Farah’s Reviews > The Marble Collector > Status Update

As soon as I hear the water start I do something I haven't done for a very long time, I cry. Deep and painful, like I'm a child again. I fall asleep before Cat is out of the shower. When I wake up I'm in hospital and the next time I see Cat is the first time I meet her, in a rehabilitation centre that I call home, where she is visiting a friend.

Maybe I should leave, but if I haven't learned anything else from today, I've learned that I'm my father's daughter. I stay.

Maybe I should leave, but if I haven't learned anything else from today, I've learned that I'm my father's daughter. I stay.

When a member of the family leaves or dies, it changes the dynamics of a family. People move and shift, take up places they either wanted to have or are forced into roles they never wanted. It happens without anybody noticing, but it's shifting all the time.

So many secrets, so many things I didn't know. What else don't I know?
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There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each differently.
- Robert Evans.

I have a knack for remembering things that people forget and I now know something important about Dad that he kept to himself, which he has forgotten.
Things we want to forget, things we can't forget, things we forgot we'd forgotten until we remember them.
There is a new category. We all have things we never want to forget. We all need a person to remember them just in case.

One thing I learned about carrying marbles in my pockets in case Father Murphy locked me in the dark room, and going out with Hamish and pretending to other kids that I've never played marbles before, is that keeping secrets makes me feel powerful.

My mother says that I have a knack for remembering what others forget. Sometimes it's a curse; nobody likes it when there's somebody to remember what they've tried so hard to bury. I'm like the person who remembers everything after a drunken night out, who everyone wishes would keep their memories to themself.

When it comes to my memory there are three categories: things I want to forget, things I can't forget, and things I forgot I'd forgotten until I remember them.