If He Had Changed the Signal
One choice, and its long shadow
When the train had gone, Thomas unfolded the page with trembling hands.
The signalman's writing, whose neat lines he knew, had grown wild and dark.
Every word carried the weight of a man whose heart had broken.
Thomas read the confession slowly beside the low light of the stove.
If the signalman had held the train that night, the would never have happened.
If he had kept the signal at danger, dozens of people would have lived.
The man whose duty it was to protect them had failed in one moment.
Thomas thought of the families whose lives had been changed forever.
If the signalman had slept before his , he might have stayed awake.
If he had asked for help, another man could have taken his place.
But he had been alone, as Thomas was alone, in a cold quiet box.
The page ended with a line whose meaning Thomas could not .
"If I had been braver, I would have told the truth at once."
Instead the man, whose shame was greater than his , had run away.
Thomas set the page down and stared at the silent iron levers.
He understood now the fear whose shadow had filled this lonely room.
If the former signalman had confessed, he might have found some peace.
But guilt, whose is strong, had followed him across the sea.
Thomas thought of the stranger's warning about a choice still to come.
A war was near, and trains whose passengers he could not see were coming.
If he ever had to choose between duty and , what would he do?
That question, whose answer he did not know, kept him awake for nights.
He copied the confession into the logbook so it would not be lost.
If the truth had been told long ago, this box might feel less .
Then, one evening, a message arrived that made his blood run cold.