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The Detectives
Jackie is a girl from Angelus who becomes Boner McPharlin’s moll. An average high school girl, Boner’s bad-boy persona captivates her, and she begins to take rides with him, despite the damage to her reputation. Jackie’s friendship with Erin disintegrates, but she is unable to fit in with the “rough chicks” people group her with. Instead, she becomes largely solitary, only spending time studying or with Boner. A gifted student, Jackie drifts away from Boner as she concentrates on her studies, and he becomes more involved in crime. Jackie feels the effects of Boner’s lifestyle herself, as both the detectives and Bob Lang question her about him. She attempts to comfort and support Boner, going on fishing trips with them, but they drift apart over time. Jackie leaves for university and Jackie’s father and Jackie’s mother die, severing her ties to Angelus, and to Boner. She lives abroad, dates a woman named Ethna, and feels completely disconnected from Boner and Angelus until the detectives call her down following Boner’s father’s death to ask her to accompany Boner to the mental hospital. While Boner’s homemade pornography of her deeply disturbs her, she agrees, and she continues to visit Boner in the hospital, hearing his cryptic ranting and raving. Along with the detectives, she is the only guest at his funeral. She realizes too late that she too was manipulated against him to get him out of the way.
Jackie Quotes in The Turning
The The Turning quotes below are all either spoken by Jackie or refer to Jackie . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Commission Quotes
Drugs, I spose. Never really understood it. Just that he’d fallen foul of em. And any question, any witness account died on the vine, didn’t matter who it came to. Felt like, whatever was going on I was the only bloke not in on it. And the city blokes were in on it; it was bigger than that little town, that’s for sure. So who do you talk to? Even if you’ve got the balls, who can you trust? It ate me alive. Ulcers, everything. I should have quit but I didn’t even have the courage to do that. Would have saved us all a lot of pain. But it’s all I ever wanted to do, you see, be a cop. And I hung on till there was nothing left of me, nothing left of any of us. Cowardice, it’s a way of life. It’s not natural, you learn it.
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Boner McPharlin’s Moll Quotes
The bedrails jingled as he shook.
But I’m solid, he said. Solid as a brick shithouse. Unreliable be fucked. Why they keep callin me unreliable? I drive and drive. I don’t say a word. They know, they know. Don’t say a fuckin word. Don’t leave me out, don’t let me go, I’m solid. I’m solid!
He began to cry then. A nurse came in and said maybe I should go.
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All I knew was this, that I hadn’t been Boner’s friend at all. Hadn’t been for years. A friend paid attention, showed a modicum of curiosity, made a bit of an effort. A friend didn’t believe the worst without checking. A friend didn’t keep her eyes shut and walk away. Just the outline now, but I was beginning to see.
They’d turned me. They played with me, set me against him to isolate him completely. Boner was their creature. All that driving, the silence, the leeway, it had to be drugs. He was driving their smack. Or something. Whatever it was he was their creature and they broke him.
I sat in the car beneath the lighthouse and thought of how I’d looked on and seen nothing. I was no different to my parents. Yet I always believed I’d come so far, surpassed so much. At fifteen I would have annihilated myself for love, but over the years something had happened, something I hadn’t bothered to notice, as though in all that leaving, in the rush to outgrow the small-town girl I was, I’d left more of myself behind than the journey required.
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Jackie Character Timeline in The Turning
The timeline below shows where the character Jackie appears in The Turning. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Boner McPharlin’s Moll
The narrator (Jackie), a thirteen-year-old girl, is charmed by the local bad boy, Boner McPharlin. Boner is two...
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...pass, and Boner acquires his distinctive car, a garishly tricked-out van. Much to Erin’s chagrin, Jackie agrees to take a ride with him. While nothing sexual happens between them—Boner only wants...
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Jackie and Boner keep driving around, but their friendship remains sexless, despite the rumors circulating about...
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Jackie and her parents take a customary summer trip to Perth where, looking at the university,...
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...winter, Boner is found on the beach with his legs broken. When, after two days, Jackie is allowed to visit him, he is still unable to speak; a tall, redheaded detective...
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The next day, Jackie goes to see Boner at his home for the first time. Meeting Boner’s father, she...
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Over Christmas, Jackie meets a boy named Charlie in Perth, with whom she shares her first kiss. Back...
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Final exams come and go; Jackie excels in all subjects but French. When she leaves school after the last exam, Boner...
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The party goes all night, and Boner is overjoyed. Jackie watches the fireworks, paying close attention to a burning kite overheard. She reflects on how...
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At university in the city, Jackie thinks little of Angelus, her family, or her old friends. Her parents visit her, not...
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Jackie moves even further; first to other parts of Australia, then overseas. Jackie’s father dies, and...
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Having expected Boner to be accused of murder, Jackie is surprised by what she finds in Angelus. Boner is in the hospital; Boner’s father...
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That afternoon Jackie goes to Boner’s house, which has been torn apart; everything is broken, and there is...
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Boner is never released from the hospital he is moved to. Jackie visits him only at New Year’s, still full of disgust for him. His condition varies...
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On New Year’s, Jackie visits Boner. Whispering, he tells her that “Santa’s helpers came early for Christmas,” referring to...
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A week after her visit, Jackie learns Boner has died of a heart attack. Only she, a nurse, and the same...
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