Ancient Charlie sees a momentary vision of young Rachel, barely into her teens, and a moment
with her that was never to be.
I’ve read other Card stories where he portrays the dark
side of a character in realistic and frightening form that I could deal with, but for me, the
seeming comfort that the character gets at the end is more disturbing than anything else Card
has written.
He almost stops himself. Few things are left in his private catalog of sin, but surely
this is one. He looks into himself and tries to find the will to resist his own desire
solely because its fulfillment will hurt another person. He is out of practice—so far
out of practice that he keeps losing track of the reason for resisting.