When You Reach Me & Rectification
Christ has promised us that He is going to rectify everything at the end of ages, set everything right, and do away with all sin. [Hebrews 12:18-29; Revelation 21-22] What about right now? Does Christ promise us rectification for the things in our life today? Does Christ promise us that He will make all things in our Earthly life right? The truth is that the setting right of things in our current life is not a promise but a command. [Isaiah 1:10-17; Matthew 5:17-37; James 1:19-27] Miranda, the main character of When You Reach Me, learns through the people around her that things do not just set themselves right but have to be tended to, and sometimes things being set right doesn't mean that we put things the way we want them to be or the way they once were.
The most upfront presentation of this is through Marcus, a character the reader is introduced to rather early on, though it takes the length of the book to realize just how much the reader knows about Marcus. The plot of the book is loosely based around this old man who ends up saving Sal's life after Sal runs from Marcus and into the path of an oncoming boxing truck. The twist is that this old man is Marcus from the future, after he's learned how to time travel. He uses the power to come back and push Sal out of the way of the moving truck, because in the old past, with no old man Marcus there to save Sal, Sal dies; Marcus kills him. Marcus goes back in time to save Sal as a way to atone for having killed him before. Long before Sal would have died, though, Marcus realizes his mistake. Miranda asks Marcus about it, and he reveals he's been ruminating on it for some time now: '"I did hit him for a reason,' he said. 'What you're talking about is justification. I'm not saying it was the right thing to do. I'm just saying I did it for a reason. My own stupid reason. . . I wanted to see what would happen. . . It was dumb. Really, really dumb.'"[1] Marcus's epiphany is not what corrects the situation in this case. Life is far past that point. This conversation is kid Marcus's rectification with Sal in his heart and with Miranda in person, though Miranda pushes him into it. Marcus is able to rectify with Miranda because the two talk things out. They make things right by making the connection between them right. Marcus also ultimately does make killing Sal right by saving him, at the cost of Marcus's own life. Because he does this, Marcus is given the chance to make things right as a kid too and connect with an alive Sal.
Julia also has a sly way of inserting herself into the picture and helping correct things. Julia serves as a kind of antagonist for the first half of the book. She's really snobby, stuck-up, and rich, and she's also Annemarie's friend, and Miranda steals Annemarie from Julia for some time. Julia is trying to look after Annemarie even when distance grows between the two, but it goes right over Miranda's head:
"'Right,' Julia said, talking just to Annemarie, as if I didn't exist. 'Like you're supposed to be eating sandwiches and drinking soda.'
"Annemarie's face folded up a little. 'It's fine.' . . .
"As we walked in behind Julia, I whispered to Annemarie, 'No wonder you don't want to be friends with her anymore. She's so rude to you.'"[2]
Julia knows things that Miranda doesn't about Annemarie, like how she can't eat bread or drink anything other than water because it causes her epilepsy to flare. Miranda can only see this as rudeness in her own ignorance. Julia tries to be there for her friend, but there's only so much she can do with the tension between her and Miranda. Julia confronts Miranda after Annemarie has an epileptic episode at school from eating off of her diet. Miranda doesn't lift the wall between them right away, but this conversation does eventually make Miranda "truce" with Julia. Although it is easy to say that Julia is in the right and completely justify her, remember that she drove away the people around her through her attitude. Her going off on Miranda for hating her is her way of trying to set this right, even in her own ignorance, and this effort is what the two need. When they hang out at Julia's house after making up, Miranda finally realizes Julia's humanity: "She [Julia] flopped down on her shaggy pink wall-to-wall carpeting, glanced at her digital clock, and reached out automatically to turn on the TV. And I realize that we probably spend our afternoons the exact same way."[3] Julia never reconciles her behavior with Miranda, which is something Julia should have done, but Miranda rectifies Julia's person with her own worldview. Julia allows Miranda to see Julia's person, a person who feels like she does and likes things like she does. Julia cares like Miranda cares, even if Julia is a mean person. This realization allows Miranda to step out of the way of Annemaria and Julia's friendship, so that it can be amended; Miranda herself also reconciles with Julia so they can be friends too. The two make up and set their friendship right, by starting it.
