Flanagan reflects on how in the past, the past was harder to access but it was simultaneously more present. His father felt that electric lights “killed ghost stories” (97).

Flanagan died on the Franklin River [in western Tasmania] when he was 21 years old. He wonders if the book he is writing is a ghost story as a result.

Flanagan reflects on how quickly his parents’ faces changed after their death. He wonders if his own face changed after he “died” in his kayaking accident.