Border Crossing

Plot synopsis

When Tom Seymour, a child psychologist, plunges into a river to save a young man from suicide, he unwittingly reopens a chapter from his past he had hoped to forget. For Tom already knows the young man as Danny Miller. When Danny was eleven, Tom presented evidence that helped commit him to prison for the murder of the elderly Lizzie Parks. Danny, full of suppressed memory and now free from prison, turns to Tom to help him recount what really happened, and discover the truth.

Reluctantly, Tom is drawn back into Danny's world, a place where the border between good and evil, innocence and guilt are blurred and confused. But when Danny's demands on Tom become extreme, Tom wonders whether he has crossed the line between the professional and personal relationship, speculating upon, but never realising, the perilous danger he is in until it is almost too late.

Context

The events of Border Crossing are quite possibly inspired by a particularly tragic murder case that took place in Britain in 1993. On 12 February of that year, two-year-old James Patrick Bulger was taken from his mother's side whilst in a shopping centre, and suffered ten skull fractures as a result of an iron bar striking his head. His body was then placed on railway tracks and covered with stones. The two murderers were found to be Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both ten years old.

The case caused considerable controversy both in Britain and worldwide. Just like Danny in Border Crossing, Thompson and Venables were tried and sentenced as adults.

Plot detail

Border Crossing opens with Tom Seymour and his wife Lauren strolling along a deserted river path. They pass the derelict remnants of their decaying neighbourhood, with numerous buildings awaiting demolition or already burnt to the ground, and litter strewn across the path. They stop to observe a young man pause at the edge of a pier, swallow a handful of pills and disappear into the depths of the icy-cold river.

Tom sprints to the boy's aid and, after a moment's hesitation, dives in after him. Struggling with the body, Tom manages to drag the boy back towards the bank of the river through the thick, repugnant mud. The boy, his face covered in a mud mask, is not breathing, so they perform CPR. After Tom detects a pulse, Lauren rushes back to the house to call an ambulance, which arrives promptly. The paramedics establish that the drowned boy is now stable, and they load him into the ambulance to be taken to hospital.

"... the woman, fair-haired, wearing a beige coat that faded into the gravel, and talking, always talking. Though the red lips move, no sound comes out. He denies her his attention in memory, as he did in life."

"A second later, the water enclosed [Tom] in a coffin of ice."

"[Lauren's] eyes were glazed, inward-looking. Like labour, Tom thought, the irony as sour as the mud on his tongue."

"The boy looked like a baby: purple face, wet hair, that drowned look of the newborn, cast up on to its mother's suddenly creased and spongy belly."

Tom and Lauren arrive back home, and Lauren prepares a hot bath. The couple retreat to bed, for the first time in months not worrying about Lauren's menstrual cycle or pregnancy. Afterwards, Tom deserts a frustrated Lauren and drinks whisky, feeling guilty and inadequate; Lauren had not climaxed.

Tom discovers that he had unknowingly traded coats with the boy he'd rescued, and, realising that his mail and a pair of spare keys were in his coat, he travels to the hospital to retrieve it. The nurse informs Tom that the boy's name is Ian Wilkinson, though the boy introduces himself to Tom as Danny Miller. Danny and Tom have a pre-existing professional relationship; Tom evaluated Danny when he was just ten years old, concluding that Danny could be tried as an adult. Danny had only been released from prison ten months previously, living under the false identity of Ian.

Characters

Tom Seymour

A child psychologist, and the central character of the third-person narrative, Tom originally proclaimed Danny capable of distinguishing between fantasy and reality, and of understanding the notion of death as a permanent state. Tom's testimony in court effectively ensured that Danny was tried as an adult, despite being only eleven years old, and sentenced to twelve years in juvenile prison for the murder of Lizzie Parks.

