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Some are ruined by knowing the truth.
Some are relieved by knowing the truth.
I am the latter. …… Miss, which is it for you? Think carefully before you open the pages.
He said that to me the day.
◇ ◇ ◇
……Do not write back.
Regards,
Jane Bird 』
Dr. Evans has passed away. The man who rescued us from that ship. I now succeed to the note which he left me. I must, in accordance with his testament, send it, with the letter I have just written, and "that" to London.
Will the chief investigator be afraid or disgusted, wondering why such a macabre thing had been sent? Or will he or she knew everything, and open the door to the truth? I pray that the investigator will reach for the pocket watch, as the one who know the truth about the ship.
Dr. Evans seemed to have a curious trust in the investigator. When he was still alive, I was surprise to see a note pasted on the back of the front cover. When I said to him, “Doctor, I don't think it's appropriate to call it a tale.”, he laughed very gently and just said “It’s all right. He or she won't misunderstand what it means.”. That was the only time I ever saw him smile, …… and he looked so compassionate and kind at that moment.
He was a gentleman, but I never knew what he was thinking. I used to visit him from time to time, but he was always cold-hearted and unsympathetic. I remember thinking, vaguely, that he was a man who was willing to sacrifice other things in order to achieve results, although of course this was partly due to his profession as a doctor. This impression became more and more convincing the more I talked to him.
That was why the smile on his face was so unexpected and I've never been able to forget it. I felt that I had glimpsed something behind his iron mask. It wasn’t only a ruthless personality and a faint madness. In the end, I couldn't reach this answer during his lifetime, but I dare say ……
He was …… trying to relieve the people on the Obra Dinn, in his own way.
Now, I could understand a little of his excessive desire for the truth. It was true, the Obra Dinn was a dreadful chapter in my life that I wished to forget. But it was also true that a little part of mu heart said I shouldn’t forget it.
Sometimes the truth was cruel, sometimes it made people mad. But it was also the truth that gave us strength, solaces dead. That was what he had been after. All the seemingly strange actions, all the morally repugnant deeds, all the cruel decisions, were all done in order to bring all those on board the ship, all those souls, back to the port of truth. I think it was a great relief for him to know that there was someone who knew the truth, who had sought it out as well, in a home country so far away.
A voice came from the doorway. I stood up. I had two visitors. They had the right to read this "tale". I ushered them into the next room and, after a few words of greeting, I began to talk to them about Dr. Evans' note. They seemed to know what I wanted to tell them, and listened calmly and silently. Perhaps Dr. Evans had said something to them before he died.
“In accordance with his will, I must send this note to the proper person, and it will never return in our possession again. I wanted to see to you before I part with this.”
Some are ruined by knowing the truth. Some are relieved by knowing the truth.
He said that to me the day. Now it was my turn to ask them.
“The truth about the Obra Dinn was in this. I thought you had the right to know it and the right to reject it. …… What would you do?”
Now that Dr. Evans was gone, I knew better than anyone the weight of what they had been confronted with. My hands that hold the note ware trembling a little. They looked at me once, and then down at my hand. When they looked up again, there was a powerful glint of intent in their eyes, ……, though I didn’t know what it was.
This was what I should have done, shouldn’t it, doctor?
Today, the two of them could finish the voyage.
The End