We jump to Joan and Michael in The Space Between section 2. It’s time to see the start of their journey to France.
Michael Murray is grieving the loss of two important people in his life: his wife and his father. Meanwhile, Joan is leaving Scotland for the first time with a man she doesn’t really know to head on a journey she’s not sure what to expect of.
Breaking down The Space Between Section 2
We start off this section on a boat leaving Scotland. Joan and Michael are heading to Paris, France. This is Joan’s first time out of Scotland, and she is grateful that Michael is with her. While she doesn’t know Michael Murray that well, she knows that he is well-traveled and that he knows Paris. That gives her some comfort.
However, it’s clear that she is scared and feeling some sadness about leaving her mom behind. Michael offers her his handkerchief to wipe her tears, and it offers another layer of comfort. We get to see the way Michael has been raised to be a gentleman.
The two talk about the nuns, which Joan admits she’s never seen before. Michael has seen plenty, but they are all different. Some are more contemplative, while others will help the poor. He also notes that some of them carry baskets and he has no idea what’s in those baskets. It could be contraband for all he knows!
Joan shares that she wants to be known as Gregory after the Pope, and Michael is relieved by that. He knows a lot of nuns choose the name Mary. Joan doesn’t think she will be one of the contemplative nuns. She did enough of that while in Scotland.
This makes Michael think about his Uncle Jamie and the time Jamie was in the cave. Michael notes that Jamie would spend so much time alone that he would hear voices, and it took time for Jamie to know which voices were real. Joan thinks of this time and wishes she had known this. She would have liked to talk to Jamie about the voices that he heard. She hears voices, and she would have liked to talk to him about that to compare notes.
Could this section be used in an adaptation?
Again, I don’t think we’ll ever see The Space Between adapted into a TV series, but it would be great to see Joan’s journey to France after seeing Outlander season 7B play out. We got to know both Joan and Michael in a short time.
This section would need to be used if there was an adaptation of the short story. This gives us a chance to see Joan and Michael get to know each other, and it allows us time to get to know them a little more. We find out a little more about their experiences and their wants, and that’s important for character development.
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