3. Slow Time.Sophie writes that the crew of the boat, called “The Wanderer,” is hoping to set sail in June. She also says that her family has just moved to Kentucky from the coast of Virginia, and the only water where she lives now is the Ohio River, which she calls “as sleepy as the town.” The kids in her class, however, love the river, and they don’t understand why Sophie wants to leave to travel across the ocean. One of them says that Sophie just got here, and that she shouldn’t leave because no one knows anything about her, like where she lived before. But Sophie writes that she doesn’t want to get into all of that—that she would prefer to “start from zero,” to start over.
Here we witness what we’ll come to see is a familiar trait of Sophie’s: her desire to erase her past, to leave it behind and start a new life from scratch where she can live in the present moment and not be burdened by her personal history. Sophie’s desire for adventure and her dissatisfaction with things that are quiet and calm is also emphasized here—she’s unhappy with the sleepiness of the town and, compared to the expanse of the ocean bordering the Virginia coast, with the smallness of the Ohio River.