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"I was sure I could never let those hands touch me again; I was sure I could never let her kiss me again. All that was finished."

Annie John makes this statement towards the end of the second chapter, "A Circling Hand." Earlier in the day, Annie had rushed home from Sunday School excited to tell her mother about a prize that she had won. Instead, she had found her parents making love. In particular, she had seen her mother's hand tracing a circle around her father's back, a motion that provides the title to the chapter "A Circling Hand." Because her mother's hand was involved in a sexual act, Annie now wants to fully reject it. Annie sees her parents' sexuality as a means by which they exclude her. In particular, she feels that her mother has completely betrayed her by forming a union with her father. For Annie, her mother has fully neglected and betrayed her through her sexuality and therefore their mother-daughter relationship was permanently changed. Annie's anger at the existence of her parents' sexuality will continue throughout the novel.

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