The Keeper of Lost Things

It is 2005. To commiserate over the publishing success of Portia’s novel (critics hail it as a masterful example of sly satire), Bomber and Eunice travel to Brighton along the English Channel some 50 miles south of London. It is Bomber’s favorite seaside port (Eunice suspects it might have to do with Brighton long being known as a welcoming city for the LGBT community). The two enjoy a day of sunshine and freedom. During the visit, however, Eunice notices that Bomber asks the same question in the space of 10 minutes. Eunice fears the beginnings of Bomber’s “gentle unravelings.”

Within a few years, Bomber is admitted to the same facility where his father died. Eunice visits almost daily. By 2013, Eunice is a regular at the facility. Eunice and Bomber sit together for long periods in the facility’s gardens. Bomber’s life had become like “an unbound manuscript, badly edited” (237). His awareness of Eunice comes and goes, but the two still share their passion for movies. Often, they watch movies in Bomber’s hospital room. One night, Bomber asks to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. During the movie, at the moment when Chief Bromden smothers McMurphy rather than leave him helpless and lobotomized in the mental institution, Bomber grips Eunice’s hand and says, “Get.