David Fry's Fate

The fate of the brilliant, troubled son whose life and death hang over the entire pilgrimage.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Brilliant Boy

The Brilliant Boy The Gifted Child David is brilliant from an early age, reading Dostoyevsky, learning German, asking about Blake and drift velocity. His parents buy him everything he wants and stand in awe of him. The Dance That Hurt At Eastbourne he wins the Twist prize while his parents watch, unsure whether he is ecstatic or in pain. He grows into a tall, pale young man with a mocking use of the word Father. Cambridge And The Empty Letters David wins a place at Cambridge, but his letters home are rare and empty. There is no mention of friends, studies or punting. The glory is already a mask.

The Sickness After University

The Sickness After University A Walking Holiday That Was Not David tells his parents he is going to the Lake District, but returns home after two weeks. He carries a brown holdall that clunks on the banisters, and asks his mother for money. The Prescriptions Maureen drives him to the doctor and receives a list of prescriptions: Prothiaden, Diazepam, Temazepam. David drops the paper into her lap as if it has nothing to do with him. The Slow Unravelling He misses interviews, forgets to wash, and fills the house with the sick-sweet smell of roll-ups. His brilliance has become a prison, and his parents do not know how to reach him.

The Last Act In The Shed

The Last Act In The Shed The Discovery Harold finds David hanged in the garden shed, using rope tied to a hook meant for garden tools. The coroner says that, given the alcohol and pills, it must have taken David a long time to tie the noose. The Unanswerable Question Harold lifts his son down, but there is no life. He has spent his life stopping to untie his laces instead of running into the sea, and now he is too late for the final rescue. The Memory That Cannot Be Buried The verdict is suicide. Maureen and Harold are split apart by it, and the shed is dismantled by Harold's drunken hands. David's fate becomes the hole beneath the whole marriage.

The Son In The Room

The Son In The Room The Kept Bedroom Maureen keeps David's room as a shrine: blue curtains, a Cambridge portrait, a baby photograph. She talks to him as if he is still alive and always on the point of returning. The Hidden Photographs Harold secretly keeps two photographs in his bedside drawer: one of David as a toddler, one of Maureen laughing with a courgette. Neither of them can let go. The Presence In The House David becomes more alive after death than he was in his final years. His ghost sits between his parents at every silent meal.

Remembered And Released

Remembered And Released The Name Comes Back Harold has forgotten David's name in the Berwick café, and that loss is more terrible than death. On the bench with Maureen, he tells her all the memories he is afraid to lose. The Other Hand In The Photograph Maureen has discovered that the hand supporting David in his first pair of shoes was Harold's, not hers. The old blame collapses into tenderness. The Son In The Air Harold knows David will remain with him, not as a wound but as part of the air he walks through. He no longer fights the past. He carries it gently.

David's childhood and Cambridge years

The months after Cambridge

Twenty years before the story

The twenty years after David's death

Berwick seafront, after Queenie's death