Quote 16
Sometimes when I want to be on my own I get into the airing cupboard in the bathroom and slide in beside the boiler and pull the door behind me and sit there and think for hours and it makes me feel very calm. (83.2)
Why do you think it's easier for Christopher to think when he's physically isolated?
Quote 17
[...] I didn't speak to anyone and for the whole afternoon I sat in the corner of the Library groaning with my head pressed into the join between the two walls and this made me feel calm and safe. (89.14)
This is during one of Christopher's Black Days. We're just going to ask this again – what is it that makes him feel <em>so</em> unsafe? We're not sure there's any easy answer, but it's worth thinking about. Again.
Quote 18
Which means that a murder victim is usually killed by someone known to them and fairies are made out of paper and you can't talk to someone who is dead. (139.10)
In that last clause, about how you can't talk to someone who's dead, Christopher is certainly writing about his mother, and feeling really separate from her. But in dismissing the existence of fairies, he's denying us the possibility of connecting to the mystical, magical sides of the world, and of ourselves. The only connection between beings he <em>does</em> allow is a dangerous one, and one that causes great harm: the relationship between murderer and victim. Eek.