“She was small for her age. Probably six, maybe even seven, but looked more like four or five. A tomboy’s heart in a china doll’s body. Dressed in a short yellow dress, yellow socks, white Mary Janes, a straw hat wrapped with a yellow ribbon that trailed down to her waist. She was pale and thin and bounced around like a mix between Eloise and Tigger.” 

These first lines of the novel describe Annie. When Reese first meets her, she’s selling lemonade on the street corner. Although she initially seems like a normal little girl, Reese quickly realizes that she’s dying from a heart condition.

“While I finished my drink, she watched me with neither impatience nor worry. Somehow I knew, despite the mountain of money at my feet, that even if I never gave her a penny, she’d pour that lemonade until I either turned yellow or floated off. Problem was, I had longer than she did. Annie’s hope might lie in that bottle, and I had a feeling that her faith in God could move Mount Everest and stop the sun, but absent a new heart, she’d be dead before she hit puberty.” 

This moment reveals some of Annie’s and Reese’s key characteristics: Annie, despite being terminally sick, remains hopeful because of her faith in God. Reese is pragmatic: Although Annie has hope because of faith, he knows that her future depends on receiving a new heart.

“No makeup. Strong back, long lines. Rigid and stern, but also graceful. Cold but quietly beautiful. Complicated and busy, but also in need. More like an onion that a banana. Her eyes looked like the green that sits just beneath the peel of an avocado, and her lips like the red part of the peach that sits up next to the seed.” 

The novel’s first physical description of Cindy also highlights Reese’s observant nature. He has only met her a couple times, but from her physical appearance alone he’s able to discern her internal complexity. During this initial observation, Reese acknowledges her beauty, demonstrating least a flicker of attraction, which he pushes away because of his guilt over Emma’s death.