A Fall of Marigolds

This chapter returns to Taryn’s timeline. Taryn cannot believe Mick still has the scarf; through her shock, she hears Mick ask if she wants the scarf back. Instead of answering, Taryn asks Mick if he believes that everything happens for a reason. Mick immediately answers that he does, and his “quick confidence in providence awed [Taryn]” (324). Mick explains that he’s “looked for [her] for a decade. At every 9/11 event, inside every subway station, in the face of every woman on the sidewalk who reminded [him] of [her]. And yes,” he continues, he “asked God to help” him find her (324). Taryn does not want to believe that, however. She thinks it would be “better for [her] to believe that chance alone impacted [her] choices” (324). She then tells Mick that the scarf was not hers, and she will have someone contact him if the real owner wants it back. She then hangs up the phone despite his protestations.

She attends the 9/11 memorial with her daughter, achieving “a measure of peace” (326) but continues to be haunted by whether Kent was destined to die or if it was random chance. As the days go on, Taryn is haunted by doubt and paralyzed by her inability to make a decision.