April and the Professor are most closely associated with the theme of Rejecting One’s Present Reality. They are both attached to objects from the past. The Professor surrounds himself with antiques. Nothing in his shop is new, and most of his antiques are dust-covered, rendering them even more ancient-looking. The shop originally belongs to his dead wife, further connecting it to a bygone past. April feels drawn to A-Z Antiques while all the other neighborhood children stay away. She is curious about the antiques that the shop holds. Its relics speak to her own inability to move forward, as does her interest in ancient Egypt.

The letters April exchanges with her mother are an even more important connection to the past. April uses her mother’s letters as a lifeline; they represent April’s connection to her old life in Hollywood. April clings to the hope of reuniting with her mother, and rejects her grandmother Caroline as a surrogate parent. While Dorothea’s letters promise a return to the past, her actions tell a different story. She ships all of April’s belongings to Caroline’s apartment. In the novel’s final pages, April receives a letter from Dorothea that convinces her to let go of her past and embrace the present.