The bonuses had been restored.

The stock the employees now held had paid out.

The fear that had moved through the halls for eighteen months was so thoroughly gone that the younger staff, the ones hired since, did not even know to be grateful for its absence, which is the truest sign that a thing has healed.

When Malcolm introduced me, the applause was warm, and it was easy, and there was nothing startled in it this year, nothing of the held breath and the dawning realization that had made the previous year’s applause feel like a wave breaking.

This was just a room full of people glad to see the person who had kept the lights on.