When Will There Be Good News?: Safely Gathered In Summary & Analysis

At dawn on Christmas Day, Jackson is on Westminster Bridge, staring into the Thames. He’s holding the plastic bag containing Nathan’s hair, which Reggie had salvaged from his jacket for him. He misses Reggie. He wonders about the strolling woman, too. “Everywhere you looked, there was unfinished business and unanswered questions.” He’d thought everything would come clear when he briefly died after the train crash, but it didn’t. It occurs to him that it’s up to us to solve the mysteries while we’re still alive. So he should “be a crusader.”

Jackson thinks about throwing the hair into the river, but he’s lost almost everything else, so he holds onto it. He wonders if he’s too old to make a fresh start. Then he remembers finding Joanna, and he’s instantly cheered. Not finding her at the house outside of Edinburgh, but the first time, when she was a girl. He was only 19 and fresh from the losses of his mother and siblings. When he’d found the little girl alive, he’d lifted her up as though she were a miracle, and the police constable had said, “Look at that, not a scratch on her.”