We get a chapter from the point of view of a dying (or maybe dead?) person in A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows section 19. This explains why Roger has never known what happened to his father.
The section takes place straight after Jerry’s falls onto the track. It’s clear from the people around him that he’s dead, but that Roger is alive and safe. That’s all that matters to the man at this point, as he is joining his wife in death. I get chills thinking about this section again.
Breaking down A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows section 19
Jerry has fallen on the tracks, and he’s holding Roger. He can feel a heartbeat. It’s only the one heartbeat, and we know that this is Roger’s. Only he has survived this fall, and that’s what he gets from the people around him.
A crowd has gathered, picking up Roger from Jerry’s arms. They note that Jerry’s head has caved in from the fall, making it clear that he is dead — or he is very close to being dead since he is still conscious enough to give us some of his thoughts.
The people around can’t find an ID on Jerry, but they know that based on his uniform he is in the RAF. They start to wonder if he as gone AWOL, which would explain having no identifying documents. Oh, if only they knew what had happened. I do wish that Roger was able to give his dad his dog tags back so that Roger would have known who saved him in this fall.
Jerry thinks about Dolly laughing at him, and we get this moment of knowing that Dolly has died as well. The two are joining each other in death, and it’s absolutely bittersweet. They get to be together in a way they couldn’t in life, but they leave Roger an orphan.
The last thing Jerry hears is people shouting “Run!” The station is collapsing, and people scramble to leave as Jerry is stuck inside.
Could this section be used in a TV show adaptation?
There is no way to skip over this section of A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows. It would be heartbreaking to watch, but we need to see what happened to Jerry after he returned through the stones. We need to know why Roger has no idea that it was his dad who saved him.
I would love to see a moment of Jerry and Dolly finding each other in the afterlife. Maybe part of them would know that their son is alive, and they could see him living his life both in his own time and in the past. I would also love for a moment of realization as Jerry finds out that Roger was the one to send him back. Father and son both saved each other at different times.
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