Old God’s Time: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

As Tom walks home, he feels the urge to tell someone his story. Although many witnesses aren’t believed, Tom knows that unlikely stories are often the truest ones. When he arrives at the castle, his cellist neighbor calls down from his balcony and invites Tom up for a drink. Tom is initially hesitant, but he finds himself more willing to engage with the people around him than before the detectives visited him. He wonders if the cellist will be the man he tells his story to, but he ultimately doubts it. He goes upstairs to the man’s flat, self-conscious about his shabby appearance. The cellist introduces himself as Ronnie McGillicuddy. Tom is surprised, as he’d assumed Ronnie was English.

Ronnie explains that the flat was his wife’s before they separated. Tom says he’s a widower, causing Ronnie to respond with deep sympathy as he can tell that Tom greatly misses his wife; Tom agrees. Tom then looks at Ronnie’s gun on the balcony, identifying it as a Remington. Ronnie, impressed, asks Tom if he’d like to try it. Tom accepts. Tom looks at the sheet music Ronnie is playing, titled Kol Nidrei, which he recognizes from his time in Palestine as a phrase said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. As Ronnie sets up the gun, he spots a girl running around on the beach and asks Tom who she is, but Tom doesn’t know. Ronnie speculates that the girl is a ghost, since they found a child’s bones buried on the beach in the sixties. He asks Tom if he believes in ghosts, and Tom says he does.

Ronnie finishes setting up the gun and lets Tom try it out. Tom is impressed by the scope, which is much more advanced than anything he had access to in the army. He looks at the cormorants and imagines shooting one but can’t bring himself to; he steps away from the gun without shooting anything. Ronnie offers to play his cello and asks Tom if he knows about Kol Nidrei. Tom decides to play dumb and lets Ronnie explain the story behind the song. Then, Ronnie begins to play. The music sends Tom back into his memory, where he thinks of the many wonderful, normal days he had with June and his children, especially after Matthews’s death. He closes his eyes to the music and comes to feel that June is alive and there with him. He sees her face in front of him and reaches out to touch it.