Afterwards, Aunt Gwen tried to describe it to her husband, that second parting between them. "He ran up to her and they hugged each other as if they had known each other for years and years, instead of only having met for the first time this morning."
The first time that Tom met Mrs Bartholomew was that morning, on the day he left, and at first they shook hands politely, like well-mannered strangers, but both seemed uncomfortable with the formality of this parting and Gwen realizes that there is something rather strange about their parting hug. It is as though they matter deeply to each other and have had a lifetime of friendship that would not be possible, of course, because Tom just met her today. Aunt Gwen is unaware of the fact that because of Tom's time spent in the garden after midnight, that both feel that they have almost grown up together and that they have a shared history separated by over fifty years but as fresh and new as if it were really yesterday. Aunt Gwen can see that there is something more to their relationship but she cannot put her finger on what.
In the daytime, in the Kitson's flat, he thought only of the garden, and sometimes he wondered about it; where it came from, what it all meant. Then he planned cunning questions to put to Hatty, that she would have to answer fully and without fancy; but each night, when he walked into the garden, he forgot to be a detective, and instead remembered only that he was a boy and this was the garden for a boy and that Hatty was his playmate.
Sometimes, when he is on his own in the house with nothing to do during the day, Tom comes as close as any young boy can come to pondering the meaning of life. Why is he here? Why is the garden here and only at night, and why is he able to go back to Victorian times? Who is Hatty really and what does she know about his ability to slip through time to meet her? In the cold light of day, when he is able to think, and ponder, and come up with a long list of questions, Tom is determined to make Hatty answer them and to really get to the bottom of what is going on.
However, when he gets into the garden, he is just glad to be there and so immersed in the time that he and his new friend are spending together that all of his questions seem to slip magically from his head. It is almost as if he is enchanted and that the ability to remember that he is Tom from modern times has been taken from him; when he is with Hatty, he is a Victorian boy as well and all that matters is their friendship.
