ATDTDA (19): Never even heard of this place, 523-524

[Paul Nightingale]

The Stupendia proceeds into Trieste. Kit's adventures have opened up an
alternate reality, one that within itself contains further alternates; and
the same seems to be true of Dally's progress. The Captain suggests that Kit
left the ship at Agadir, which seems to confirm that the Stupendica did
indeed stop there: this  effectively corroborates the narrative of previous
sections, even if the existence, according to Moises, of two Agadirs does
beg the question.

In the current section Dally is separated from Kit, but from her mother and
putative chaperone Bria also. Erlys ("[keeping] a considerate distance") is
observant, noting the distance that has opened up between her daughters;
they represent alternative scenarios. Here, Bria takes Kit's place, kind of,
moving between first class and fourth; this allows her to pass on Root's
report, again confirming, or seeming to, that something happened in the
engine room. Earlier, Bria indicated an interest in Root ("just my kind of
fella", 514); but this hasn't prevented her, unchaparoned, from "playing ...
a good part of the fourth-class passenger list like fish in an ornamental
pond" (523), all of which is apparently observed by her mother. Erlys has
earlier opened the way to Dally's relationship with Kit (mentioning him on
510, introducing them on 511); but now she is confined to an observational
role, Dally's "romantic setback"  also putting the mother-daughter
relationship on hold (523).

And so to Dally's solitude on 524. Not only is she separated from other
characters, but from herself also, "exit[ing] her life briefly". She
"discover[s] an alternate way to travel ..." etc, perhaps reminiscent of the
radio communication indicated by the Captain (523). She is able to observe
the ship from a distance. Cf. her mother's "considerate distance" above
(523).

However, when "swept gently ashore" at Trieste, "[i]t [feels] like she was
standing still". The chapter is ending with her, as it began. Back on 505,
Dally's presence was signified by the context, since she remained nameless
until the scene with Erlys, mother and daughter able to speak only when the
ship is out at sea (506). It was Katie who was motionless as the ship
"dwindle[d] into the complications of the harbour" (505), thought of it as a
journey "back into childhood" for Dally. By the end of the chapter, Dally is
separated from those characters who have marked her progress thus far,
friend, mother, sister, Kit; and wondering where she is (524).