The Time Traveler’s Wife: Chapter 42 Summary & Analysis

Friday, December 24. 2006 (Henry is 43, Clare is 35). When Henry wakes up on Christmas Eve, he listens to Clare breathing in bed beside him and the birds calling out the window. He takes pain medication for his legs. He watches Clare sleep and realizes he will never see her grow old. He thinks about Annette, who died 37 years ago. Henry considers how decades of missing his mother only resulted in trip after trip to the scene of her death. He knows that when Clare mourns his death, she won’t even be able to do that.

Henry hears Alba awake in her room, so he crawls down the hallway to join her. He asks her what she wants for breakfast, and she asks for Jello. When Henry starts to leave for the kitchen, Alba requests to ride on his back. Though it hurts his knees, he agrees. Clare joins them in the kitchen and takes over cooking duties. As Henry watches her maneuver the kitchen, he knows that she will be alright without him. Still, he mourns the fact that he will never see Alba grow up. He begins to cry, and Alba notices. Clare jokes that he is only sad because she is doing the cooking.