My companion didn’t laugh at me. Then he said, “We caused the Great Fall.”

His comment was too abrupt and did not have enough explanation for me to read between the lines.

“You… did?”

He was talking to himself, not to me.

“He said he would return for me, but I knew he never...”

“Who was he? Was he your father, or your friend?”

“He never forgives me.”

I realized that one reasonable explanation was that the boy in front of me was crazy. He had been walking toward the abyss to kill himself.

The silence continued.

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I’ll return for you soon. Wait here for a minute…

I remembered my mother’s words. She had told me she would be back for me, too. So, I waited, but she never came.

Then I asked, “Is he still alive?”

A tiny light of emotion appeared in his eyes. “I’m sure.”

I had to find my way to the ground, so I asked him again. “Why don’t you just go and apologize?”

I loved the calm of the underground, but I preferred life to death. I had to turn his attention to the outside world.

“You should apologize to him before you change yourself into anyone else,” I told him.

When he heard my words, he got upset. His voice was fragile as he said, almost in a whisper, “Suppose your mother comes back…”

I stopped breathing.

“What if she apologized? Could you forgive her?” he asked.

My body felt heavy like a stone.

“Why do you know about my mother?” I said.

“I’m sorry...”

He said the knowledge was coming to him naturally because we were so close to the “Node.”

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said remorsefully. He whispered words like that again and again, but I almost didn’t hear them.

I stood up. “OK. I’ll be out in a minute. Nature calls.”

“Take the lantern and come back here immediately,” he said to my back in his usual monotone voice. “Something dangerous is approaching, so we should leave here as soon as you return. Be careful and quiet.”