“He was right to keep reporting the concern.

The hazard found overnight was real.”

She did not claim his notes settled every question about the utility’s response.

She said they established what he had reported and when.

I could hear the difference now without feeling she was taking something away from him.

James’s name was at the bottom of each page.

I ran a finger beside it without touching the ink on the original that had been recovered when entry was permitted.

He had signed one line slightly uphill, perhaps because he had written it on a surface that wasn’t level.