Cabin on the Coast Question

Dave Tallman · 28 May 2008, 12:09 · from 2008-May.txt.gz

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From: davetallman at msn.com (Dave Tallman)
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 06:09:08 -0600
Subject: (urth) Cabin on the Coast Question
Message-ID: <483D4B64.5010904 at gmail.com>

Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> No. She had never met Tim's father; she had seen him only in pictures. In
> the pictures, he was very gaunt. Though the fairy King had promised things
> would be just as they were for Lissy "and all the country round" on the
> morning she disappeared, that didn't apply equally for Tim. The King had
> promised that Tim would remember his time in the otherworld, but that didn't
> turn out to be true. Neither did the King mention that Tim would be at least
> twenty years older when he was released from service, but that is what
> happened. Fairies lie and otherwise deceive.
>   
I think you are right. I prefer that ending, anyway. It would lessen the 
tragedy if Tim found out that Lissy was lying about never having met his 
father. The fairy King didn't really lie, because Tim does retain some 
memories of his years of service (he plans to tell Lissy about them but 
pretend they are just stories). Having those memories means he has an 
older brain, and with that goes an older body. The King just didn't 
spell out the implications.

> When Tim returned to the cabin and opened the door, Lissy saw an older,
> thinner man who looked just like the man in the pictures she had seen. Tim
> had earlier told her that he would come to look just like his father,
> because he then looked just as his father had looked when his father was the
> same age. She mistook Tim for his father. I don't think she spoke to him
> "casually". She was trying to make the best of a compromising situation by
> blurting out to "Big Tim" that she and his "son" were planning to get
> married.
>
> After all, regardless of whatever the man she thought was "Big Tim" was
> wearing, or not wearing, she was herself conspicuously naked in Big Tim's
> bed. She was in no position to say anything about the other's wardrobe, or
> lack thereof.
>   
I would have thought she'd be a little more formal, but it does make 
sense for her to blurt out things when she is caught in a compromising 
situation. She first tries a friendly approach. Then, mistaking his look 
of horror for concern about scandal, she tells him that she and Tim will 
be married.

What will Tim do next?  If he tries to explain she'll never believe him. 
The best thing to spare her feelings would be to pretend to be his 
father and say something like "Get out! I sent him away and you'll never 
see him again." He could follow that up with a letter to get her to move 
on. Life isn't going to be easy for Tim. He's lost not only his love but 
his identity.

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