Chapter 22
Acceptance
‘We don’t have long till the next stop,’ said Agnes, as Wilbur watched old schooldays flash by.
‘So you saw your whole life flash by too?’
‘Yes. Once upon a time.’
‘And how was that? Was it hard?’
She smiled and swallowed and said, ‘It’s always hard. In places. But this is how I see it – a book can contain infinite emotion but when you have finished you close it and put it back on the shelf … What choice do we have except to, well, accept?’
‘I don’t know …’
‘Anyway, Old Bean. Look. We’re stopping …’
Out of one side of the carriage Wilbur was at the library, out of the other he was reading a comic with his friend Charlie. And then everything faded, as it tended to do when the train reached a stopping point.
‘When is this?’
‘Oh. Nothing important. Only the first time you ever saw her …’