When You Reach Me

Characters are judged before being given a chance to prove themselves throughout the story. Miranda hates Julia at the beginning of the novel, her judgment stemming from an incident in second grade when Julia “complained that there was no ‘cafe-au-lait’-colored construction paper for her skin” during a classroom art project. Julia is Black, and she asks for construction paper closer to her own skin color for the second-grade project. Julia’s specificity around her own skin color strikes Miranda as pretentious, and Miranda holds a judgmental grudge against Julia for this, an annoyance that is amplified as they get older because “Julia wasn’t like the rest of us” (34). Julia is wealthy, leaves school for weeks at a time to travel the world, and returns with nice clothing and jewelry from abroad. Miranda holds all of this against Julia until she learns that Julia has been looking out for Annemarie’s health for all these years and helping Annemarie avoid epileptic episodes. After spending time with Julia as they plan to celebrate Annemarie’s birthday, Miranda gains a new understanding and respect for the girl she once judged. Miranda learns to question her own assumptions and to appreciate Julia for the complex and caring person that she is.

Miranda and Sal both understandably judge Marcus after Marcus punches Sal. When Miranda and Marcus are sitting in the school dentist’s office together, Miranda learns that they share an interest in time travel. Marcus doesn’t remember Miranda being there when he hit Sal, but Miranda remembers Marcus as “the boy who hit Sal” (47). Marcus further annoys her when he can’t remember the names of characters in her favorite book, and when he raises compelling questions about the logistics of whether time travel has been accurately portrayed in A Wrinkle in Time. Through numerous frustrating encounters, Miranda and Marcus establish common ground over their interest in time travel. By the time they are hiding from the police in the dentist’s office after the laughing man’s death, Miranda refers to Marcus as a friend when she calls her mother for help.

Although Miranda learns “that most people I’m afraid of are actually very friendly” (26), Jimmy proves to be an exception. Miranda appreciates that Jimmy likes her nickname for Julia—Swiss Miss—but she misses the racist connotation in the name. She recognizes that some of the jokes Jimmy makes are inappropriate, but she doesn’t understand how racist he is until he assumes that Julia is the one who has stolen his money because she is Black. Jimmy reveals himself to be “a racist pig” (130) in his determination to keep Julia out of his sandwich shop, going so far as to tell his employees that they “don’t have to come back either” (129) if they’d rather defend her. While most people do prove to be good most of the time in the story, Jimmy is a reminder of the exceptions.

As the laughing man, Marcus saves Sal from being hit by a truck and sacrifices his own in the process. He accomplishes this through time travel, returning from the future to kick Sal out of the way as the truck comes toward him. Miranda’s letter provides the thread connecting Marcus to his fate and ensuring that Sal is saved.

Belle misinterprets Marcus chasing Sal and reports him to the police in connection with the accident that kills the laughing man. When the police come looking for Marcus at school, the office administrator’s intentional delays, Miranda’s quick thinking, and the dentist’s and Miranda’s mother’s interference save Marcus from enduring police interrogation. Miranda’s mother understands that going through arrest, trial, and a jail sentence prevents a person “from becoming who they might grow to be” (85). In interfering with the police and sending them away, Miranda’s mother saves Marcus from potentially enduring a life-altering experience for a crime he hasn’t committed. In doing so, she also ensures that Marcus can save Sal’s life in the future, since if Marcus were to end up in jail he could not live his life fully and learn the nuances of time travel.

Saving a life can also be accomplished in the form of offering new beginnings or second chances. Miranda’s mom visits the local jail once every month to offer support to pregnant inmates, bringing them snacks and offering free legal counsel to help them feel encouraged and to prepare them for the road ahead after conviction. She asserts that “Not everyone accused of a crime is a criminal” (116), and she doesn’t want to see people suffering endlessly for mistakes they’ve made. Miranda’s mother feels that she’s “made about a million mistakes” in her lifetime, but she’s managed to raise Miranda on her own, which she feels can “outweigh almost all of them” (116). Miranda’s mother never elaborates or explains what mistakes she’s referring to, but her regular charitable visits to the jail and her willingness to divert the police to save Marcus from interrogation imply her understanding that jail can end a person’s life as they know it.

Even Julia contributes to saving Annemarie, keeping a close eye on her diet at school because she knows that a special diet will help her friend avoid seizures. After weeks of throwing away her specially-prepared lunches and eating sandwiches at Jimmy’s shop instead, Annemarie experiences an episode that leaves her “changed, like a switch had been flicked inside her” (89) and she is unresponsive to the people around her. Julia recognizes the symptoms of Annemarie’s epilepsy immediately and guides Miranda in conversation, bringing Miranda to realize that “Julia was showing me something, teaching me how to help Annemarie” (90). In the aftermath of Annemarie’s episode, Miranda comes to understand that Julia is constantly watching over her best friend’s fragile health.