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Iwan Krol
Caitlyn Spies is Eli’s love interest; she’s a crime reporter for local and regional newspapers and is eight years older than Eli. She has long brown hair and wears thick round glasses. She first appears in the novel when August begins writing her name in the air, seemingly for no reason. Eli then starts to think he and Caitlyn are supposed to be together after he discovers that Caitlyn wrote a sweeping story about Slim’s time in and out of prison. Because of this, after Eli escapes from the hospital after losing his finger, he seeks out Caitlyn. He believes if anyone can tell Tytus Broz’s story and bring him down, Caitlyn can. While Eli falls madly in love with her during this first meeting, Caitlyn treats Eli like a self-important child. However, she’s not at all surprised or upset to see him several years later, when she’s moved to a bigger paper, The Courier-Mail. She gives Eli tips on how to deal with the editor-in-chief and get a job at the paper, and she also tells Eli about why she puts so much effort into her journalism. Caitlyn explains she was born prematurely, and her mother died, so she’s spent her life trying to make her mother’s sacrifice worth it. This conversation deepens Eli’s conviction that he and Caitlyn are supposed to be together. Ultimately, Eli does get a job at The Courier-Mail, and he and Caitlyn begin working together when Eli is assigned to write a brief piece on Tytus Broz in preparation for the Queensland Day awards. Caitlyn accompanies Eli to interview Tytus and then helps Eli sneak back onto Tytus’s property to investigate a suspicious-looking bunker, where they find preserved human body parts as well as Bevan Penn, a missing boy. Following this experience (and their reveal to the authorities that Tytus is a criminal), Caitlyn and Eli are assigned to co-write a five-part story on Tytus’s downfall. While poking around Lyle’s house and when they encounter the red telephone, Caitlyn is the one to convince Eli he doesn’t need to answer it. By kissing him, Caitlyn helps Eli come of age and leave his traumatic past behind.
Caitlyn Spies Quotes in Boy Swallows Universe
The Boy Swallows Universe quotes below are all either spoken by Caitlyn Spies or refer to Caitlyn Spies. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Boy Conquers Moon
Quotes
“Yeah, it’s dead,” I say.
“Stupid bird seemed so determined to kill itself,” he says.
Caitlyn slaps her hands.
“Wren!” she says. “I remember now! That’s a wren.”
And with that, the dead blue wren comes back. Like it was just waiting for Caitlyn Spies to recognise it, because, like all living things—like me, me, me—it lives and dies on her breath and her attention.
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“I know you’re just the voice in my head,” I say. “You’re a figment of my imagination. I use you to escape from moments of great trauma.”
“Escape?” the man echoes. “What, like Slim over the Boggo Road walls? Escape from yourself, Eli, do ya, like the Houdini of your own mind?”
“773 8173,” I say. “That’s just the number we’d tap into the calculator when we were kids. That’s just ‘Eli Bell’ upside down and back to front.”
“Brilliant!” the man says. “Upside down and back to front, like the universe, hey Eli? You still got the axe?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” the man says. “He’s coming, Eli.”
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“I thought they’d look different, your mum and dad,” she says.
I laugh. “You did?”
“They’re so nice,” she says. “They just look like any normal mum and dad.”
“They’ve been working on normal for quite some time now.”
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Girl Saves Boy
Quotes
“Just let it ring out, Eli,” she says softly. “What’s he going to tell you”—she puts her other hand behind my head, her perfect and gentle hand sliding down to the back of my neck—“that you don’t already know?”
And the phone rings again as she moves into me and the phone rings again as she closes her eyes and presses her lips against mine and I will remember this moment through the stars I see on the ceiling of this secret room and the spinning planets those stars surround and the dust of a million galaxies scattered across her bottom lip. I will remember this kiss through the big bang. I will remember the end through the beginning.
And the phone stops ringing.
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Caitlyn Spies Quotes in Boy Swallows Universe
The Boy Swallows Universe quotes below are all either spoken by Caitlyn Spies or refer to Caitlyn Spies. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Boy Conquers Moon
Quotes
“Yeah, it’s dead,” I say.
“Stupid bird seemed so determined to kill itself,” he says.
Caitlyn slaps her hands.
“Wren!” she says. “I remember now! That’s a wren.”
And with that, the dead blue wren comes back. Like it was just waiting for Caitlyn Spies to recognise it, because, like all living things—like me, me, me—it lives and dies on her breath and her attention.
Related Characters:
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“I know you’re just the voice in my head,” I say. “You’re a figment of my imagination. I use you to escape from moments of great trauma.”
“Escape?” the man echoes. “What, like Slim over the Boggo Road walls? Escape from yourself, Eli, do ya, like the Houdini of your own mind?”
“773 8173,” I say. “That’s just the number we’d tap into the calculator when we were kids. That’s just ‘Eli Bell’ upside down and back to front.”
“Brilliant!” the man says. “Upside down and back to front, like the universe, hey Eli? You still got the axe?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” the man says. “He’s coming, Eli.”
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“I thought they’d look different, your mum and dad,” she says.
I laugh. “You did?”
“They’re so nice,” she says. “They just look like any normal mum and dad.”
“They’ve been working on normal for quite some time now.”
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Girl Saves Boy
Quotes
“Just let it ring out, Eli,” she says softly. “What’s he going to tell you”—she puts her other hand behind my head, her perfect and gentle hand sliding down to the back of my neck—“that you don’t already know?”
And the phone rings again as she moves into me and the phone rings again as she closes her eyes and presses her lips against mine and I will remember this moment through the stars I see on the ceiling of this secret room and the spinning planets those stars surround and the dust of a million galaxies scattered across her bottom lip. I will remember this kiss through the big bang. I will remember the end through the beginning.
And the phone stops ringing.
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