If He Had Been with Me
by Laura Nowlin
Contents
Chapter 85
Overview
Autumn recounts Finny’s death on August 8, imagining the accident’s sequence and its causes. After arguing with Sylvie, Finny crashes; Sylvie is ejected. Seeing her in the road, Finny leaves the car and unknowingly steps into electrified water from a downed power line, dying instantly. The tragedy severs their newly rekindled future.
Summary
Autumn narrates the night of August 8, imagining Finny’s final moments with vivid certainty. She envisions Finny driving too fast after an argument with Sylvie, his pulse racing as rain lashes the road.
In the crash, Sylvie is thrown through the windshield. Autumn pleads in her mind for Finny to stay in the car, but imagines him regaining his senses, seeing Sylvie lying motionless in the road, and unbuckling to reach her.
Focused only on Sylvie, Finny does not notice a storm-felled power line draped into a puddle between them. He kneels by her, placing his hand near her head, and is instantly killed by the electrified water. Autumn frames Sylvie as the instrument, not the cause, of his death, and mourns the lost future she believed they had just chosen together.
Who Appears
- AutumnNarrator imagining and recounting Finny’s fatal accident, pleading internally for him to stay.
- Phineas "Finny" SmithAfter arguing with Sylvie, crashes and is electrocuted by a downed power line while trying to reach her.
- SylvieArgues with Finny before the crash; is thrown through the windshield and lies in the road, unharmed by the line.