Man, he said, that's a bad date.

I found it unusual, yet interesting, that Tim would include this analogy between war and his childhood sweetheart. Although the comparison was unexpected, it made sense. Ultimately Tim's talking about death. He handled these two completely different death experiences very similarly.

"But in a story I can steal her soul. I can revive, at least briefly, that which is absolute and unchanging" (page 224).

I know Tim is redundant at times, and he already made this point once or twice before, but giving us a second outside example helps push the point through. He writes to give his friends a voice.

He made Linda, Kiowa, Lavender, Lemon, and Norman all alive again. As Tim told this story, I "...dream[t] along with [him]...to make spirits in [my] head" (page 218). These people were alive in my mind and in the minds of every person who has read this book.

I think it's beautiful the way he says that.--"The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness" (page 218). That has got to be my favorite take on writing that I've ever heard.