CHAPTER FIFTEEN Y — AN OLD FRIEND’S LIMIT

Soren called me to the workshop after closing.
The replacement window had been installed, but a crack remained in the wooden frame beneath it.
He had spent the afternoon sanding the damaged edge.
“I need to tell you something,” he said.
“That sounds serious.”
“It is.”
He placed a set of brass clock gears on the table.
“I can keep the model safe until the review is finished, but I can’t be the place everybody brings their fear.”
I apologized for involving him without understanding the consequences.
“You asked me to store a wooden carousel,

” he said.
“I agreed to that.”
He looked toward the new window.
“I didn’t agree to spend every evening wondering whether somebody would throw another brick.”
I asked whether he wanted the model moved.
“Not yet,” he answered.
“I want a clear handover date and a person responsible for it.”
We called the review coordinator and arranged for the model to be held in secure storage after its scheduled examination.
The coordinator confirmed the procedure in writing.
Soren looked relieved.
Then he picked up a damaged clarinet and handed me a screwdriver.
“Since you’re here, make yourself useful,” he said.


I spent the next hour helping him replace a bent key mechanism.
We talked about springs, pads, and the peculiar ways wooden instruments changed with humidity.
Nobody mentioned Vivian.
When we finished, Soren played a low note that filled the workshop.
“That’s what I wanted this place to sound like again,” he said.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN Z — THE BROKEN PROMISE

Nora received an invitation to speak at a fundraising dinner for the new entertainment center.
The invitation came from a parent who believed that public reconciliation would help the company recover.
Nora showed it to Ruth over breakfast.
“They want me to tell people it’s time to move forward,

” she said.
Ruth read the letter carefully.
“Do you want to go?”
“I want them to stop using my injury as a decoration for their speeches.”
Ruth put down the paper.
“Then say that.”
Nora drafted a response that afternoon.
She thanked the organizers for their concern but declined to appear while the technical review remained unfinished.
She asked them to support the children’s existing school performances instead.
The organizers replied with disappointment.
One accused her of refusing an opportunity to heal old divisions.
Nora deleted the message without answering.
Later, she told Ellis that she was tired of being asked to prove her kindness by making other people comfortable.


Ellis listened while checking the tape marks on the gym floor.
“I spent years trying to prove I wasn’t angry,” he said.
“Did it work?” Nora asked.
“No.”
He straightened.
“It just meant people could ignore me without feeling guilty.”
Nora sat on a folding chair.
“I don’t want to become angry at everybody.”
“Then don’t,” Ellis replied.
“But you can be angry at the people who hurt you.”
She watched the children enter the gym.
“I can work with that,” she said.