Anna—and lets her stay at the fire station where he works—but even he realizes that they took Anna for granted. He says, after Anna's death, "the first one shines so bright, by the time you notice the second one, it's really too late" He's talking about stars, but he's really talking about his daughters.

And by the time you see the light of a star, the star itself is usually dead. Like Anna. Sorry… too soon? Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By Jodi Picoult.

Previous Next. Sara even admits she could only think of the unborn Anna in terms of what she could do for Kate. She has contributed to the Fitzgerald family on far more than a medical level.

Her emotional attributes have helped Kate just as often as her physical ones. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Sara and Campbell speak with Judge DeSalvo, the judge for the case. Anna wonders what her funeral would be like. At the courthouse, Anna speaks with Judge DeSalvo alone. They discuss the trial, and Anna tries to remain composed. But she recalls a time when she and Kate pulled a prank on a nurse at the hospital and starts to cry. He assures her no hospital would take a kidney from an unwilling donor, but she says being a donor has never been her choice.

She says she never wanted to stop the lawsuit and only told her mother she would because she loves her. Judge DeSalvo decides to appoint Anna a guardian ad litem who can decide what is best for her. The hearing, he says, will take place the following week. Anna goes home with her parents, even though Campbell wants to speak with her. Kate runs upstairs. Anna leaves the house to go to a laundromat, a place she feels safe.

They are as connected, she thinks, as Siamese twins. Jesse thinks about when he was a child and would light bath soap on fire to show Anna. He reflects that Anna is the only proof he has that he belongs in the family. While driving down the highway, he imagines crashing his car because he would be worth more dead and used as parts. He meets a homeless man named Dan.