Saying goodbye is never easy but usually you get to take your memories with you. Lily had only a few minutes. Then she had to leave Sam. It was bad enough that she would never again see the dog she had grown to love in the last two days. Also bad was she wouldn’t remember any of this because she had to travel back to the day before this whole thing started.
When her grandmother died, Lily’s mother told her that she would always have her memories of Gram. That was five years ago when Lily was seven years old. Even now she remembers the delicious smells in the kitchen from Gram’s brisket. It felt to Lily like it was just yesterday when her grandmother taught her how to make hot chocolate. Lily will never forget the rule that after you put your spoon in the liquid, you couldn’t use the same spoon to get more sugar from the sugar bowl.
Lily wanted to remember everything about Sam and all they had been through together—every one of their conversations, every near-death experience they had shared, every minute of the last two days. She thought about all the times Sam risked his life to save her. If she could save just one memory, what would it be? Giving Sam a hug and seeing the look in his eyes as he told her he had never been hugged by a human before. Sam surviving the fight with Mort, when he came out of his coma, lifting his huge brown head with a wimper.
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This is really nicely done! It's not easy to deal with big emotions like this in a concrete way - which is what you have to do in a YA novel. And you do a terrific job here. Totally believable. Totally moving. And I love the ending.
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