A central character in Miranda’s life, and therefore in the book. is Sal. Sal and Miranda are inseparable when we meet him. They start the book off walking to school together each day and spending all of their time together. Then, Marcus punches Sal, and Sal stops talking to Miranda – at least, it seems that way to Miranda. This is partially Miranda's fault – she is clueless to Sal's social cues – but Sal gives up trying with Miranda and retreats from her after the fight. "When I had gotten us [Miranda and Sal] into the lobby, Sal went straight to his apartment and closed the door on me. I knocked for a while, but Louisa wasn't home from work yet and he wouldn't let me in."[4] The world has hurt Sal, and his best friend at the time couldn't seem to understand him, so the only thing he knew how to do was hurt her back and run away. He gives up. The world seems scary, so he closes himself off from it. He closes himself off from Miranda. He refuses to set things right just because things feel wrong the way they are. He leads himself to believe there is no way out. He gives Miranda a lot, but he does still have more to give. We know this because Sal is much more direct with Miranda after he's hurt. After the truck accident, Sal learns that the world is not out to hurt him, and so he, somewhat by force of circumstance, returns to the world, especially to Miranda. It seems that it is precisely this accident that wakes Sal up to the way the world is – that is, not out to kill him. He is prompted to truly open up. To Miranda, he says "I mean, remember the second week of school, when you got sick? I spent that whole week alone. The whole week. Alone at lunch every day, alone after school. . . and don't take this the wrong way, but sometimes I want to hang out with boys."[5] Sal realizes the only way to truly live is to have the door open, even if it seems better to close it. It is this simple moment of explanation, one that he is forced to give because of the situation he is in, the thing he needed to do to begin with, that makes Sal's and Miranda's friendship right again – makes it the way Sal knows it needs to be.
Most important overall, and the one who takes the longest to set things right, is the main character, Miranda. As is obvious by now, Miranda is somewhat aloof of the going-ons in her own life, of the lives of those close to her, both by no fault of her own and through her own ignorance. Both of these things sever connections, and the severance seems permanent. Yet, everything comes back together as it is supposed to be. All of the pieces fall into place because those people put in effort to put it back together. As Miranda sees all of the people around her and their ways of making amends, it helps her to learn how to do the same. It helps her learn that the way things are is not necessarily the way things ought to be, and that the way things ought to be is not necessarily outside of one's reach. Miranda makes up with everyone in the book, but the overarching conflict in her life throughout it, the central conflict of the book, is her friendship with Sal. Miranda's journey culminates with this epiphany: “I suddenly got how totally stupid I'd been, never telling Sal that Marcus was an okay kid. I thought of the day I'd seen Sal drop to the ground and pretend to tie his shoe. He probably worried about seeing Marcus on that block every single day. . . And I could have done something to fix it, a long time ago.'[6] She realized she knew nothing about Marcus and the way he thinks. She realized she knows nothing about Julia and Annemarie, their dynamic and them as people. She realized she knew nothing about the old man and why he hung around. All of this builds up to this moment, with her and Sal in Sal's room, forced to address things. She realizes the only way to rectify anything is to take action, so she does. Miranda concludes the book:
"Sal and I don't wait for each other these days. Not purposely. But if we happen to be leaving school at the same time, if he isn't going to a friend's, or to basketball practice, and I’m not going to Annemarie's or Julia's – or Colin's – then Sal and I walk home together. And we are better this way, together because we want to be. He understood that before I did."[7]
It is, as Miranda and her mother says, a lifting of the veil. She is shown the truth, and the truth is not that Sal and Miranda spend the rest of their lives together always. The truth is much better than that, for it promises a real and genuine friendship. Miranda learns how to rectify herself and other people when they do wrong, and that doing wrong is not the end of the world but can be tended to and made better.
Miranda, talking in retrospective, recognizes her part in Sal's death, too.
"I could have called out to Sal at that moment [him and Marcus happen to be walking down the street together.] It would have been easy. He would have had an excuse to turn around and start walking away from Marcus. And then Marcus might have stopped to talk to me for a minute, and Sal would have seen that it was all okay. He could have dropped his fear of Marcus right then and there. I've thought about this a lot, because I realize it would have changed everything that happened later."[8]
It would have changed everything because if Sal wasn’t afraid of Marcus, Sal wouldn't have ran in front of the truck. Miranda realizes here that she bears a good deal of the responsibility of that because of her ignorance. Miranda and the other characters are able to make everything else right between them rather simply, but this one thing requires Marcus to go to extreme lengths to rectify – unreal lengths, in fact. In the real world, Sal would have been dead and that would have been it. Miranda's and Marcus's stupidity would have killed Sal. There would have been nothing they could do to make things right. Only the grace of the Lord has kept Sal alive. It is also important to note that rectifying these characters' situations always has to do with accepting the truth. Miranda had to accept the truth of Sal's wants and needs, Annemarie had to accept the truth of her medical condition, Marcus had to accept the truth that actions have consequences, so on. Christ is Truth, and Christ's plan for our lives is better than our own. If He is to deny us connection and happiness, comfort and safety, it is only because the absence of these things in our life gives Him greater glory then their presence, and being holy, righteous, and rectified with our Father, the Creator of the world, is far better than any other thing. To rectify is not necessarily to restore; to rectify is to set things right. Even if we cannot set things right, we are commanded to set out heart towards that goal, in the name of Christ.