What can he even say to that? Despite himself, some type of alien-but-vaguely-familiar instinct is tugging at his heartstrings.
No, not totally alien after all. He remembers way-back-when, playing with Joshua and Alyssa in the river, when he'd still had his foot and they'd still had their lives. He remembers far more recently going to Jamie and Alison's christenings, changing a diaper with Marie's instructions like he was defusing a bomb, and almost crying the first time Jamie called him 'Uncle Alex'.
"I wouldn't say you're alone," Alex says. "Unique, but not alone. You're not alone. You've got lots of friends. If you were alone, would you have been elected spring queen?" He doesn't remember what the title at Merrymeet is actually called, but he's got the spirit.
allusion to child death
No, not totally alien after all. He remembers way-back-when, playing with Joshua and Alyssa in the river, when he'd still had his foot and they'd still had their lives. He remembers far more recently going to Jamie and Alison's christenings, changing a diaper with Marie's instructions like he was defusing a bomb, and almost crying the first time Jamie called him 'Uncle Alex'.
"I wouldn't say you're alone," Alex says. "Unique, but not alone. You're not alone. You've got lots of friends. If you were alone, would you have been elected spring queen?" He doesn't remember what the title at Merrymeet is actually called, but he's got the spirit.