Years later, when he next encounters Danny, Tom is also suffering from the breakdown of his marriage to Lauren. Tom feels disconnected from Lauren, and resents being treated as a "sperm bank" in their failed attempts to have children. Their relationship gradually disintegrates throughout the course of the novel, ending with Lauren's asking for a divorce.

Danny Miller

At age 11, Danny murdered an elderly woman named Lizzie Parks, smothering her with a pillow before "play[ing]" with her deceased body. Based on Tom's testimony in court, Danny was sentenced to be tried as an adult, and served seven years at the Long Garth correctional institute. At the age of 18, Danny was transferred to an adult prison, where he was allegedly harassed and sexually abused.

Upon his release from prison, under the alias Ian Wilkinson, Danny finds it difficult to fit into society.

Lauren Seymour

As Tom's wife, Lauren plays a small but vital role in the novel. Being unable to conceive by Tom, she feels unsatisfied that she is fulfilling any roles in the marriage. Throughout the novel, we witness the marriage between the two break down due to the couple's inability to conceive a child. Eventually, Lauren feels isolated from Tom, deciding that it is best that she finds another man to achieve her goal of having a child.

Dr. Bernard Greene

Dr. Bernard Greene is the headmaster of Long Garth correctional institute, where Danny spent the first seven years of his sentence. Tom visits Dr. Greene to learn some vital clues about Danny's past, though he is slightly disappointed with the result. Tom views Greene as a somewhat self-important man, and he responds with disapproval when Greene forces his wife to answer the front door, when he is in a much better position to do so. His wife describes him as being "impervious" to the horrors of the children that he faces each and every day, but this also produces a sense of detachment, and Greene often sees only what he wishes to in people.

Elspeth Greene

The wife of Bernard Greene, Elspeth Greene also observed Danny for seven years, and also taught him. She offers Tom some insights into Danny's behaviour, labelling him "a bottomless pit" who "hated anything he couldn't control."

Angus MacDonald

One of Danny's English teachers at Long Garth correctional institute. Despite only teaching Danny for one year, it is Angus who most closely approached the root of Danny's emotional distress: his murder of Lizzie Parks. When Danny accuses Angus of sexually harassing him, Angus is quietly let go.

When Tom visits Angus during a writer's workshop course that he runs, Angus admits that there was never any sexual contact between himself and Danny.

Martha Pitt

Danny's parole officer, and a good friend of Tom. Despite declaring that he has no interest in entering a relationship with Martha, by the end of the novel, after Tom's marriage has broken down, he and Martha are together.

Lizzie Parks

The elderly woman whom Danny was convicted of murdering at age eleven.

Quotes

About Danny

"Danny didn't do feelings."

"Danny was a bottomless pit. He wanted other people to fill him, only in the process the other people ended up drained."

"I think he hated anything he couldn't control."

"...the horror of the images impossible to connect with the child he'd just left."

Crossing borders

"It was extraordinarily distracting: this feeling of a pivotal moment in his own life being played out in front of an uninvited audience."

"...Tom was aware of a line being crossed."

"[Danny] was very, very good at getting people to step across that invisible border. Lambs to the slaughter."

Mist and fog

"They'd awoken that morning to a curious stillness. Clouds sagged over the river, and there was mist like sweat over the mudflats."

"[Tom] was less than halfway across the causeway when the mist thickened."

Smoke and fire

"The fired burnt furiously, piled high with logs. Danny had dragged the log basket onto the hearth rug and was kneeling beside it, a log in each hand, watching the fire burn."

"Danny's face was veiled in smoke."

Release details

2001, UK, Viking Press

2002, UK, Penguin Books

Film adaptation

Stephen Molton and Frank Pugliese wrote the screenplay for the 2017 movie adaptation titled The Drowning, directed by Bette Gordon and scored by Anton Sanko. The film stars Avan Jogia as Danny Miller, Josh Charles as Tom Seymour and Julia Stiles as Lauren Seymour. Other cast members include Tracie Thoms, Leo Fitzpatrick and John C McGinley.