The Memory of Things

Kyle thinks the girl is asleep, so he leaves without waking her for lunch.

She is not really sleeping, and after he goes, she puts the pills back in their bottle.

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.