Later

“I suppose when I’m in my forties—always assuming I make it that far—I’ll look back on what I thought I understood at twenty-two and realize there was a lot I didn’t get at all. There’s always a later, I know that now. At least until we die. Then I guess it’s all before that.”

“Later” is one of the major motifs of Later. The novel is a Bildungsroman, a story about the education and moral growth of a young person as they progress toward adulthood—essentially, a story about later. Even when such a story ends with the protagonist presumably reaching a level of maturity, the conclusion is often open-ended because adulthood is not an ending.

“In the other hand I clutched my turkey, the ones we made in first grade the week before Thanksgiving. I was so proud of mine I was practically shitting nickels. What you did, see, was put your hand on a piece of construction paper and then trace around it with a crayon. That made the tail and body. When it came to the head, you were on your own.”

Stephen King’s characters often voice comments or thoughts that don’t actively contribute to the plot. However, these details provide set dressing, giving the illusion of a fully-developed world. The description of Jamie’s class drawing turkeys also provides nostalgia for some readers. Colorful, profane phrases like “shitting nickels” are to be expected of the hard-boiled detective genre.

“‘People not believing is a good thing. But someday somebody might. And that might get the wrong kind of talk going, or put you in actual danger.’

‘Why?’

‘There’s an old saying that dead men tell no tales, Jamie. But they talk to you, can’t they? Dead men and women. You say they have to answer questions, and give truthful answers… People die with secrets, Jamie, and there are always people who want to know those secrets.’”

This quote foreshadows Tia using Jamie to communicate with deceased author Regis Thomas—albeit for the sake of their survival. She also betrays Jamie’s trust by revealing his ability to girlfriend Liz, despite swearing Jamie himself to secrecy.