https://youtu.be/2U3Q_mltG8I
Lyrics:
Ricky
This room is so lonely
Won’t you come and keep me
company
But even when you’re right here
You and I, were ghosts here
We communicate in the words
of a picture of me that I drew
We both know that the sound
doesn’t ever kill the
silence
I can be with you only in the future
I can’t feel us if there’s no dream here
Only then does my head fill with your presence
Of your dreams baby make me a present
And then loneliness will never take me again
You know when you come visit
Gently next to me you sit
I can’t feel your touch on my skin
It sounds just like condolences ringing
But when I make my dreams with you
Your words will be on every page I drew
Imagine the life we would lead
Plan everything we could need
I can be with you only in the future
I can’t feel us if there’s no dream here
Only then does my head fill with your presence
Of your dreams baby make me a present
Oh Ricky
My life is lifeless without you
And I’m so lonely in this room
So let me be with you only in the future
I can’t feel us if there’s no dream here
Only then does my head fill with your presence
Of your dreams baby make me a present
And never let loneliness find me again
This song aims to show how the book reveals that what is important to avoid loneliness is not the people we're with and we spend time with, but the future we imagine with them. Josie and Rick spend a lot of time together, but what seems to truly unite them is their “plan,” their dream for their future life together. Indeed, Klara says that she “realized too the significance of this plan for [her] own aims; that as the future unfolded even if the Mother, Melania Housekeeper and I could remain near her at all times, without the plan, Josie might still not keep away from loneliness” (122). In the song, written from Josie’s perspective, we can hear her saying that she can only really be with Ricky and feel his presence when they are imaging a future together. When the song says that his touch “sounds just like condolences ringing,” we can see that the kindness Josie receives from Ricky, from her mother, and from all the other people in her surroundings, is comforting but it does not make her feel less lonely because it feels like they have already given up on her, and don’t include her in their vision of their lives.
Klara often refers to loneliness as the main issue in humans. She insists on it so much that she even contradicts Josie’s word when Josie says “but who says I’m lonely? I’m not lonely” and Klara replies “perhaps all humans are lonely. At least potentially” (255). This exchange is interesting because we can see both Josie’s need to deny her loneliness, and Klara’s need to reassert it because she sees how Josie truly feels, and because if Josie is not lonely at all then Klara’s role is obsolete. Not seeing a future with Josie would make Klara herself, lonely.
Klara does her best to make Josie less lonely, but she doesn’t truly know how. She struggles to understand loneliness. She watches Helen wish Ricky a successful life in college and says that “until recently, I didn’t think that humans could choose loneliness. That there were sometimes forces more powerful than the wish to avoid loneliness” (152). This becomes clearer when Rick explains that he will love Josie and still be with her even when they are apart. That seeing someone as part of your life story, is the most important thing because “Josie and I will always be together at some level, a deeper one, even if we go out there and don't see each other anymore” (288). Indeed, we can understand that Helen will always be with Ricky because she will always see him as part of her life, living parallel to each other and so in a way together. Having dreams together as the escape from loneliness means a future together in the sense that both have a future, and both consider the other to be a part of their life. Klara then understands that people never leave your heart. She experiences this at the end of the book in the yard, as while she sorts through her memories, she does not feel loneliness, only love.
We have confirmation of this theory when Josie heals from her illness. That moment, when they are all in the room, is the only moment when all of her family have hope for her again. They can see her in their future. “all at once – as if each of us in the room had received a secret message – we turned to Josie” (279) Klara says. At that moment, we may think that Josie heals physically because she is finally healing from the real illness: loneliness. She heals because people believe in her, because she feels like she is part of them again, and so she wants to live. Their hope heals her.