The Overnight Guest

The phrase “a fistful of stars” appears twice in The Overnight Guest. It is said first in the timeline of the women’s childhood, as Wylie and Becky pretend to catch stars while jumping on a trampoline shortly before Wylie’s parents are killed. It appears the second time when Wylie hallucinates seeing her loved ones as Randy chokes her, specifically as Wylie sees Becky at 13 years old and imagines holding her hand. This phrase symbolizes the potential of seemingly impossible things. In its first appearance, Wylie thinks the phrase in her last minutes of enjoying her childhood, caught in a magical moment with her closest friend. She reaches for the stars in an acknowledgement of her untapped potential; the stars are her future, vast and unknowable. The return to the phrase comes as Wylie is still processing the impossible: Becky has returned despite Wylie’s belief that she was killed, and moreover, Becky brings information that can grant Wylie some measure of closure after years of mourning and suffering from guilt. Once again, the stars represent Wylie’s future. Though this time that future is more concrete and adult, grounded in a far darker reality, the return of the phrase reflects the restoration of one small but important fragment of her childhood.