Pinxter week

Pinxter week anchors Raff Brinker’s lost time: when his family tells him that the night he fell was ten years earlier, it turns the span of his illness into a date he can begin to grasp.

Temporal Reference

After waking, Raff Brinker remembers only the night when the waters were coming in. He asks how long ago it was, and his family answers that it was ten years earlier, during the last Pinxter week. The phrase locates the event within the calendar as his memory reaches back to its last point of clarity.

Role in the Recovery Scene

The date also gives shape to the gap between Raff Brinker’s remembered past and his present. He asks whether he fell that night and whether the fever has lasted ever since. Dame Brinker hesitates to explain how profoundly his mind had been affected, mindful of Dr. Boekman’s warning not to worry or excite him. Pinxter week thus marks not only the fall but the beginning of a decade whose consequences his family must disclose carefully.