CHAPTER TEN W: THE FATHER AND THE SON

Daniel found Walter awake at midnight, sitting beside the apartment window with a notebook open on his knees.
He had been writing the statement he intended to deliver at the hearing.
Daniel asked whether the injury in his father’s arm was bothering him.
Walter admitted that the pain had returned after a long day.
Daniel brought him a glass of water and waited until he had taken his medication.
He then asked whether Walter had decided what he wanted to say about Peter.
Walter showed him a page filled with crossings-out and careful revisions.


The statement described the old rehearsal and admitted that Walter had placed impossible pressure on the crew.
Daniel read it once without commenting.
Walter asked whether it sounded like an excuse.
Daniel said that the explanation was clear, but one sentence troubled him.
Walter had written that he never intended for anyone to be hurt.
Daniel said that the sentence might be true, but it was not the part Peter had waited years to hear.
Walter stared at the page.
He asked what Daniel thought Peter wanted instead.
Daniel answered that Peter wanted his warning to be acknowledged as a warning,

not described as a disagreement between colleagues.
Walter crossed out the sentence about his intentions.
He wrote that Peter had identified a specific danger and that he had failed to stop the rehearsal.
Daniel watched him struggle to form the words with his injured hand.
He offered to take dictation, but Walter declined.
He said that writing the sentence himself mattered.
After a while, Daniel asked why his father had invited Nora into the dispute.
Walter said that the dinner had reminded him how easily a person could become an inconvenience in other people’s eyes.
He had begun thinking about Peter waiting for someone to recognize his injury without turning it into an argument over the theater’s reputation.


Daniel said that Nora had not agreed to become anyone’s conscience.
Walter nodded and said that he had learned that too.
He regretted placing a stranger in the middle of a public conflict without explaining the consequences.
Daniel asked whether he planned to apologize to her.
Walter said that he had already tried.
Nora had told him to stop apologizing and make the next decision more carefully.
Daniel laughed softly because the answer sounded exactly like her.
Walter closed the notebook and looked toward the harbor lights.
He said that he did not know whether the board would save the building.


Daniel answered that the decision no longer belonged to him alone.
Walter said that he was beginning to understand why that was a relief.