Still Can't See Nothin' Comin' Pages 67-130

Summary:

Mandy and Daniel’s relationship was extremely strong because they both comforted each other when the father went into a drinking rage. Unfortonaly, due to the father’s actions both Mandy and Daniel developed a drinking and drug habit as well. The two of them would meet up with Leslie, Philly and Jeremy, Daniels best friends, and they would all hang out drink and smoke a blunt (marijuana rolled up into cigarette form). June 1991, they would all go to the local bridge and smoke marijuana and jump into a 10 foot deep river. At this time Leslie and Daniel were dating and Mandy and Jeremy were showing a little more interest in each other. Daniel was not extremely jealous of this fact but he was hurt because he was used to Mandy showing him all the attention.

That same day everyone went to Daniel’s house to eat, and relax. Leslie left a short time later and Mandy and Jeremy went into Mandy room. Daniel and Philly was in Daniel’s room getting drunk when Billy entered and asked if he may join. Daniel did not want Billy to see him drunk so he told Billy no and to stay out of his room. Billy refused to leave and Daniel accidentally pushed Billy a little too hard forcing him to bump his head on the wall. Billy began crying because he was shocked and hurt that Daniel put his hands on him and flashbacks of the way his father acts when he is intoxicated ran threw Daniel’s head. Mandy had come out of her room at that point and was extremely hurt and disgusted with Daniel because he was beginning to turn into their father. The relationship between Mandy and Daniel was never the same. Mandy then became extremely depressed and began ignoring Daniel.

August 1991, Leslie tried to break the tension between Mandy and Daniel by bringing everyone, including Billy, to the bridge. Everyone was quiet until Mandy spoke speaking about how upset she was with the world and nothing can bring a smile to her face anymore. She then ran off and Leslie followed to comfort her. Daniel began to run after her to apologize and reassure Mandy that nothing has changed but Jeremy held him back. The boys then decided to jump into the river and Billy challenged Daniel to a race. Half way threw the race Daniel hears Leslie scream Mandy’s name and he immediately begins swimming back to her. Once on land he began running towards the screams and Philly tried to hold him back but Daniel fought threw and ran up the hill. Once on top of the hill he saw Mandy’s body laying in Leslie hands. Mandy had thrown herself in front of the train and died from the impact. Unsure of what had happened and hurt by the lost of his sister Daniel became upset and went threw denial. A few days later Mandy was buried but Daniel was upset because she was buried opposed to placed upon a tree like she always wanted. Things would never be the same for any of them after the death of Mandy.

Quotation:

" Hey! That's my sister. You can't have her!"(Marshall 127).

Reflection:

This quote was spoken by Daniel after the paramedics took Mandy away from the scene. At this point Daniel was hurt tremendously and was going threw denial. When I read this quote I felt as if Daniel interpreted the paramedics taking Mandy away as his sister that he loved so dearly, never being able to return to him. I believe that is the reason he was so upset at the fact they were taking her away. I can’t imagine how much guilt he must have felt because he was basically the main reason she moved in front of the train. She did not want to witness her brother become her father.

Being an older sister, I dread the thought of one of my siblings dying in that manner. No matter how upset Mandy was at Daniel she still loved him and I do not understand why she would hurt him the way she did. I could not imagine how hurt and empty Daniel must have felt during this time because I was even crying when I read about her death. Mandy was sort of the other half of Daniel and when she died he just went into self destruction. I think that is what happened to Mandy the day Daniel pushed Billy. She interpreted that situation as the death of innocent Daniel and she could not live with that void inside of her heart.