Moment 5: Chapter 23 Kathy goes back to Norfolk and imagines Tommy Flashcards
“The only indulgent thing I did…”
“The only indulgent thing I did, just once was […] when I drove up to Norfolk, even though I had no real need to.”
“Maybe I just felt…”
“Maybe I just felt like looking at those flat, fields of nothing and the huge grey skies.”
“I didn’t know…”
“I didn’t know where I was and I didn’t care.”
“I went past field…”
“I went past field after flat, featureless field.”
“I found […] there was a fence…”
“I found […] there was a fence keeping me from stepping into the field, with two lines of barbed wire, and I could see how this fence and the cluster of three or four trees above me were the only things breaking the wind for miles.”
“All along the fence…”
“All along the fence […] all sorts of rubbish had caught and tangled […] the wind must have carried some of it for miles and miles before finally coming up against these trees and these two lines of barbed wire.”
“That was the only time […] that I started to imagine…”
“That was the only time […] that I started to imagine a little fantasy thing, because this was Norfolk after all, and it was only a couple of weeks since I’d lost him.”
“I half-closed my eyes…”
“I half-closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I’d ever lost since my childhood had washed up […] and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear […] and I’d see it was Tommy, and he’d wave, maybe even call.”
“The fantasy never got beyond that…”
“The fantasy never got beyond that - I didn’t let it - and though the tears rolled down my face I wasn’t sobbing or out of control.”
“Then I turned back to the car…”
“Then I turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was supposed to be.”
