Reading: Twilight

Ok, so here’s an update on Twilight by Meg Cabot, this time it’s up through page 88. Once again the summary will be in black and my opinion will be in bold.
Suze ditched school and went to Paul’s house to talk to his grandfather. Dr. Slaski’s attendant tries to convince Suze that he is not well and cannot talk to her, but Suze, knowing he’s completely fine, insists on seeing him anyway. When she walks into his room Dr. Slaski appears as if he is in the slow process of dying. He’s drooling, hunched over, and won’t talk to anyone. He claims all of his sickness “had been brought on by spending too much time in the ‘shadowland’.” Once Suze and Dr. Slaski are left alone they talk about mediators (Dr. Slaski is one too). He’s gone to the ends of the Earth looking for answers about their “gift” but no one seems to believe his adventures. This is so relatable because we’ve all been in a situation where something outrageous has happened and no one has believed the stories we’re telling.
Anyway, Suze and Dr. Slaski discuss the concept of being able to shift between dimensions. Dr. Slaski tells Suze that in order to ‘shift’ to the past she needs an ‘anchor,’ something that attaches herself to the person she wants to visit. The anchor has to have been in existence during the time period you’re wanting to go back to, and you have to be standing where the person had once stood. The tricky thing is that you need to pick a spot that you can easily ‘shift’ back to. Suze learns that she can only go back in time if it’s to help a ghost that she has mediated before. At this point your little light bulb goes off and you wonder if she’ll go back and try to help Jesse. However, she instantly thinks of going back to save her dad from dying. She realizes that she’d have to go to the park to do this because she’s moved from the apartment from where they lived when he was alive, but since then she’s moved across the country. Dr. Slaski warns Suze that she can’t alter the future because everything would change, but she thinks the change will only make things better. She realizes that if her dad wouldn’t have died lots of things wouldn’t have happened in her life, like she wouldn’t have a step dad or step brother, she might not have moved, and she might not have met Jesse. When I read this I thought of some things that might not have happened if I didn’t do something or meet someone.
Dr. Slaski explains to Suze that the longer she stays in the past the harder it will be for her to recover in the present. Meaning the longer she stays in the past the more brain cells will be lost. After finding this out Suze puzzles over why Paul would want to go back if he knew the consequences. Finally she puts the puzzle together and thinks that Paul wants to go back and save Jesse from dying.
After talking to Dr. Slaski, Suze calls FD and tells him about how Paul’s figured out how to prevent Suze from meeting Jesse in the first place. She explains the process of shifting to FD just like Dr. Slaski had recently explained it to her. FD thinks that Paul is being generous and is risking his life to save Jesse but Suze thinks it’s all just a big joke. All of a sudden it dawns on her that Paul can’t go back and save Jesse because he doesn’t have anything to anchor him to Jesse. FD tries to convince Suze that she should give Jesse another chance at life and that “if you love something, let go, because if it was meant to be, it will come back to you.” I’ve heard this quote before, or well something similar to it hundreds of times before, but I’ve always been too afraid to actually try it.
Suze goes back to school and is caught by a teacher, Sister Ernestine. She lectures Suze about skipping class and Suze tries to get out of trouble by saying she needed to run to the drugstore for a “medical emergency” (all girls everywhere relate to this, we all know we’ve pulled that card at least once). Suze bumps into Paul and tells him about her visit to his house. Paul admits that he’s trying to go back to save Jesse’s life and Suze stays calm knowing that this will be impossible. She makes it extremely clear to Paul that killing off Jesse from her life won’t make her like Paul any more that she does right now. However, Paul believes that Suze is secretly plotting to him and transfer Jesse’s soul into his body instead.
Again, sorry for so much detail, but I want to keep you in the loop! You never know what information might be important later on in the story. Thanks for reading!