Sister Mine (34 page)

I'm glad I got to see you and Clay. It's funny but when the two of you moved away all those years ago I always knew in my heart you'd come back to Jolly Mount. I knew you were going to need to live here just like I knew I was going to need to stay away, but I've decided even if I can't stay I should still leave a part of me here.

Thanks for everything.

Your Sister Mine,
Shannon

P.S. I always saved these not to remember Mom since I never knew her but to remember you. I guess that says something. I don't need them anymore. Maybe someday you can show them to Josephine and tell her where they came from…

I stare at the mysterious postscript, then notice something bulky at the bottom of the envelope.

I reach inside and pull out four strips of old faded fabric: purple satin, pink flannel, tiny green leaves on scarlet cotton, and a piece of a rainbow. Each piece was once lovingly touched by my mother's hands in the hopes of making something lasting and pretty that would keep my feet warm.

I take the four strands and braid them together before there's any chance one of them can get lost.

Acknowledgments

MANY THANKS
to my agent, Liza Dawson, who with her usual calm weathered my bouts of self-doubt and patiently coaxed me into finding the story I always knew was there.

To my editor, Shaye Areheart, thank you for providing
Sister Mine
with a loving, devoted, and very enthusiastic home.

A special thanks to my sister, Molly, and her husband, Shawn, for providing me with firsthand insight into the highs and lows of a life in law enforcement.

As always, thank you, Mom, for your constant love, support, and Bloody Marys at the Autoport.

To my children, Tirzah and Connor, who are my greatest works of art. Thank you for being such good kids.

To Bernard, who I could never thank in a few words, for everything he's done for me as my soul mate, as a fellow artist who understands the life, and as the brilliant translator of my novels into French—so I will thank him for one thing only and that is the confidence his love has given me to follow my instincts and my heart as a woman and a writer.

And finally, I'd like to thank all the coal miners—working, retired, disabled, and unemployed—and all the children and spouses and grandchildren of miners who have contacted me and expressed how much my books have meant to them as honest, heartfelt explanations of what life was like growing up in these communities and being part of the mining culture. Your affirmation means a great deal to me.

Even though I left the mining town where I grew up and lived for many years in the Chicago area, my heart always stayed there. I've recently been able to move back to Pennsylvania, and I've never been happier.

It's good to be home.

About the Author

T
AWNI
O'D
ELL
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
Coal Run
and
Back Roads
, which was also an Oprah's Book Club selection. She lives in Pennsylvania with her two children and her husband, literary translator Bernard Cohen.

Also by

TAWNI O'DELL

Back Roads

Coal Run

Copyright © 2007 by Tawni O'Dell

         

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

         

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Shaye Areheart Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

         

Shaye Areheart Books is a registered trademark and the Shaye Areheart Books colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

         

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

O'Dell, Tawni.

Sister Mine : a novel / Tawni O'Dell—1st ed.

p. cm.

1. Taxicab drivers—Fiction. 2. Sisters—Fiction. 3. Coal mines and mining—Fiction. 4. Pennsylvania—Fiction. I. Title

PS3565.D428S57 2007

813'.54—dc22                                                                                          2006015355

         

         

eISBN: 978-0-307-39359-3

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