The Memory of Things

The time stamp “Tuesday, Late Afternoon into Evening, 9.11.01” heads this chapter. The afternoon passes as Kyle watches the news and the others sleep. He sees footage of President Bush being told about the attack while reading to elementary schoolchildren in Florida; later, the President announces a “high alert” status for the US military. Kyle hears the name Osama Bin Laden for the first time in connection with known terrorist suspects and speculates that his father knows the name from work. When Kyle sees the girl as she leaves his parents’ bathroom, they talk lightly about Kerri’s evident love of Disney shows and posters of the boy-band Hanson in her room. Kyle stops short of bringing up the day’s events at the risk of upsetting her.

Kyle makes dinner based on how he has watched his father prep ravioli and sauce. Once the food is ready, he discovers the girl dressed in her own clothes and ready to leave, but he convinces her to stay based on the news reports and the potential unsafety of the city. Kyle sits next to Uncle Matt to cut his food and help him eat; he tells the girl that an SUV wrecked into Uncle Matt’s motorcycle just a few months before. The accident caused a broken spine and jaw along with a fractured skull. Uncle Matt begins reciting from memory the order of cards in a shuffled deck. Kyle realizes this is important in his uncle’s brain’s healing despite the illogical sound of it; Uncle Matt has a high IQ and excellent memory, and he was training to win the US Memory Championship before the accident. The memorized card deck is evidence of remembering his training. The girl is at ease with Uncle Matt and tells him she is sorry about his accident.

The phone rings at dinner, but no one is on the line when Kyle answers. His mom gets through around eight, explaining that she and Kerri had to stay with Kerri’s acting teacher because all the hotel rooms in the area are full. She does not know when she will be home. Kyle takes another call; this time, it is his father. He plans to stay on the site if Kyle is all right; he indicates that his coworkers are among those buried in the rubble. Kyle tells him that he and Uncle Matt are fine but does not tell him about the girl.

A brief verse from the girl shows her memory of a hospital room and an orderly sweeping up “silky, black strands” (71).

At midnight, Kyle calls his friend Marcus. Marcus is Ugandan and lives in uptown Manhattan. His parents adopted him when he was young during the terrible civil war and genocide in his country; his birth parents were murdered in the conflict, but Kyle does not know the details. It is good to talk to Marcus, but Marcus compares Manhattan to a “war zone” and tells Kyle that their friend Bangor’s uncle and their friend Jenny’s father were likely killed that morning when the Towers fell. They agree to call Jenny the next day though neither knows what to say. After he is off the phone, Kyle checks on Uncle Matt; then, he sees that Kerri’s bed is empty.

The time is now “Late Tuesday Night into Early Wednesday Morning, 9.12.01” (81). Kyle finds the girl looking out the living room window, dressed again in his old pajamas. He is relieved she stayed and happy for the company. He finds a cartoon marathon of Cow and Chicken on TV, purposely switching away from the news. She initiates that she remembers images that make no sense, but not her name or family. Kyle feels restlessly attracted to her as she sits beside him. He awkwardly goes to fetch some orange juice.

The girl remembers a blood transfusion through an IV. She tries for a happier memory and recalls some celebratory scene with champagne and a box from a jeweler. The hospital comes quickly back, though.

When Kyle returns, he talks about his family briefly, mentioning Kerri’s desire to act and not stating directly where his father is for fear of upsetting her. The girl goes to look out the window again, and Kyle gently asks if she misses the look of the Towers in the skyline. She does not know what he means; she does not remember them.

The girl tries to sleep, but her mind plays a mishmash of images: Kyle, Uncle Matt with a deck of cards, champagne glasses, the lake, a plane falling from the sky.

Kyle wakes, exhausted. He checks on Uncle Matt and sees Kerri’s door closed. He calls his dad, who is catching a quick rest near “the Pile” at St. Paul’s Chapel; his dad intends to stay and continue trying to help, though he describes the scene as apocalyptic: “I’ve never seen anything close to this in my life” (95). Kyle pretends he is telling his dad about the girl but does not.

In Kerri’s room, the girl picks up each snow globe souvenir in Kerri’s collection: Paris, Anaheim, Alaska.

Kyle looks at several internet items on the computer: The New York Times for headlines, info on U2’s concert tour, and recovery statistics for spinal injuries. Kyle reflects how Uncle Matt’s memory talent made him more than a police officer; Kyle’s dad did not understand Uncle Matt’s interest in more than police work, the way his dad never understood the music Kyle used to play. Kyle wonders as he often does what he might do to form a stronger connection to his dad, like working out more frequently. He also searches for info on the Ugandan Bush War in which Marcus’s parents were killed; he learns that the Obote regime killed over 300,000 people the year Marcus was born. The number staggers Kyle, and he tries to go back to sleep.

The girl dresses in her own clothes and leaves, taking Kyle’s tee “to remember him by” (100).

The time is now “Wednesday Morning, 9.12.01” (103). Kyle is disoriented from his irregular sleep pattern. He checks again: Uncle Matt still sleeping, Kerri’s door still closed. He takes a hot shower to wake up, thinking of taking the girl to the hospital or the precinct, though he does not want her to go. He begins to do some laundry to feel productive and discovers a destroyed ID card that must have fallen from the protective plastic sleeve. He cannot read much but makes out the name “Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the Performing Arts.” He knows the school is near Marcus’s home. He berates himself for ruining the ID by washing it—twice, in very hot water. He can discern only “H. M CC II” for her name. He tries the school website and Dance Department but cannot find any name or photo matches. He tries searching for amnesia again and sees that dissociative amnesia mostly resolves on its own; he decides he might take the girl to the precinct instead of the hospital.

He waits restlessly for the girl to awaken. He checks the news; the New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, closed the schools indefinitely, but Kyle reads a Salinger story anyway for English class. Kyle helps Uncle Matt up and to the bathroom when he wakes, telling him his plan to take the girl to the station. He finally goes to knock on the door and discovers she is gone. He is disappointed and hurt that she would sneak out; he tells himself there is nothing he can do. After helping Uncle Matt into his chair, though, he goes after her.

Brief verse passages interspersed throughout this chapter show the girl counting down from 100 and approaching the bridge. She brought one of Kerri’s snow globes with her, and shaking it, she is reminded of “A frenzy of red / (Blood, / ash, / and / bone) / drifting down” (114).

Kyle runs to the Brooklyn Bridge, unable to shake the feeling that the girl is in danger. As he runs, he thinks of the Salinger story he just read, “For Esme—With Love and Squalor,” about a soldier who fixates on a young girl he met only very briefly.

The girl climbs the steps to the bridge. She envisions a voice saying, “Promise you won’t be sad, Papillon [butterfly]” (116), then thinks of the exact positioning of the swan princess in Swan Lake, Odette, just before she “flies.”