When You Reach Me

On the first really cold day that December, Miranda recalls digging her dusty coat out of the back of the closet and filling its pockets with some cash and a scarf borrowed from Mom, who is still in bed. Meg Murray’s mother still spoils her children in A Wrinkle in Time, even though her husband’s kidnapping has temporarily rendered her a single mother, too, Miranda sourly thinks.

Miranda has just passed the laughing man, asleep with his head under the mailbox, when she finds the third note in her coat pocket. It claims to offer proof that it’s from the future in the form of three predictions. The prediction for today at 3 p.m. is “Colin’s knapsack.” For Christmas Day, the prediction is “Tesser well.” And for April 27th, which Miranda recognizes as Richard’s birthday, the prediction is “Studio TV-15.” A postscript informs her that the purpose of yawns is to draw air quickly into the nasal passages, thus cooling the brain and making the yawner feel more alert.  Miranda is spooked. She doesn’t know what the clues mean, she can no longer avoid the uncomfortable feeling that the note-writer knows an awful lot about her life. As she passes Marcus’s building, he falls into step beside her.