Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance

The recurring motif of water—from the town pool to the ocean at Watch Hill to the approach of Hurricane Kathy—represents the powerful and often dangerous force of memory, love, and grief. Initially, the town pool is a site of communal summer life, but it transforms into a place of symbolic death and rebirth that initiates the novel’s central bond between Billy and Sally. When Sally nearly drowns, Billy saves her life, pulling her from the water in a moment that irrevocably links them. Sally recalls, “When I woke, there was Billy’s face” (38). This event, submerged in the water of an archetypically idyllic public space, marks the beginning of their shared secret history, one founded on a life-altering, near-fatal experience. 

The meaning of water deepens at Watch Hill, the oceanfront setting for Kathy and Billy’s romance, which later becomes the sacred space where Sally and Billy confront their own complex connection, demonstrating how memory and relationships remain fluid and ever-changing. The motif culminates in “Hurricane Kathy,” a storm that externalizes the overwhelming power of grief. As Sally and Billy stand in the storm, she thinks, “I know that these are the kinds of things you do when you’re in love” (337).