Leaving Time

Alice says that babies rarely remember early experiences because they haven’t developed their vocal cords enough to express language. Their larynxes are only capable of distress calls. This primal sound activates anyone in the immediate vicinity to come running.

As the child matures, the crying sound changes, but the nerve that runs from the amygdala to the larynx never changes. An adult is capable of making this same sound during a moment of extreme terror.

Jenna leads Virgil and Serenity back to the elephant sanctuary in the hopes of making a psychic connection with Alice there. They sit on the patch of purple mushrooms growing over the dead elephant calf’s grave. Serenity fakes a vision, telling Jenna she can see Alice.

This news prompts Jenna to scream repeatedly to summon her mother, but the girl still can’t see her. When Serenity reaches over to comfort Jenna, she feels a sharp object jab her calf. Reaching down into the soil, she finds a tooth.

Alice recalls aberrant behavior among elephants in Africa. She learns of a young cow who doesn’t know how to mother her own calf because she has lived among a pack of bulls. In another instance, a pack of adolescent bulls begins charging motor vehicles and killing rhinos. Lack of parental guidance may not be the only cause: in both cases, the animals have witnessed their herds being shot by humans.

Alice believes that the normal grieving process only occurs in cases where elephants pass away naturally: “At the very least, it is crucial when studying the grief of elephants to remember that death is a natural occurrence. Murder is not” (362).

The three investigators return to Tallulah with the tooth they’ve found. She informs them that she doesn’t need to do a DNA analysis to prove it belongs to Alice. The tooth is from a child—one less than 5 years old.

Jenna immediately has a flashback of what actually happened on the night of the accident. She now remembers waking up crying because her mother wasn’t around. Nevvie gives her ice cream and tells Jenna they’re going into the woods, to have an adventure. Nevvie coaxes her to lie down and look at the stars. Jenna resists but Nevvie shoves her down while holding a large rock in her hands.

Jenna next sees the elephant named Maura. The animal lifts the girl and carries her under the oak tree where Maura’s calf is buried. She covers Jenna with leaves and branches.

Jenna tries to snap out of her vision, but she can’t. For a moment, Serenity is standing in front of her, but then she fades away.

Alice reveals that she found Jenna’s dead body right after the incident. By the time the police arrive, the body is gone. Alice has no idea what happened to it, but she knows she’ll be blamed, so she flees.

She recalls her time in Africa, when she first learned her mother was dying of cancer. Afterward, she flung herself into research on elephant grief in hopes of healing her own grief over her mother’s passing. After Jenna’s death, she returns to Africa once more and sets up a rescue center for orphaned elephants.

Back in Tallulah’s lab, Virgil realizes what really happened at the elephant sanctuary. While he’s mentally connecting the dots, Jenna vanishes before his eyes. His surroundings begin to dissolve like smoke. He finally understands that he, too, is a ghost. In the airport and at the diner, most people couldn’t see him or Jenna because they were “[i]n this world, but not of it” (372).

Virgil thinks back to his car crash and realizes that he actually succeeded in killing himself that day. He remembers a conversation with Serenity when he asked how it would feel to die. She described it as falling asleep. He now acknowledges that while you’re asleep, the dream world seems totally real. That’s why his ghost experience has felt so real to him.

As he fades out of the ghost dimension and makes his transition into the spirit realm, his last thought is that Serenity isn’t a lousy psychic; rather, she’s a great one. 

Alice tells the reader that she ran from the emergency room the night of Jenna’s death because she realized she had miscarried Gideon’s baby. To escape the pain of losing her children, she hurls herself into work at the rescue center she has founded: “I have become one of those brittle, busy people who emerge from suffering like a tornado, turning so fast that we do not even realize how much self-destruction we’re causing” (374).

She performs research online to find out what became of the others at the sanctuary in New Hampshire. Her husband is institutionalized, and Gideon died as a soldier in Iraq. She donates money to the refuge in Tennessee where her elephants have been sent. In exchange for her donation, she receives a piece of stripped wood “art” that has been created by Maura.

One day, the cylinder of wood falls from her bedroom wall and splits into two halves. At the same moment, she receives a call from the Boone Police Department informing her that Jenna’s body has been found.

