1974

1974 is the year Elizabeth “Liz” Beaumont suffered a miscarriage of twins, a private loss that Thaddeus “Thad” Beaumont later recounts while explaining his family history. The date also becomes part of the novel’s pattern of hidden histories and returns: near the story’s end, the sparrows gather in overwhelming numbers and fulfill their role as escorts for George Stark, carrying the conflict toward its fatal conclusion.

The Beaumonts’ Loss

When Alan Pangborn asks whether Thad has a twin brother, Thad denies having any siblings and says his children, William and Wendy, are his only living blood relatives. He then recalls that Liz had a miscarriage in 1974. The pregnancy had involved twins, but at the third month there was no way to know whether they would have been identical; he adds that there would be little point in trying to determine it afterward.

Thad explains that Liz had been shopping at Filene’s in Boston when someone pushed her down an escalator. A security officer applied a tourniquet, and Liz survived, but she lost the twins. The account establishes 1974 not merely as a date in the Beaumonts’ family history but as a moment of loss that the couple chose not to disclose publicly.

A Deliberately Incomplete Public Story

The miscarriage was omitted from the People article about the Beaumonts. Liz tells Pangborn that she and Thad had reserved the right to edit their lives when they agreed to the story, and that they did not share this part of their history with the interviewer, Michael Donaldson. Their decision distinguishes the public account of the family from the private one: the article may present selected facts, while the loss remains theirs to withhold.

That private history is raised during a conversation about twins and identity. Thad’s answer that he has no siblings is followed by the revelation of the earlier twin pregnancy, placing the lost children beside William and Wendy, whom he identifies as his only living blood relatives. The recollection complicates the family history without changing Thad’s stated understanding of his own childhood or supplying evidence that the lost twins survived.

The Sparrows and Stark’s End

Elsewhere in the novel’s final crisis, the sparrows appear in numbers that transform the setting. At Gold’s Junkyard and Auto Supply, they cover the stacked vehicles across the back ten acres, arriving without Thad hearing them. Their presence is silent and immense; Rawlie DeLesseps recognizes them as psychopomps and asks Thad what their appearance means.

The flock’s approach also shapes the actions of Alan Pangborn and Thad. A sparrow settles on Alan’s shoulder and then his hand, but does not attack; the bird simply returns to the others, while the trees around Castle Lake fill with birds. Alan withdraws up Lake Lane and speculates that the flock may be holding back as if at a staging area. Later, Thad finds the road itself covered by sparrows and understands that reaching the house requires driving over them. Their presence is not merely atmospheric: it obstructs passage and makes the route to the confrontation part of the ordeal.

At the climax, Thad understands that the psychopomps have come to escort George Stark back to the land of the dead. As the door opens and the birds flood in, they settle on Stark and strike at him in growing numbers. The conclusion gives the sparrows an active role in the story’s resolution: they are not simply signs associated with death, but the agents that carry Stark away. In that sense, the novel’s final reckoning makes the earlier language of escort literal, while placing a supernatural event beside the private family history dated to 1974.