Reader's Notes 2

"Oh, right, Michigan's an hour ahead. How surreal" (165).

This shows that time doesn't mean much to Henry, who is able to travel back and forth through time.

"First of all, I think it's a brain thing. I think it's a lot like epilepsy, because it tends to happen when I'm stressed, and there are physical cues, like flashing light, that can prompt it. And because things like running, and sex, and meditation tend to help me stay put in the present. Secondly, I have absolutely no conscious control over when or where I go, how long I stay, or when I come back. So time travel tours of the Riviera are very unlikely. Having said that, my subconscious seems to exert tremendous control, because I spend a lot of time in my own past, visiting events that are interesting or important, and evidently I will be spending enormous amounts of time visiting you, which I am looking forward to immensely. I tend to go places I've already been in real time, although I do find myself in other, more random times and places. I tend to go to the past, rather than the future" (166).

This is the most complete and detailed description that Henry gives about his time traveling. What he doesn't explain must be inferred. I find it interesting that he relates it to epilepsy, which not many people are familiar with.

"I never thought much about South Haven until I moved to Chicago. Our house always seemed like an island, sitting in the unincorporated area to the south, surrounded by the Meadow, orchards, woods, farms, and South Haven was just Town, as in Let's go to Town and get an ice cream. Town was groceries and hardward and Mackenzie's Bakery and the sheet music and records at the Music Emporium, Alicia's favorite store. We used to stand in front of Appleyard's Photography Studio, making up stories about the brides and toddlers and families smiling in their window. We didn't think the library was funny-looking in it's faux Greek splendor, nor did we find the cuisine limited and bland, or the movies at the Michigan Theater relentlessly American and mindless. These were opinions I came to later, after I became a denizen of a City, and expatriate anxious to distance herself from the bumpkin ways of her youth. I am suddenly consumed by nostalgia for the little girl who was me, who loved the fields and believed in God, who spent winter days home sick from school reading Nancy Drew and sucking menthol cough drops, who could keep a secret. I glance over at Henry and see that he has fallen asleep" (167-168).

This is when Clare first realizes that her past is meeting her future and she isn't sure how to feel about it.

"...the knife of realization sinks in deeper: all the little tokens and souvenirs in the museum of our past are as love letters to an illiterate" (170).

Great line!

"' Because I could give the tape to Yoshi Akawa. One of his students just left to take a job in Paris.' Yoshi is a great guy and first chair cello. I know he'll at least listen to the tape; my dad, who doesn't teach, will simply pitch it out" (172).

Henry to the rescue.

"'What is a Thompson's Turkey?' I ask, and Nell discourses on the miraculous properties of the Thompson's Turkey, invented by Morton Thompson, a newspaperman, in the 1930s. Apparently the production of this marvelous beast involves a great deal of stuffing, basting, and turning" (175).

Interesting...

"She's flushed from the cold and smiling. Her hair is wet and I see as she walks ebulliently across the enormous Persian carpet in her stocking feet toward me that she does belong here, she's not an aberration, she has simply chosen another kind of life, and I'm glad" (177).

Ebulliently-Zestfully enthusiastic. http://www.answers.com/ebulliently

"'Oh. Huh. But Clare, it's too weird--does he have a brother?'"
"'No. His dad doesn't look much like him.'"
"'Maybe it was, you know, astral projection or something.'"
"'Time travel,' I offer, smiling"
"'Oh, yeah, right. God, how bizarre.'" (192)

Clare covers for Henry's strange appearance here quite nicely, offering time travel as an explanation when she knows that her sister won't believe her.