When You Reach Me

Miranda Sinclair is a middle-schooler growing up in New York City with her single parent, Mom, in the 1970s. In the fall of 1978, when Miranda is in sixth grade, an apparently mentally ill man, whom Mom christens “the laughing man,” appears in the neighborhood. Then, in October, Miranda’s lifelong best friend Sal stops talking to her after a neighborhood bully punches him.

Luckily, Sal’s rejection happens the same week that another pair of friends in Miranda’s class—Julia and Annemarie—evidently break up. Miranda begins to cultivate a friendship with Annemarie, and the two girls are shortly joined by another classmate named Colin. They start spending their lunch period working at a nearby sandwich shop owned by a man named Jimmy in exchange for free sandwiches. Soon, the three are inseparable. Meanwhile, Miranda learns that the boy who punched Sal is an isolated, misunderstood, and incredibly smart sixth-grader named Marcus Heilbroner.

One Friday in November, Miranda returns home to find her apartment door unlocked, which freaks her and Mom out, especially after they realize that someone has taken the extra key they hid in the hallway firehose. Luckily, the only thing missing is a pair of shoes that belong to Mom’s long-term boyfriend Richard.

The following Monday, Miranda finds a mysterious note tucked into her school library book. Claiming to be from the future, the note-writer says he’s come back to save the lives of her best friend and himself. Disturbed, Miranda tries to forget the note, but then another one shows up in a bag of rolls that she’s counting out at Jimmy’s. The note asks Miranda to help prevent the calamity by recording its story for the note-writer.

Just after Thanksgiving, Annemarie has a seizure in the school cafeteria. Miranda doesn’t realize what’s happening, but Julia does, and she swoops in to help. Later, Julia berates Miranda. Annemarie has epilepsy—something of which Miranda was unaware—and the carbohydrate- and sugar-heavy diet she’s been enjoying since she started working at Jimmy’s probably precipitated the attack.

A few days later, a third note, which gives three predictions to prove that the note-writer is from her future, appears in Miranda’s coat pocket. Agitated, Miranda catches up to Marcus on the way to school and asks him to explain time travel—one of his interests—to her. With the help of Julia, who joins them near the school, he does the best he can, but Miranda is still confused.

The note-writer’s first two predictions—one about Colin playing a trick on Jimmy and one about Miranda’s Christmas gift from Richard—quickly come true. Simultaneously, her social circle disintegrates. Just before Christmas, someone steals a piggy bank stuffed with $2 from Jimmy’s storeroom. He initially accuses Miranda, Colin, and Annemarie before his suspicions fall on Julia, because she is Black. Upset by his racism toward her friend, Annemarie storms off, but not before he says something that makes it sound like Miranda agrees with him. She doesn’t, but she doesn’t get a chance to explain to Annemarie before Christmas break begins.

Miranda works up the courage to approach Annemarie on New Year’s Day. By then, Annemarie isn’t mad any longer. Soon afterward, Miranda starts to think about how hard losing Annemarie must have been for Julia. She decides to cultivate her own friendship with Julia. As she does so, she realizes that Julia is nice and that, despite her family’s economic prosperity, her life isn’t easier than Miranda’s—it’s just different.

Then, the event that the note-writer has been warning Miranda about happens. One day, trying to avoid Marcus, Sal runs into traffic and narrowly avoids being run over by a truck because the laughing man kicks him out of the way just in time. Sal suffers a broken arm and cracked ribs. The laughing man dies. Miranda finds one of the shoes he was wearing—one of Richard’s missing shoes—on the sidewalk. Inside is the note-writer’s fourth and final message. It instructs her to deliver her account of the incident in person, although she can’t yet figure out to whom.

After Sal comes home from the hospital, things settle into a comfortable new norm for Miranda. She learns that he didn’t want to stop being friends altogether—he just thought they should each expand their social horizons. Miranda realizes how right he was. After a brief scare when the police want to talk to Marcus about the traffic incident, Miranda learns more about the day he punched Sal. He was trying to prove himself to his older brother. He expected Sal to fight back and was surprised when he didn’t. He doesn’t understand social relationships very well.

Then, in the spring, Mom is selected to compete on The $20,000 Pyramid. This is the note-writer’s final proof. The prize money would mean a lot to their family. But, as Miranda helps Mom prepare, she can’t get the responsibility of the letter out of her head. Eventually, in a flash of realization, she understands that Marcus will grow up, unlock the secret of time travel, and come back as the laughing man.

Mom doesn’t go all the way on the gameshow, but she does win a respectable $12,000. It’s enough money for Richard and Miranda to encourage her to go back to school and finally get the law degree she always wanted. The day after Mom’s victory, Miranda begins writing the letter that she will eventually deliver to Marcus. She worries about him having to learn about his own death in advance. But she knows it’s what she must do, and she trusts that everything will work out as it should.