Tom's Midnight Garden

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and gender discrimination.

The next morning, Tom checks that Hatty’s skates are still in their hiding place. Beside them, he finds a note from Hatty recording her promise to him. The note is dated June 20, but the year is smudged and unreadable.

Tom reflects on how he can spend hours in the garden but only a few minutes have passed when he returns to the present. He reasons that even if he spent years in the garden, he would likely return to the present on the same day he left. Tom decides to try this theory out and stay in the garden longer on his next visit. As he goes to bed, Tom remembers that he forgot to write to Peter the day before. He feels guilty for breaking his promise, knowing that Peter eagerly awaits his stories about the garden.

Peter lies awake, upset that he has not received a letter from Tom. He eventually falls asleep while looking at Tom’s postcard of Ely Cathedral.

Tom takes Hatty’s skates into the garden. He wonders if his friend’s eyesight is failing as she approaches him uncertainly, saying that she thought he was “a trick of the frostlight” (182).