They send him the occasional careful letter and they decline the visits, and they don’t agonize over it.

They saw the mask come off.

They chose the quiet coast over the man who wore it.

I have never once told them they were wrong.\n\nPeople sometimes ask me — the few who know the whole story — whether I feel any satisfaction in how it turned out for him.

They mean it kindly; they think I’m owed a little gloating and they’re giving me permission to take it.

But the honest answer is no, and not because I’m a better person than that.