How to Stop Time

On a layover in Dubai on his way to Sydney, Tom visits the airport shops. He is in a bad mood. He moves through the bookstore and finds Michel de Montaigne’s Essays. He picks it up thinking of Marion and opens to a random page. He reads “Nothing fixes a thing so firmly in the memory as the wish to forget it” (272). His phone beeps with a text from Omai confirming their dinner plans. Tom replaces the book and leaves the bookstore to wait for his flight.

After Tahiti, Tom returns to Plymouth. He admires a naval warship in the new dockyard. He runs into Furneaux, who offers him a place on another voyage, this time under Captain Cook’s command.

On a plane above Australia, Tom listens to a baby crying and thinks of Marion. A young couple in front of him reminds him of Camille. He contemplates her silence. He remembers that his mother told him to live. He senses life getting closer, finding Marion, seeing Omai again. He spends the rest of the flight dreaming of Omai, who dissolves like sand, and then of Marion, who also becomes sand.