Very good time-travelling story, heavily influenced by Madeleine L'Engle.
Quotes:
When he first showed up on our corner last fall, the laughing man was always mumbling under his breath. “Bookbag, pocketshoe, bookbag, pocketshoe.”
Richard looked at me. “What did the zero say to the eight?” I rolled my eyes. “Nice belt.” He’d been telling me that one for at least a year.
Mom says each of us has a veil between ourselves and the rest of the world, like a bride wears on her wedding day, except this kind of veil is invisible. We walk around happily with these invisible veils hanging down over our faces. The world is kind of blurry, and we like it that way. But sometimes our veils are pushed away for a few moments, like there’s a wind blowing it from our faces. And when the veil lifts, we can see the world as it really is, just for those few seconds before it settles down again. We see all the beauty, and cruelty, and sadness, and love. But mostly we are happy not to. Some people learn to lift the veil themselves. Then they don’t have to depend on the wind anymore.
It was at that moment, standing next to her, that I figured out the truth. The truth was that Mom saw it too: the peeling paint, the cigarette butts on the stairs, everything.
Bookbag, pocketshoe.
“Well, it’s simple to love someone,” she said. “But it’s hard to know when you need to say it out loud.”
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