Old God’s Time: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

Tom returns from Ms. McNulty’s apartment and lies down. He feels as though a reckoning is coming for him. He thinks of how Wilson took his toothbrush for a DNA sample; he tells himself that they only took the toothbrush to eliminate him as a suspect, and that he would’ve offered his DNA himself if asked. As he settles down for bed early, he thinks of his children, particularly Joseph, whom he knew was going to be trouble from the moment he was born. Tom recalls a time when, during a holiday, Joseph pushed a girl into a swimming pool; she likely would’ve drowned if her mother hadn’t come back. As a result, Tom spanked Joseph for the first and only time, which caused him deep grief due to his own experience being abused as a child.

Tom falls asleep without realizing it and wakes up around midnight. He thinks of Ms. McNulty’s daughter and all the other dead children, which makes his heart hurt so much he wonders if he’ll soon die. He ponders his curiosity around death, which as a child once led him to press his fists hard against his eyes in an attempt to see Heaven. Suddenly, Tom is assailed with severe abdominal pain. He wonders again if he’s going to die and if he should let it happen, but then he considers that dying in such pain is no way to go. He bolts upright and gets to his feet, where he violently passes gas. To him, this feels like some sort of purging of what Ms. McNulty told him.

Tom’s thoughts turn back to Joseph. He recalls comforting the boy when he became frightened of monsters in the middle of the night; Tom would stay in bed with him until Joseph fell asleep. He then remembers adult Joseph’s move to Albuquerque, where he worked at a dispensary. Tom also muses over how Joseph was gay. Tom tried to understand, but he always struggled to understand due to him associating gayness with priests abusing young boys—June was the one who insisted that Joseph wasn’t like that at all. Despite Tom’s inability to fully grasp Joseph’s sexuality, however, he loved his son intensely and, after visiting Joseph in Albuquerque, realized how happy and fulfilled he was. Tom remembers kissing Joseph on the head and telling him that, no matter what happened in the past or future, he would always be Tom’s son. In the present, Tom falls asleep again.

For the next few weeks, Tom returns to his reclusive life, to the point he’s almost able to pretend that the disruption caused by the cold case and Ms. McNulty never happened. He enjoys getting meats from Mr. Prendergast’s market, although they also remind him of the Brother. He also watches Mr. Tomelty work on his garden, having once again donned his tattered clothes. Tom hasn’t spoken to Mr. Tomelty much since their evening together but feels a new fondness for the man. He spends time looking at Mr. Tomelty’s flower bed, which contains a great variety of flowers. Tom learned about flowers from June, who always tended to her own garden assiduously. Tom knew something was wrong when she stopped looking after her garden.

Tom thinks about his time in the army, which he found much less terrifying than the abuse he faced at the orphanage. He muses that the orphanage likely released boys at 16 before they had the strength to attack the brothers who took advantage of their vulnerability as children. He thinks of his fury for Fathers Byrne and Thaddeus and the way that the commissioner, ignorant to the horrors of the abuse, let them go free. Tom also recalls coming home to talk to June about the case, where the two of them made the horrifying realization that Father Thaddeus was the one who raped June. The memory wounds Tom, but he composes himself, as he realizes that he wants to live to get through this dark time. He is grateful for the beauty that surrounds him in things such as Mr. Tomelty’s garden and the sea.