Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story

“‘Drew’s a good kid,’ he was saying. ‘But he’s so insecure—worries, chews his nails, has trouble sleeping.’”

Drew’s father says this line to Aunt Blythe. Drew feels bitter and insulted that his parents see him this way, but he struggles to change their view of him or move beyond the expectations of how he will behave. He does not yet have the self-assuredness to push back or address the parts of himself he wants to change.

“Poor Father. Sometimes I think he hates the whole world, including himself.”

Aunt Blythe describes Father with empathy even though he treats Drew with open hostility. She exhibits a social attitude of her time that seeks to find the humanity in difficult people and recognize that their cruelty comes from a place of pain. Later, Drew sees the seeds of Father’s self-loathing in Edward’s bullying behavior.

“It was wrong to joke about the dead, wrong to steal from them.”

This line shows Drew’s state of mind before he goes on his time-traveling adventure. He is very fearful, verging on superstitious as he worries about offending the ghosts in the house. He is prone to believing in things, and he is clued into how other people may feel in response to his actions. He reveals himself as both fearful and empathetic.

“‘The fever,’ he whispered, ‘it’s driven me out of my head. I’m standing here looking at my own self lying in bed.’”

Andrew speaks this line as he looks at Drew for the first time. The parallel structure mimics the way Drew and Andrew mirror each other physically and as character foils. This line also shadows how the two boys’ identities will merge as they experience each other’s lives.

“I sneaked past her, just as quiet as a shadow, and floated up the attic steps. It was as if I’d turned to smoke, I had no weight at all.”

The similes in this line describe Andrew’s experience going up into the attic and passing through time to enter Drew’s room. He becomes incorporeal and ghostly, using tactile language to describe the sensory experience of looking, feeling, and sounding like a ghost.

“‘Good afternoon, Aunt Mildred,’ Edward said with oily politeness.”

This line characterizes Edward and introduces the reader to his smarmy and two-faced nature. The contradiction between “oily” and “politeness” shows the reader that Edward behaves differently with adults he sucks up to than with the kids he bullies.

“Dad never raised his voice, never made me feel dumb, never ranted and raved like a tyrant.”

In this quote, Drew bitterly thinks about the differences between Papa and his own father back in his timeline. He notices the way Papa adheres to an outdated style of parenting, performing the authoritative and fear-inducing father figure over the thoughtful and emotionally available father Drew is used to.

“Couldn’t we swap for keeps?”

In this quote, Andrew suggests switching timelines permanently. Using the word “swap” is a rhetorical trick that suggests that Drew willingly made the swap when in reality, Andrew coerced him into it. The potential permanence of the switch inspires Drew to be more active and assertive in his attempt to get back to his own time.

“The marbles clicked and bounced in my pocket, and my heart pounded in rhythm with my feet—I’ll beat you Andrew, beat you, beat you, they seemed to say.”

This line uses parallel structure and the rhythmic repetition of consonant sounds to mimic the clinking of marbles in Drew’s pocket. The language emphasizes the intense physical feeling Drew experiences as he resolves to take on Andrew and win.

“Although I’d just seen her leap out of a tree as fearless as a cat, she let him help her.”

In this quote, Drew notices how Hannah exhibits forced femininity when John comes around. The simile comparing her to a cat emphasizes the wild and feral nature he had come to love and respect about her, despite her attempts to appear prim and proper to meet the gender expectations of her time.

“But suppose we make something happen that changes history?”

This quote explores the stakes of the story. As Drew realizes that elements of history have changed due to their timeline swap, his fearful nature takes over and he thinks through the consequences of their reckless behavior.

“You’re not my big brother anymore.”

This cutting line comes from Theo after Drew does not confront Edward at the soda shop, thematically supporting Defining Masculinity. Theo is one of the few characters who really notices and comments on the behavioral change between Andrew and Drew. He is disappointed when Drew does not stand up for himself or Theo and lets Edward get the better of him, believing this to be a sign of weakness. Seeing Theo’s disappointment motivates Drew to be braver.

“You’re not my father, you have no right to touch me.”

This line comes at a pivotal moment of growth for Drew when Papa lashes him with a belt. Shocked by the difference in Parenting Styles Across Generations and the social acceptability of corporal punishment, Drew breaks character and calls Papa out. This is one the first times Drew stands up for himself in a meaningful way.

“Every day I get more like you and less like me.”

This line marks Drew and Andrew’s collective realization that their identities are beginning to merge. They begin fully understanding how to embody one another. With the emotional gains, they both recognize that they stand to lose essential elements of their own personalities.

“For the first time I felt a pang of regret about returning to my own world.”

This line signifies a shift for Drew as he recognizes that he has grown attached to his new family, particularly Hannah and Theo. Whereas before he felt uncomfortable in in new world and intent on returning home, now he has learned how to fit in and participate in life in Andrew’s time. He has begun to see the positive qualities of life in 1910 and found ways to connect to his own ancestors.

“I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see him close behind, treading on my heels, merging his personality with mine, becoming part of me.”

This sensory description dramatizes the way Drew experiences his identity merging with Andrew. The tactile description of Andrew “treading” on Drew’s heels gives him a strong physicality while the more amorphous “merging” and “becoming” speak to the more spiritual and emotional combining of their two personalities. Drew is both physically and emotionally coming to resemble Andrew more.

“Well, I’d taken Andrew’s place, hadn’t I? I had no choice but to do what he’d do. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and leapt off the trestle.”

This line comes from the climax of the novel when Drew jumps off the trestle to save a drowning Edward from the river. Drew asks himself a rhetorical question and synthesizes everything he has been through. He recognizes that taking Andrew’s place means he needs to take on Andrew’s duties, which include being a good brother to Theo and an upstanding young man who helps others in need. He has finally gained the confidence to do something brave like jump off the trestle.

“I was as astonished as Edward. Had I spoken? Or had Andrew?”

During the climactic fight with Edward, Drew’s personality merges with Andrew so much he is no longer sure where his own personality ends. The rhetorical questions create the sense that Drew is having a conversation with himself, as if his personality can be divided into multiple people.

“This time, I’d take my whipping without crying.”

This line directly parallels Drew’s previous experience with the whipping when he cries. Though Drew exhibited strength and self-assurance when he pushed back against Papa for the whipping, he disappointed Theo. This time, Drew feels more connected to Theo and wants to remain strong and stoic to be the kind of brother Theo wants him to be.

“Send me home, Drew.”

This line comes from the pivotal moment when Drew finally defeats Andrew at marbles, allowing them to switch back to their original homes. Though Andrew had been the one enforcing the gentleman’s agreement, he had grown homesick for his siblings and longed to return to them. The social convention of the agreement supersedes his feelings, and he feels strongly that Drew must beat him in order to send him home.

“Lord the moon’s making me as fanciful as you. I thought I saw—”

In this moment, Hannah briefly sees across the timelines, glimpsing the supernatural world Drew and Andrew have been encountering throughout the whole novel. Cutting off the sentence in the middle leaves her statement unresolved, as if her own understanding of what she saw remains unresolved.

“Mama always thought the fever sweetened me up, but I know it was you.”

This line comes from the resolution of the story, when an elderly Andrew comes back to visit Drew. He reflects on how his experience living as Drew changed him as well, allowing him access to the kind of empathetic and emotionally intuitive life Drew is accustomed to.

“Funny to think I’d been scared.”

At the very end of the novel, Drew considers how fearful he was when the story began, reflecting on his Personal Growth and Confidence. Now he is able to face his future with much more strength and resolve thanks to his adventure and the lessons he learned from being Andrew.