For One More Day

“This is a story about a family and, as there is a ghost involved, you might call it a ghost story. But every family is a ghost story. The dead sit at our tables long after they have gone.” 

This quote comes from the beginning of Chick’s story. It not only sets the reader’s expectations that the story that is about to be told will contain some supernatural elements, but also points to the story’s most basic subject - family, and an individual’s struggle to understand themselves in relation to their family.

“My father once told me, ‘You can be a mama’s boy or a daddy’s boy. But you can’t be both.’” 

With these words, Chick indicates the depth of his attachment to his father, and the root of the pain that that relationship causes him over the course of his life. Because the story is told in retrospect, it’s important to remember that the frequent comments Chick makes about his own actions come from the perspective of someone who has already lived through the events in question. With that in mind, this is one example of a narrative strategy frequently used by the author - a general statement followed by a narrative example from Chick’s past.

“It took a few seconds to find my voice, as if I were remembering instructions on how to do it. How do you talk to the dead? Is there another set of words? A secret code?” 

This quote comes from Chapter 8, when Chick is sitting at the kitchen table in his childhood home, being fed scrambled eggs by his mother, who has been dead for ten years. He is on the verge of an important decision - to suspend belief and to enjoy the chance to spend one more day with her, something he has longed to do in the years since her death.