第5章 第8節 町が思い出す
Justice returns, and a mother fades
By noon, the town that had forgotten everything remembered at last.
People who had stayed silent for years now stood in the .
"We have listened to that voice for too long," an old woman said.
The man whom they had feared was suddenly small and alone.
Doors that had always opened for Edwin were shut against him.
He walked to his car, but no one would meet his eyes.
The police, who could no longer , came for him at last.
"You have no proof," he said, but his voice had lost its power.
"The whole coast has just heard your proof," an replied.
closed around the wrists that had ruled the town.
Gabriel, who had died for these tapes, was remembered that day.
The worker who had burned in the cannery had a name again.
His family, silent for twenty years, finally wept in the open.
"The sea has given the truth back," a fisherman said quietly.
Nora stood among the people who had once turned away from her.
Now they reached for her hands and thanked her with their eyes.
She had come as a stranger and had freed a whole town.
But she could not , for her mother had grown weaker.
The years in the tower had taken more than anyone had seen.
Marion, who had survived so much, was fading at the end.
A doctor said gently that her heart had been failing for months.
Nora knelt beside the bed where her mother now lay still.
"You have done it," Marion breathed. "You have set it right."
"Now there is nothing left to fear, and you can rest."