“We need that touch from the one we love, almost as much as we need air to breathe. I never understood the importance of touch, his touch . . . until I couldn’t have it.”
I think we take the ability to touch one another for granted, most of us never even imagining a world in which we can’t touch the person we love. It’s so natural to reach out and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, or lay your head against his shoulder, or lean in to smell their neck, absorbing them into your skin. This is Stella telling you to never, ever take that touch for granted.
The monologue for the screenplay works as a kind of wraparound, like a ribbon that ties the beginning and the end of the story together, much like the ribbon Will uses to tie up the box of pop-up flowers he makes for Stella.
I really like the way Rachael chose to use this only for the end of the book, as it would have been weird, I think, to write a whole book that was basically told in flashback. Some things work for movies that don’t necessarily work for books.
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