Now Soon is frightened to think how that last morning, while she was packing her backpack in order to go on deceiving her parents, it was them, her parents, who were deceiving her by pretending everything was normal. She didn’t sense anything, noticed nothing out of the ordinary when she left her house and started down the same street as always, until she reached the moment when her route to school was adulterated and became the route to the park—a moment when her parents, who were following at a distance, must have felt their hearts start pounding. She saw the same people she did every day, complacent now in her routine, with earphones isolating her from the world—southern trees bearing strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the roots— looking down at her sneakers to avoid meeting anyone’s eyes. Then she reached the park.

Now she stops talking. She’s realized that, as she recalls that day, she’s making Old Man remember his own part. She sees his hands are trembling—his hands with their rings of twisted paper. He has placed one over the other to curb the shaking, or to hide it. And what else, Soon?, he asks. Did they capture you, did they hurt you?

It’s uncomfortable to admit that they treated her with all the delicacy they most likely denied him. No, they didn’t do anything to her, she says, they didn’t even scold her. If it weren’t for Old Man, if it were just about skipping school for almost three months, she would have gotten it good. But thanks to Old Man she received only sweetness and understanding—even if it was a twisted sweetness and understanding, employed solely to coax a confession out of her. She got really scared when she heard the hedges move and it wasn’t Old Man who appeared, but her mother and then her father, both their faces fallen. Oh my god, oh my god, her mother repeated, clutching her head, though there was nothing about the scene to warrant such a reaction: just her daughter, just Soon, sitting calmly at the foot of a tree, taking out her earphones, utterly bewildered.

They whisked her away from there without a single question. Her father talked on the phone in a low voice while her mother told her it was all over, she was finally safe. Yes, said her father to whomever was on the other end of the line: she’s fine, just a little scared, my wife is taking her home now.

Old Man trembles as he takes over the story. Now I know, I get it now! When he entered the park, he noticed there was something strange in the atmosphere. Something heavy and dark, as if the air were full of ashes. The birds were quiet, either they’d flown far away or they could sense what was coming! As he approached the hideout, he could see the dark color of police uniforms—bad memories!—but even then he didn’t understand. He never had time to react. A crowd of them advanced on him, as if he were armed! They surrounded him!