We have a new character and a lot more plot this time around.

Constance appearing with her own ghost story. She talks about people with great pain or great emotions kind of warping reality around them, like the woman with the revolver. Later the tree seems to warp reality around it as well. Is Sarah somehow warping reality with her grief? Is the tree a kind of nexus for reality warping?

The ‘lost picnic’ incident, the 100 yards between the house and the tree somehow taking almost an hour to traverse, the tree never getting closer one way, the house never getting closer the other way. Reminds me of House of Leaves or the podcast Tanis. Why doesn’t the tree want Constance to see it?

Another dream from Sarah, this one about Constance, but Constance talking to her as Amanda. Is there some kind of cosmic transference going on between Amanda who is no longer alive to Constance who is? The woman at the gas station sees Constance, so it’s not likely that Constance is a ghost or an imaginary friend. Is this transference cosmic, or just Sarah subconsciously superimposing her old love on her new crush?

On page 201 of my copy, Constance says she’s much better at taking rejection than finding four leaf clovers. But Sarah said she was the one who was bad at finding four leaf clovers in a previous section, that Amanda had been great at finding four leaf clovers. Constance mentioned she was bad at finding shooting stars. Continuity error, or intentional?

Finally the story, “Pony.” Sarah doesn’t remember writing it, but it appears to be her writing. The editor has similar misgivings about the manuscript for “The Red Tree.” “If it is a forgery, it’s a good one.” Is there a second Sarah somehow writing for her, completing the manuscript and delivering it to the Editor, drafting the short story for her? Sarah supposedly delivered Dr. Harvey’s manuscript to Constance, but Constance received Sarah’s short story instead. Is Dr. Harvey’s manuscript somehow changing to fit the artist who finds it? Is the Red Tree targeting artists and academics?

I’ll make another post next Sunday. For next week try to read 100ish pages or up to Chapter eight.