第4章 第7節 マリオン最後のテープ
Marion's Last Tape
Thomas had brought a small , old but still working.
He fed his half of the tape carefully into the machine.
"Listen," he said. "This was recorded only weeks ago."
A weak but voice filled the cold little room.
It was Marion, older and , yet her mother.
"If you are hearing this, then I have run out of time."
Nora pressed her hand to her mouth and did not move.
"The other half is hidden where you were born," said the voice.
Nora had always believed she was born in the city.
If she had known the truth, she might have come here sooner.
"You were not born in the city, my love," Marion continued.
"You were born in this town, in a house by the water."
It was a truth that changed the shape of her whole past.
The mother who had raised her had also hidden her .
"The house where you first cried still stands, for now."
"Go there, and count the notes of the ," she said.
The recording trembled, and the sick voice grew very .
"I am sorry for the years I could not hold you."
Then the tape gave only the soft hiss of an empty room.
Nora sat in silence, holding a past she had never known.
If her mother had lived one more month, they might have met.
That thought was almost too for her to carry.
"Do you know the house she means?" Nora asked her father.
"I do," he said. "It is marked to be torn down next week."
"Then we have until then," Nora said, rising to her feet.