Butterfly's Shadow
“But it was not from her brother.
At the bottom of the page, after a formal farewell message, was a small, square printed seal. Then a signature.
It lay like an unexploded bomb on the table, carrying destruction within its innocuous exterior. Nancy reached out her hand and touched the pale, granular surface.
‘So who is it from?’ Mary asked, puzzled.
‘It’s from Joey’s mother,’ Nancy said, amazed that she could speak the words. ‘Her name is Cho-Cho.’ ‘But she’s dead!’ Mary exclaimed. ‘She’s dead!’... Nancy thought back, to that first day in Nagasaki. The disastrous revelation: the not-really wife, the child. And hidden in the undergrowth of the past Nancy discerned a snake hovering between a man and a woman. Across the years she heard the hissing words offering an insidious solution, and the voice was hers. She stood alone, the guilty one.
‘But I thought she was dead!’ her mother said again, vehemently. ‘Didn’t you?’ Nancy cast about for a reply – The woman on the floor; the frightened child – Mary reached for the letter and read it aloud: it brought the news that her brother had died.MoreLess
At the bottom of the page, after a formal farewell message, was a small, square printed seal. Then a signature.
It lay like an unexploded bomb on the table, carrying destruction within its innocuous exterior. Nancy reached out her hand and touched the pale, granular surface.
‘So who is it from?’ Mary asked, puzzled.
‘It’s from Joey’s mother,’ Nancy said, amazed that she could speak the words. ‘Her name is Cho-Cho.’ ‘But she’s dead!’ Mary exclaimed. ‘She’s dead!’... Nancy thought back, to that first day in Nagasaki. The disastrous revelation: the not-really wife, the child. And hidden in the undergrowth of the past Nancy discerned a snake hovering between a man and a woman. Across the years she heard the hissing words offering an insidious solution, and the voice was hers. She stood alone, the guilty one.
‘But I thought she was dead!’ her mother said again, vehemently. ‘Didn’t you?’ Nancy cast about for a reply – The woman on the floor; the frightened child – Mary reached for the letter and read it aloud: it brought the news that her brother had died.MoreLess
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