Locked in Time Thursday, December 11, 2008

Chapter 11-15

My list of words:

Gabe idled the engine and then let it die completely. (gå på tomgång)

“You want us to live together?” I whispered incredulously. (skeptiskt, tvivlande)

Getting up from my seat in the bow, I moved cautiously back toward the center of the skiff, taking care not to set it to rocking with any sudden movement. (försiktigt, varsamt)

My log seemed remarkably buoyant, and as long as I kept my hold on it, there was a little chance of my going under again. (glad, flytande, livlig)

I could think of no way to prove this, though, without obtaining a sample of the concoction. (påhitt)

Her shoulders were slumped dejectedly, and she appeared to be in no hurry to get back to the house and face her mother. (dystert, nedslaget)

And the two quotes I chose:

“You couldn’t have done that!” I exclaimed. “You’re just seventeen now! When did this big romance take place – when you were nine years old?”
“I know you won’t be able to accept this, but we were both seventeen when Felicité and I fell in love,” Gabe said. “Eight years later, she was more of a mother to me than a sweetheart. An older man came along, and that was the end of our relationship. They got married, and I went back to live at Shadow Grove.”

When I read this I knew from that instant that they are locked in time, Gabe, Josie and Lisette and that they can’t do anything about it. He kind of revealed himself when he said all that to Nore. That just made her more suspicious than she already was. Maybe he wasn’t thinking straight when he said that, but this was exactly what Lisette had feared ever since Nore got to Shadow Grove.

“What about the picture? Charlie said that the people in it were living at Shadow Grove when he was working there. I don’t believe that photograph was taken then. My parents’ baby pictures were taken in the ‘thirties. They’re printed on regular paper like what’s used today. This picture was printed on some sort of old metal plating. I’ll bet you anything it was taken years before the woman in it married Robert Vardeman. I’ll bet the old man was her first husband and the children’s real father, Henri Bergé.”

And this also reveals the secret of the Bergé family. It was very smart of Nore to figure that out. A great observation by her that made me, without hesitation, come to a conclusion that they’ve never aged a bit and that they never will. But that doesn’t mean that they are immortal, just that they will never age no matter how many years pass by.