How to Stop Time

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Part 4, Chapters 8-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4: “The Pianist”

Part 4, Chapter 8 Summary: “London, Now”

Tom sits at a table in the sports hall at school for parents’ night. He comes back to the present, leaving thoughts of Rose and her last words about “a darkness that fringes everything” behind (227). He is speaking with Anton’s mother, Claire. She thanks him for engaging Anton in schoolwork. She shares that Anton says Tom makes history come alive. Claire had been worried about Anton drifting away and hanging out with the bad kids. Now he is back on track and eager to go to college someday. Tom feels proud. He looks across the room at Camille. She doesn’t look well. Tom watches as she falls to the floor, legs spasming. He instantly reacts, reaching her side as Daphne runs over. Daphne asks another staff member to call an ambulance. Tom holds Camille steady. She stops convulsing and regains consciousness. She focuses on Tom’s face. Tom tells Camille she had a seizure. Camille is dazed and doesn’t remember where she is. They explain that she is at school and that an ambulance is coming. Camille looks at Tom again and says, “I do know you” (230). Tom smiles, confirming that he is the new history teacher and that they work together. She shakes her head and says, “Ciro’s [...] You played piano” (230). Tom freezes. Is Camille like him? If she keeps talking, both of their lives could be at risk. Tom soothes her, promising to explain everything later. Camille looks at Daphne and the other onlookers, explaining that she has epilepsy.

Part 4, Chapter 9 Summary: “Paris, 1929”

Tom is playing piano at Ciro’s in the early evening. He is lost in the music and doesn’t realize the photographer he previously declined posing for takes a picture.

Part 4, Chapter 10 Summary: “London, Now”

Camille and Tom are at the new Globe Theatre in a gastropub. Camille’s revelation makes Tom nervous. The location has him on edge because the last time he was there he jumped from the balcony to save Grace and Rose. Camille mentions his promise to tell her his story. Tom makes a comment about her thinking him insane. Camille responds by quoting the sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick “that it is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane” (236). Tom relents but will only share if she first tells him how she recognizes him. Camille agrees.

Camille worked at a Parisian hotel that hosted a gallery of vintage Golden Age photos. Camille’s favorite was of a pianist in a restaurant called Ciro’s. She became obsessed with that captured moment. Besides, the man was handsome and had nice hands with a curved scar on his arm. Now, she realizes the man was Tom. Tom’s first instinct is to lie to her, but he also wants to tell her the truth. Instead, he makes something up about the photo being staged. She calls out the lie, arguing that he can’t run away from everything. Tom replies: “You’re wrong. You can. You can run and run and run. You can run your entire life. You can run and change and keep running” (240). She is determined to find out the truth whether Tom tells her or not. Tom makes her promise never to repeat his truth to anyone ever. She agrees. Tom tells her everything.

After dinner, they walk along the Thames. The one thing Tom doesn’t talk about is the Albatross Society. Camille thinks the modern world is safer and that his DNA could possibly help fight illnesses and further science. Tom suggests picking up Abraham. While watching Abraham run around the park, Tom mentions the crush Camille said she had on the man in the picture. She confesses it is true. Tom wants to kiss her but remembers Rose and feels guilty. Hendrich calls, interrupting his thought. Tom steps away to answer.

Hendrich has found Omai. He is a surfer in Australia and “becoming a little bit too known in the surfing community” (246), where people are gossiping about how he doesn’t age. Tom needs to fly to Sydney during his school break and talk to Omai. Just then, Camille stands up, calling Abraham. Hendrich hears and asks if she is Tom’s anchor. Tom retorts, “She is […] just someone I see in the park. Our dogs know each other” (248). Camille is stunned, then furious. Tom tells Hendrich he needs to think about it and will call him back. Once off the phone, Tom tries talking to Camille. She wants to know who called. He doesn’t say. She thinks it was another woman and storms off. Tom knows he has already endangered her. He decides “the only way to protect her is to have as little to do with her as possible” (249). It’s impossible for him to not cause pain to everyone he loves.

At home, Tom looks up Sol Davis, Omai’s current identity, on YouTube. He recognizes Omai instantly. He calls Hendrich and agrees to go to Australia.

Part 4, Chapters 8-10 Analysis

During parents’ night at school, Tom learns from Anton’s mother how much he has inspired Anton. Tom’s work as a teacher is finally validated. He should be ecstatic, but he focuses on Camille across the room instead. She falls to the floor convulsing. Tom, always quick to act, runs to her side. When she comes out of it, she locks at Tom: She finally remembers where she recognizes him. Without much choice, Tom promises to tell her everything. They meet later at a pub in the Globe Theatre. Ironically, the last time Tom was there, he fled the Theatre and told Rose the truth about himself. Now he is about to tell the truth to another woman.

As Rose did before her, Camille accepts his truth. Tom swears her to secrecy. Tom enjoys the honesty and freedom of sharing his secret with another, and they spend the next few hours talking. Still, Tom feels guilty for wanting to kiss her; up until now, he only ever loved Rose. Tom also learns that Hendrich has found Omai. While excited to learn that his friend is still alive, Tom doesn’t appreciate the interruption. Hendrich promised eight years of life before another assignment, but he knows Tom will agree. Meanwhile, Camille misunderstands Tom’s secretive behavior and storms off. In the end, Tom considers it a blessing. She is safer without him.