The Seven Year Slip

Clementine is nervous to meet Vera, but when they meet, Vera hugs her and says she has heard so much about her. When Clementine explains how Analea had overdosed on sleeping pills the previous New Year’s Eve, Vera hugs her and Clementine feels she has finally been given permission to fall apart for the first time since her aunt’s death. Vera tells her about when she rented the apartment and how she didn’t believe it was magic at first, and she talks about how she has always loved Analea and wished she had fought harder to be with her.

Clementine tells her how Analea was afraid of change and how she tried to keep everything the same, and Vera tells her that the memories they have with Analea are still good. As Clementine leaves, she sees pictures of Vera with her father and her son and daughter. She is speechless as she recognizes Vera’s son as Iwan and sees the look of “unabashed joy” (231) he has in a picture cooking with his grandfather. Like others who know him, Vera worries that Iwan is doing too much to make his grandfather proud, and she hopes Clementine can meet him one day.