Chap­ter 25 delves into Miss Foley’s intro­spec­tive jour­ney as she begins to sense the pres­ence of reflec­tions in her home, rem­i­nis­cent of the way one can feel the snow falling out­side with­out need­ing to look. Over the years, she has come to rec­og­nize these reflec­tions as shad­ows of her for­mer self, fill­ing the spaces with­in her house and remind­ing her of the pas­sage of time. With each shad­ow, she treads care­ful­ly, avoid­ing the cold Decem­ber ice that seems to sym­bol­ize the weight of these mem­o­ries. Acknowl­edg­ing these rem­nants from the past could pull her into a deep­er spi­ral of reflec­tion, where she might become trapped by the very mem­o­ries that seem to linger in her home. There is an under­ly­ing fear that embrac­ing this con­nec­tion to her past might over­whelm her and pre­vent her from mov­ing for­ward, for­ev­er bound by the oppres­sive nature of time and its asso­ci­at­ed regrets.

On this par­tic­u­lar night, after the boys have left, Miss Foley’s con­nec­tion to these reflec­tions becomes even more intense. She can almost feel them pulling her in, as if she could reach through the mir­rors and redis­cov­er for­got­ten pieces of her­self. But there’s a deep hes­i­ta­tion with­in her; the thought of unlock­ing these reflec­tions ter­ri­fies her. What if each mir­ror she touched revealed not just mem­o­ries, but an over­whelm­ing cas­cade of ver­sions of herself—versions that could suf­fo­cate her or leave her lost in a web of con­fu­sion? Her fear of becom­ing over­whelmed by these mul­ti­ple selves, unable to make sense of it all, keeps her root­ed in the present. Despite this, her yearn­ing to con­nect with these lost parts of her inten­si­fies, as she won­ders whether con­fronting the past could offer her a form of heal­ing or sim­ply deep­en the mys­tery sur­round­ing her exis­tence.

In the midst of these reflec­tive thoughts, Miss Foley turns her atten­tion to her nephew, whose recent arrival in her life has stirred emo­tions she can­not ful­ly com­pre­hend. His pres­ence seems to cre­ate an inex­plic­a­ble detach­ment with­in her, even as he encour­ages her to embrace the excite­ment of the car­ni­val. Despite his insis­tence on enjoy­ing the carnival’s offer­ings, par­tic­u­lar­ly the music and excite­ment, Miss Foley can­not shake the sense that his pres­ence car­ries a deep­er, more unset­tling mean­ing. He advis­es her to avoid the maze where win­ter rests, yet she feels drawn to him, espe­cial­ly when he entices her toward the carousel, which rep­re­sents a sym­bol of sum­mer­time joy and enchant­ment. The pull of the carousel is strong—its promise of mag­ic and escape draw­ing her away from the reflec­tion-filled con­fines of her home and toward some­thing that feels more imme­di­ate and tan­gi­ble.

Torn between her emo­tions and her per­cep­tions, Miss Foley glances out­side at her untend­ed lawn, imag­in­ing jew­els scat­tered across it, each one a sym­bol of poten­tial and untapped oppor­tu­ni­ty. She becomes more cer­tain that her nephew has a plan, and she sus­pects that he seeks to iso­late the two boys—Jim and Will—who might hin­der her from ful­ly seiz­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty rep­re­sent­ed by the carousel tick­et she has found. She resolves to act inde­pen­dent­ly, sens­ing that now is the time to pro­tect her­self from any exter­nal inter­fer­ence, par­tic­u­lar­ly from the boys who have become an unwant­ed reminder of her past. She decides that her con­nec­tion with her nephew is more impor­tant, and she will fol­low the pull toward the carousel, which promis­es some­thing far more entic­ing than the life she has lived so far.

In this moment of resolve, Miss Foley recalls the unspo­ken encour­age­ment her nephew has con­veyed through touch, along with the faint scent of baked apples that lingers in her mem­o­ry. Feel­ing more deter­mined than ever, she takes the phone in hand and dials Mr. Hal­loway, Will’s father. She arranges to meet him at the police sta­tion in ten min­utes, a deci­sion that marks a sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point in her actions. This moment sig­nals her readi­ness to con­front the com­plex­i­ties sur­round­ing her nephew and her own desire to embrace the carousel’s mag­ic, despite the con­se­quences. It is clear that Miss Foley is step­ping into a new phase of her life, one that is filled with both antic­i­pa­tion and dan­ger, as she choos­es to fol­low her instincts rather than the well-mean­ing advice of oth­ers. The chap­ter reflects her inter­nal con­flict, as she moves fur­ther into a world of uncer­tain­ty and deep­er per­son­al rev­e­la­tions.