After the guards had collected the evidence, they patted Mom’s shoulder compassionately and left quietly.
Mom sat in front of my headstone and gently wiped away the dust on it. She sat there until it grew dark, and it didn’t look as if she was planning to leave.
I reached out to hug her, but I still couldn’t touch anything. Still, I said comfortingly to her, “Mom, don’t be sad anymore. I can’t keep you company anymore, but you have to be happy.”
The wind ruffled Mom’s hair like the caresses I used to give her.
She looked up, her eyes red and swollen. “Ray, you’re still so young, and you’ve always been afraid of the dark. You never dared to sleep alone, but now you have to sleep by yourself in the icy cold under the ground. Are you afraid?
“It’s all my fault. I let you come to harm. I should have just left with you from the beginning instead of staying and trying to get your father’s love by force.”
Mom seemed to have endless things to say. She kept apologizing, and she laughed and cried.
I sat close to her and leaned gently against her, just like I had done every night when she put me to sleep.
I answered everything she said seriously.
“Mom, I haven’t been afraid of the dark for a long time. I can be brave and sleep alone!
“Mom, you didn’t do anything wrong. You weren’t the one who hurt me. It was those bad people. I don’t love Dad anymore, and you don’t need to stay with him for my sake.”
The moonlight shone on my gravestone, and there was the sound of urgent footsteps in the forest.
Dad stumbled as he ran over to us. He was disheveled and had even lost a shoe.
I looked at him with interest. I didn’t remember ever seeing Dad looking so unkempt
