Old God’s Time: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Tom is briefly at a loss when he hears the doorbell, but he comes back to himself and abandons his plans of suicide, thinking that he must never tell Winnie of this. While preparing to walk towards the door, his memory drifts back to June. He remembers how beautiful she was, much like her mother, whose photo June showed to Tom soon after they began dating. He had kissed her nose to comfort her, and June had pointed out that her mother was a beauty. Tom thinks of how intensely attracted he was to her. Mustering his willpower, he takes the rope off of his neck, drops it in an empty umbrella stand, and opens the door to find Superintendent Fleming dressed in full uniform. Tom is surprised to see it’s nighttime, even though he feels he just saw his neighbor’s son dancing in the daylight.

Fleming greets Tom and explains that he’s attending an annual dinner nearby—a surprise to Tom, since Wilson and O’Casey didn’t mention it. Tom, self-conscious of his flat, invites Fleming on a walk outside. Tom apologizes for his conduct with the young detectives, but Fleming says the men spoke highly of him. As they walk, Tom looks down at the hotel where the dinner is being held and finds himself heartened by the liveliness inside. Fleming takes out a cigarette, asking Tom if he still smokes; Tom says no. Eventually, Fleming’s demeanor changes, and Tom knows he’s going to ask for help. The prospect of this intimidates him, but he knows it’s preferable to suicide. When Fleming asks Tom to help, Tom says yes. Fleming tells him he’s welcome to think on it for a few days, then takes his leave with a warm goodbye that deeply moves Tom.

Tom returns to his flat and undresses. He notices that his hands, which were trembling before, are now steady. When he goes to sleep, the narrative switches to an omniscient point of view, describing the neutrinos (subatomic patterns that can travel at the speed of light) that travel through Tom’s body as he sleeps, the butterflies that wait out the winter on his bedroom window, and the spider that lives in a web above his bed. The narrator also describes some of the items that Tom sleeps with, such as his old case notes, which Tom feels certain Mr. Tomelty would throw out after his death despite the stories they hold. The narrator states that, although Tom is small in the scope of the universe, he is and has been loved by many people, such as his family and even Fleming. However, Tom struggles to see this love when he is awake, only benefiting from its warmth as he sleeps.

Tom is awoken by his bladder and shuffles to the bathroom in the dark. All of the things in his apartment look different to him in the middle of the night, and he doesn’t want to turn on the light out of a sense that he would be disturbing them. In the bathroom, he thinks of June as well as his children. He also thinks of what he owes to his things, which are inanimate but which he has come to view as companions in his solitude. Later, he awakes for good and resolves to commit to Fleming’s case. He makes himself strong tea, goes out to sit on his wicker chair, and thinks of how June believed that spring began in February, and how much he loved her. Feeling envigored by the sea, he lights a cigarillo; he still smokes sometimes, despite what he told Fleming.