Photographs are chunks of time
Observing the photo from her mother's weeding Melanie admires the beauty of that moment, the beauty of her dress and the happiness she shared with Melanie's father. She melancholically concludes that photographs are chunks of time to be held in one's hand and this photograph is a piece of her mother's most beautiful moment.
The world as a garden
Melanie decides to wear her mother's wedding dress and goes out into the garden enveloped in night. She is ecstatic, excited, feels like a true bride, not even needing a groom. At that moment, that empty garden was the world, empty and "endless as eternity".
Skin as clothing
To climb the apple tree into the house, Melanie had to take the wedding dress off. Consciousness of her own nakedness, outside in the dark, felt to her as if she stripped her skin off as well and was left naked to her skeleton. Her hands, even, felt as if she discarded them "like gloves".
Warmth and strength of love
It is clear from the beginning of their introduction that Jowles siblings share a strong bond. Their connection to one another is described as being "warm as fire and strong and soothing as sweet tea", just like the tea they drink every day at the table together, perhaps?
False teeth like a Cheshire cat
It is no secret that the author alludes to many famous works and authors that could be said to be an inspiration to the work; from works of Shakespeare to Jane Eyre and even Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in this instance. Melanie goes to the bathroom and sees her uncle's teeth left there "grinning faceless, like a disappeared Cheshire cat".
