Things don’t go backwards just because you want them to. If they did, we’d all be getting younger.
-- Imaginary Sully (Wishes)

Importance: While waiting to fill in Judge Flatt’s grave, Rub Squeers has an imaginary conversation with his best friend, Sully, who happens to be elsewhere. Rub’s mind wanders, and he finds himself wishing things could go back to the way they were, or that things could go backwards at all. These are the reflections of a man who does not like aging- and the imaginary response (though arguably Rub’s own response to his own consideration) is that the reality is that things change and do not go back. One has to embrace the life one has.

Sully was old. He wasn’t going to wander off. He was going to die. And the worst part was that when the day came it would fall on Rub to dig...
-- Narrator (Wishes)