Leaving Time

Serenity confides to the reader that there was another time in her past when she couldn’t communicate with the dead. A client wanted to reach her dead father, but the man had committed suicide and his wife said, “Good riddance!” When Serenity tries to record a session for her client, all she gets is static. She concludes that maybe the reason she can’t talk to the dead is that they don’t want to answer back.

Virgil and Serenity plan to travel to Tennessee to find Gideon. Before they leave, Virgil asks Serenity to try to communicate with Grace to find out why she killed herself. Serenity fails to make a connection. Virgil speculates about Gideon’s possible involvement in Nevvie’s death. Serenity urges him to include Jenna in their trip.

They go to Serenity’s apartment to find Jenna’s number. While there, Virgil notices all the celebrity photos on the wall. These were from Serenity’s glory days. The psychic can’t reach Jenna by phone because of static on the line. She and Virgil then decide to drive to Jenna’s grandmother’s house. The woman who answers the door insists that Jenna doesn’t live there.

Virgil believes that Jenna gave Serenity a fake address. He also thinks the girl is already on her way to find Gideon in Tennessee.

Two weeks after the death of her calf, Maura continues to grieve, and Alice continues to record the elephant’s behavior. At the same time, the sanctuary is beginning to experience financial problems. When Alice tries to pay the grocer’s bill, there’s no money left in her account: Thomas withdrew all their cash to buy a truckload of exotic orchids. He’s planning to plant them on the grounds and also build an observation deck. He thinks this will draw more donors to the sanctuary. Alice believes it’s a good marketing strategy, but the timing is disastrous.

The orchids are sent back so that the grocery bill can be paid. Thomas forges ahead with his plan to build an observation deck above the African elephant barn. He won’t let Alice see his progress, promising that it will be worth the wait. His increasingly secretive behavior leads to marital friction.

Alice asks Grace if she and Gideon ever keep secrets from one another, as they seem to have such a good marriage. Grace confides that she can never have children and that she hasn’t told this to Gideon yet. She begs Alice not to tell either. Grace is thinking of her own case as much as Thomas’s when she observes, “It’s not that he doesn’t love you enough to tell you the truth, […] It’s that he loves you too much to risk it” (268).

That night, Alice sneaks up to look at the observation deck Thomas is building. Although the structure shows progress, she sees a series of numbers and letters scrawled across the ceiling and walls. It seems to be a code of some sort. She concludes that her husband has gone completely crazy. In a panic, Alice rushes to Gideon and tells him to paint over all the ciphers.

The next day, Alice admits to the reader that Thomas’s ciphers actually do make sense. They are the chemical formulas for powerful memory-altering compounds. Experiments with rats have proven that stressful or fearful memories could be completely erased from the brain if these chemicals are injected shortly after a traumatic event.

Nevvie wants to put another elephant in the enclosure with Maura, who is still grieving. Alice thinks it’s too soon. When Nevvie tries, she and Alice are forced to head off a confrontation between the two animals. Alice says, “I told you so” (273). Maura is once again left to mourn in peace.

When Alice next checks on Thomas’s building project, he’s begun scrawling the same chemical formulas over the freshly-painted walls. He wants to use this concoction to alter Maura’s memory of her stillborn calf. Alice says she won’t let him touch Maura. They argue, and Alice leaves to find help.

Alice drives to Dartmouth College because this is the closest psychiatric facility. She consults a doctor, who tells her that Thomas will need to check himself in voluntarily; he can’t be taken by force unless he’s harmed someone. Alice denies that he’s hit her, suppressing any mention of his threatening behavior. She returns home, hoping she can eventually convince Thomas to seek help on his own.

In the months that follow, things return to normal until the day Thomas attacks Alice. He’s found the business card of the psychiatrist she consulted and accuses her of wanting to send him away. As he tries to strangle her, Gideon rushes in and punches Thomas. Alice wraps a blue scarf around her neck to hide the bruises.

She goes to sit near Maura, by the calf’s grave, but the elephant moves toward the electric fence, separating her from the other animals. She seems to want Alice to take it down. Maura then wanders to a nearby pond and splashes around in the water. She is playful and appears to be letting go of her grief.

Thomas informs Alice that he’s going away for a while to seek medical help. He leaves contact info for her, but the information proves false when she later checks the phone and address.

Virgil and Serenity rush to the airport to catch the next flight to Nashville. There is a problem with Virgil’s ticket. It takes so long to get a new one from the ticket agent that they nearly miss their flight.

Right after Serenity and Virgil land, they look up the address of the elephant sanctuary in Hohenwald. Virgil accidentally stumbles across a listing that gives Gideon’s address in Brentwood. They decide to check his house first; even though years have passed, someone might know Gideon’s current whereabouts.

When they arrive, the house appears deserted. It has a CONDEMNED sign on the door. They knock anyway and are greeted by an old blind woman who says she’s Nevvie and that the house belongs to her daughter, Grace. Virgil is confused because he now isn’t sure whose dead body he saw during his initial investigation at the sanctuary.

Nevvie says that Grace took care of her after the accident, in which she bumped her head and lost her vision. Virgil now thinks that he may have driven Nevvie to the hospital that night and not Alice. While they sit talking with Nevvie, Serenity notices that the wallpaper has begun to seep water. As puddles form on the floor, Serenity tells Virgil to run, and they both flee the house to escape the supernatural flood.

Thomas has been gone for two months, and things have settled down at the sanctuary. Alice and Gideon grow closer. They have a conversation in which Gideon hints that he doesn’t love Grace. He asks, “Do you ever wonder if you fall for a person […] or just the idea of her?” (294).

Alice and Gideon’s mutual attraction increases as they continue to work side by side in Thomas’s absence. Alice also feels guilty because Grace is looking after Jenna while Alice is spending time with Grace’s husband.

The local fire department donates a hose to the sanctuary as an enrichment device for the elephants. When Gideon sprays two of the animals, they squeal with delight, drawing Alice out to the barn to check on all the commotion. She is still trying to keep her distance from Gideon. He playfully sprays her with the hose. She retaliates so that they’re both as wet as the elephants. On impulse, Gideon kisses her. Alice flees.

Even though she tries to avoid him, Alice eventually succumbs to Gideon’s advances, and they begin an affair. Right after their first sexual encounter, Thomas returns to the sanctuary.