The river and current metaphor

The river and current metaphor is Tommy’s image of love under pressure: two people cling to each other in fast-moving water, but the current eventually forces them apart. Spoken to Kathy during a quiet conversation about her exhausting work as his carer, it makes their separation feel at once intimate and unavoidable, and gives a physical shape to what neither can change.

The Image and Its Meaning

Tommy imagines two people in a river whose water is moving too fast for them to hold on, however hard they try. They must eventually let go and drift apart. The image joins closeness to loss: the pair are together in the water and resist separation, yet the force around them exceeds their strength. Tommy applies the image directly to himself and Kathy, describing their lifelong love while acknowledging that they cannot remain together forever. The current is not explained as a single literal obstacle; its significance lies in the certainty of its pull.

The Conversation Around the Metaphor

The image arises as Tommy watches Kathy grow tired from rushing between people and being alone. He suggests that she might ask whether she can stop, and Kathy answers that she has to keep going for now, even if he does not want her around. Tommy then tells her that she is a very good carer, but would be the perfect one for him if she were not herself. His tenderness and the practical limits of their relationship meet in that qualification: the person best suited to care for him is also the person whose closeness makes the separation painful.

Memory and Parting

As Tommy speaks, Kathy remembers holding onto him on the wind-swept walk back from Littlehampton. She cannot tell whether he is thinking of that moment too or only of the river, leaving the connection between the remembered embrace and his image unresolved. They remain seated side by side for a long time, lost in thought. Kathy apologizes for having lost her temper and promises to speak to those who can arrange for him to have a really good carer. In this way, the metaphor is followed by a practical step toward letting go: she will help secure care for him even as their shared closeness gives way to separation. Tommy repeats that it is a shame, and they do not speak further about it that morning.