The Impossible Knife of Memory

“There are two kinds of people in this world:

1. zombies

2. freaks.

Only two. Anyone who tells you different is lying.”

Hayley initially believes that everyone is a freak, which to her is a good thing, or a zombie, which to her means boring and brainwashed. She considers herself a freak and most students at her high school zombies.

“The difference between forgetting something and not remembering it is big enough to drive an eighteen-wheeler through.”

Hayley does not remember much from her past, but this is intentional. Not remembering is intentional, while forgetting is not. She uses the comparison of an 18-wheeler because that is what she drove around the country in with her dad. Being on the road helped them both to not remember.

“The miles under the tires helped fade everything we didn’t want to remember into a vague pattern of loosely knit-together shadows that stayed just out of reach, where they belonged.”

This describes the motivation behind Andy and Hayley’s constant travel. They tried to out-drive their pasts and distract themselves. Hayley believes that the memories “belonged” out of the way.