I tried to
send him away, but his
passion left me speechless. But I knew
it couldn’t
end any other way
but badly. I never wanted him
to kill Sam.
But when the Judge sentenced
me, I found that I could not speak in
my defense.
No words would come. I was
thirty-five, and Edd was twenty, so
they blamed me.
And perhaps I believed
them and sentenced myself to silence.
Or maybe
I felt nothing I could
say would set things right, so why bother?

I stayed mute
in prison, and only
spoke when it was a necessity,
and then just
the absolute least that
I could. I knew when I became sick,
but I kept
it to myself, and I
went to my end without a complaint.