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The Desert
-At 3 years old, Jeannette was cooking for herself. At that point her family (which comprised of herself, her mother and father, her younger brother Brian, and her older sister Lori) lived in a trailer, and in the process of making hot dogs her dress caught on fire and she was rushed to the hospital.
-Later, her father steals her from the hospital to avoid paying fees -
Midland
-The family settles in Midland, which is effectively the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the Mojave Desert. One night Jeannette is sure that she saw some kind of creature in her room, and her father tells her it was a Demon, a monster he had fought before. They go looking for him, but can't find him. Shortly afterwards, her mother gets pregnant, and the child is born a little while after they leave Midland. -
Battle Mountain
-They move to Battle Mountain, where Jeannette's father, Rex, finds a steady job.
-They live well for a while, having enough to eat and Rex staying home and staying sober. Then he loses it.
-Her mother and father get into a fight that ends up with Mary hanging out the upstairs window.
-Her mom gets a teaching job.
-They get in a fight with Billy Deel, a local boy, and shoot at him, which prompted them to leave. -
Phoenix
-Jeannette's grandmother dies without her knowledge, so they come into a bit of money with the inheritance and a new house.
-Rex gets a job again, and Lori gets glasses for the first time. The family gets harassed by a Romanian coven, but their mom retaliates.
-A pedophile breaks into the kid's room, so Jeannette and Brian go Pervert Hunting with a machete and a bat.
-Jeannette turn 10 and her father promises to get sober, but he relapses a few months afterwards. The decide to move to Welch. -
Welch Part 1
-They move to Welch, where Rex's mother Erma gives them a lukewarm welcome. They're forced to stay in the basement of the house, where if they even laugh too loud Erma gets mad.
-Mary and Rex drive back to Phoenix to retrieve their belongings from the house they left, and while they're gone Erma molests Brian.
-Lori and Erma get into a fight over Erma's sexual abuse, which gets physical pretty quickly.
-When Rex and Mary get back Erma kicks them all out, and Rex gets mad at the kids for it. -
Welch Part 2
-The family buys a dinky little house on the top of a hill that's leaking, has several structural problems and has no indoor plumbing.
-They dig a foundation for the Glass Castle, a giant glass mansion that Rex promised to build for the family, but they end up dumping their trash there.
-The kids get bullied by a kid named Ernie Goad, until they retaliate by making a catapult out of a mattress.
-At this point Rex starts disappearing for days at a time, and the family is starving. -
Welch Part 3
-Winter comes, and the children have to sleep with the adopted dogs to avoid freezing, because the house has no insulation. They try and collect wood and coal, but it isn't very effective.
-Erma dies, and Lori sings "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead", which triggers their dad and he goes on another drinking spree.
-After several days Jeannette has to go find him in one of the several bars in Welch, and he's so wasted that she has to accept help from a stranger to get home. -
Welch Part 4
-Jeannette enters high school and starts saving up to move to New York for college, because her parents have decided they're done moving.
-She and Lori save up for almost an entire year before Rex steals their money, Lori graduates, and ends up going to New York with a family Jeannette babysat for and stayed there.
-Jeannette gets a job at a jewelry shop and manages to save up enough money to get her to New York, where she lives with Lori while finishing her senior year of High School. -
New York Part 1
-Jeannette graduates high school. Shortly afterwards, Brian and their younger sister Maureen join them in NY.
-Jeannette's parents move to NY, and quickly get evicted from their apartment, start living in a van, and when that got towed, became homeless.
-Jeannette ends up going to a good college and graduates. Maureen, in the meantime, had become edgy and rebellious, and had moved out of Brian's apartment to squat with her parents. She stabbed her mother and ends up going to jail. -
New York Part 2
-Jeannette gets married to a man named Eric, and worked as a reporter.
-Rex falls ill following an bloody fist fight with Nigerian drug dealers. He dies shortly afterwards, and about a year later, following some turbulent emotions, Jeannette leaves Eric.
-She marries a man named John years later. Lori ends up getting a job as an artist, and Brian becomes a detective specializing in organized crime. Their mother remains homeless.