Silence Once Begun Read Online Free

came here, today, and I was told thatI would be the one to speak to you, I had an idea about who you were. There had been talk about you. Also, the newspapers. They have been running stories. Many things about you. So, I had an idea about what you would be like. But you aren’t like that. To me, you look like a regular guy, who ended up in a bad spot. You look like maybe you need to talk to someone. Like maybe all this can be explained somehow. I’m the guy you want to talk to. Think about it.
    (Tape recorder clicks off.)

Interview 3 (
Mother
)
    [
Int. note
. To this visit, Mrs. Oda brought a toy that had been Sotatsu’s. It was a long stick painted blue with a red bell on the end. The bell was shaped like a flower. It did not make any noise, Mrs. Oda explained. It had originally been given to Sotatsu’s brother as a present, and he immediately broke it. Sotatsu had found the broken toy and began carrying it around all the time. It became his. He even claimed that he could hear the sound of the bell, although clearly the bell made no sound. Once, the family played a trick on him and hid little bells in their clothing. When he would move the stick, one of the family members would surreptitiously jingle a bell. This caused him great concern and difficulty, and both parents regretted having done it; so said Mrs. Oda. It also confirmed him in his belief that there truly was a sound, and even after their ruse had been explained to him, he disbelieved it.]

    INT .
    Your next visit to Sotatsu was some weeks later?
    MRS. ODA
    One week later. I brought him a blanket, but they wouldn’t let him have it. They said he had all the blankets he needed.
    INT .
    He was provided with blankets by the jail?
    MRS. ODA
    I do not believe so. What they were saying was …
    INT .
    That he shouldn’t have a blanket. Or that his sort shouldn’t …
    MRS. ODA
    I think so. They did let me stand there with the blanket and try to speak with him. I told him that we were all thinking of him, and I tried something that a friend of mine said.
    INT .
    What do you mean by that?
    MRS. ODA
    A friend of mine, an older woman whose opinion I respected greatly. She said to me to do something when I went and I did. I worked it out carefully and did it. What it was was this: I should tell him a memory I had, very clearly and just speak of it, let it all move there by itself without me or the sad time we were in, just by itself, the past moment. So, I had remembered a time that would be good to speak of, that I thought I could do …
    INT .
    Did you prepare it ahead of time?
    MRS. ODA
    Yes, I thought about it a few ways and tried it out. Then when I went I said it to him.
    INT .
    Would you want to say it now the way you said it, do you think you could still remember it?
    MRS. ODA
    Yes. I remember. I actually said it to him several times. He seemed to like it, so when I went there I said it a few times.
    INT .
    And could you say it now?
    MRS. ODA
    I can. Let me think a minute and I will be ready.
    INT .
    That’s fine. Do you want me to stop the tape?
    MRS. ODA:
    Just for a minute.
    [
Int. note
. Here I stopped the tape for approximately fifteen minutes while Mrs. Oda went about remembering her words. I got a glass of water for her from the kitchen and found something to do in another room. When I returned, she was ready.]
    INT .
    The tape-device is recording.
    MRS. ODA
    I said to him, I said: When you were four, your father and I had a thought that we should perhaps travel to different waterfalls, that it might be a good thing to see all the waterfalls we could. So, we began to go to waterfalls whenever we had a chance. That year I believe we saw thirty waterfalls, in many places. We developed a routine for it. We would drive there and get out. Your father would pick you up. He would say to you,
Is this the right waterfall?
and you would say,
No, not this one. Not this one
. We went all over. There are really more waterfalls than one thinks. When he talked to