Once Jenna and Virgil disappear, Serenity feels disoriented. She’s still in the lab, trying to retrieve the tooth that has fallen to the floor. A suspicious attendant asks how she got into the facility. She realizes she has been let inside by yet another ghost—Tallulah.

Once outside, Serenity mulls over all her previous encounters with Virgil and Jenna, as well as any interactions with outsiders during the investigation. She could see the two ghosts, but no one else could: “I’d always thought there was a great divide between a spirit and a ghost—I just didn’t realize how small the gap was between the dead and the living” (381).

She goes to the town office to check death records. She immediately finds Nevvie’s and then Virgil’s. Serenity believes Alice never communicated with her because she’s still alive.

Serenity revisits the address Jenna gave for her grandmother’s house. This time, the psychic asks the owner about the house’s previous occupants. The owner isn’t sure but leaves the room to check. Serenity takes this opportunity to ask the owner’s young son if he can see the people who used to live there. He confirms it was a grandma and a girl.

Next, Serenity goes to the police station to report that she’s found human remains at the elephant sanctuary. For the first time in years, she can vaguely hear the voice of one of her guides speaking to her.

Two policemen skeptically agree to investigate. They bring along a forensic expert. They start by digging in the spot where the purple mushrooms grow. The expert says these fungi only grow in areas with a high concentration of nitrogen. This evidence is consistent with a shallow grave. Shortly after they begin digging, Jenna’s remains are found.

Serenity tries to contact Jenna in the spirit realm, but her guides advise that Jenna will appear when she’s ready. She also goes to visit Virgil’s grave multiple times, but he doesn’t respond, either. On one of her visits, she notices a burial taking place nearby. It’s Jenna’s burial, and Serenity finally comes face-to-face with Alice.

When Alice returns for Jenna’s funeral, she fears she’ll be arrested, but no one suspects her of any wrongdoing. She visits Thomas in the institution. He says he always expected she’d return. Alice had hoped he might have come to terms with the past, but he remains trapped in it and thinks Jenna is still 3 years old.

Exhausted, she returns to her hotel room. There’s a knock on the door, and Serenity asks to speak to her. When the psychic begins to explain how Jenna came to her, Alice is furious. She believes Serenity is a scam artist. She shoves the psychic toward the door, spilling the contents of her purse.

One of the objects that falls out is an origami elephant constructed from a dollar bill. Alice is astonished. Serenity confirms that it came from Jenna and then reveals details about Alice’s past that only Jenna could have known. Alice accepts that this is an example of “the 2 percent of science that can’t be measured or explained. And yet that does not mean it doesn’t exist” (392).

Alice asks if Jenna told Serenity that her mother is also a murderer. In a flashback, she describes the full details of the incident that resulted in Nevvie’s death. Jenna has gone missing. Alice and Gideon begin a frantic search. Alice finds Nevvie and then sees her daughter’s dead body. Nevvie asks, “How does it feel […] to lose your daughter” (393).

Enraged, Alice attacks Nevvie. They struggle. Alice is struck on the head, falls into a water hole, and blacks out. When she revives, there’s blood on her head, and Nevvie is lying on the ground with the top of her skull cracked open. Jenna’s body is gone.

Later that night, at the hospital, a nurse tells Alice that Nevvie is dead and Jenna is missing. Alice panics, thinking she’ll be accused of Nevvie’s murder, even though she can’t remember what happened. She knows Jenna is dead, so there’s no reason for her to remain.

As Alice finishes telling Serenity her tale, Jenna appears in the hotel room mirror. Alice can see her. They communicate their love for one another. Jenna says her death wasn’t her mother’s fault. Alice tells Jenna not to wait for her: “Just because you leave someone doesn’t mean you ever let them go” (395). Alice watches as Jenna retreats through the mirror to meet Virgil and Maura. The spirits all turn and walk away.

Jenna tells the reader that she goes back to visit her mother sometimes. Her mother senses her presence and tells her about events at the rescue center. Jenna knows the connection with her mother can never be broken: “If you think about someone you’ve loved and lost, you are already with them. The rest is just details” (398).