Later, the ghost, too, becomes demanding and past and present converge to bring about a kind of healing for both the ghost and Evan. The dead girl's voice starts out as lyrical, conveying her emotions and longing in poems almost like Haiku in their brevity and emotional trenchancy ("quiet/ night nestles into corners/ tall clock in the downstairs hall/ ticks the seconds/ I roam"). The story unwinds in two voices, that of the ghost, and the other the third-person account from Evan's perspective. His brunette girlfriend, Carrie, senses his emotional withdrawal and becomes more demanding. Evan begins to feel ill at ease, and he dreams of sex with a pale-haired girl. The ghost sees in Evan a reminder of her own lover (a workman's discovery of a box of papers reveals the identities of the two 19th-century lovers). Along with the stained glass window and gingerbread outfittings, comes the spirit of a girl who died in the house a century before. After a rocky divorce, 17-year-old Evan's mother buys a Victorian fixer-upper where she can write and, with Evan and his young sister Libby, make a home.
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