Wiping your face is a bad idea. The awareness of that True death... the way the image sharpens more and more, details that won't be easily forgotten--you know without a doubt, continuing to work at this stain will prove that the aftermath of that death was truly witnessed, and truly... lingering. As if unable to move away from the horror of it.
The reality is, for as terrible as the torment of the previous memories, you know without a doubt, it's that Truth that is the worst of it.
But leaving off there, moving on back to the dresser...
Wiping at that photo brings about bittersweet memories of a youth spent on an island with cousins and a servant who were very fun to play with. George, a bit awkward but mimicking the adults, in his teen years. Jessica, more tomboyish and loud than she even is--was before that day, getting the scolding along with Battler. Two peas in a pod of so-called crude and rude delinquency. Shannon, of course, standing back and watching it all with a bemused kind of smile, patiently waiting for the playful activities to start up again. Maria was too young, then, to play with everyone. So when the play on the beach resumes, Jessica runs toward the waves, George warns her to be careful, and Shannon laughs, but it's Battler who insists Shannon follow along with them, uncaring of the difference in statuses. George and Jessica quickly join in on the calls to Shannon. Shannon seems hesitant and shy, but then eventually comes over just in time to recoil from Battler splashing her in the shallows with a shriek of laughter and maybe something about how she should get her dress wet.
He just wanted to see her smile again.
It's a picture of the cousins and Shannon, presumably something taken by an adult who thought the image too cute not to take. They're all smiling. George trying to look older than he is, Jessica bright and cheerful, Battler in an open-mouth laugh, and Shannon with her shy and small upward turn of the lip as though she still wasn't sure how to smile for the image but a faint pink to her cheeks giving away her true happiness of being included.
It's a better picture than how [Jessica with her face beaten in on the floor of the dining hall] it all [George with bullet holes in his side and in his head, glasses barely on his face and out in the rain under a bush] ended--
"Please... don't go away. Don't leave me alone... Battler-san..."
Re: A... Room...
The reality is, for as terrible as the torment of the previous memories, you know without a doubt, it's that Truth that is the worst of it.
But leaving off there, moving on back to the dresser...
Wiping at that photo brings about bittersweet memories of a youth spent on an island with cousins and a servant who were very fun to play with. George, a bit awkward but mimicking the adults, in his teen years. Jessica, more tomboyish and loud than she even is--was before that day, getting the scolding along with Battler. Two peas in a pod of so-called crude and rude delinquency. Shannon, of course, standing back and watching it all with a bemused kind of smile, patiently waiting for the playful activities to start up again. Maria was too young, then, to play with everyone. So when the play on the beach resumes, Jessica runs toward the waves, George warns her to be careful, and Shannon laughs, but it's Battler who insists Shannon follow along with them, uncaring of the difference in statuses. George and Jessica quickly join in on the calls to Shannon. Shannon seems hesitant and shy, but then eventually comes over just in time to recoil from Battler splashing her in the shallows with a shriek of laughter and maybe something about how she should get her dress wet.
He just wanted to see her smile again.
It's a picture of the cousins and Shannon, presumably something taken by an adult who thought the image too cute not to take. They're all smiling. George trying to look older than he is, Jessica bright and cheerful, Battler in an open-mouth laugh, and Shannon with her shy and small upward turn of the lip as though she still wasn't sure how to smile for the image but a faint pink to her cheeks giving away her true happiness of being included.
It's a better picture than how [Jessica with her face beaten in on the floor of the dining hall] it all [George with bullet holes in his side and in his head, glasses barely on his face and out in the rain under a bush] ended--
"Please... don't go away. Don't leave me alone... Battler-san..."