Translucent Silver Hair (Page 14)

//Panel 1//
Charles:
Was it the next morning? Or the morning after that?
SFX:
SHRIE-E-E-K!
//Panel 2//
Charles:
Wh-what’s happened? What’s going on?
Mother's Voice:
Oh, Anna…Anna…Anna…
SFX:
WAIL
Maid:
Shhh—come here, Master Charles.
//Panel 3//
Charles:
My sister and the tutor…
They ran off together last night!?
//Panel 4//
Charles:
That idiot tutor!?
//Panel 5//
Charles:
But then…why wasn't I…at that time…
//Panel 6//
Charles:
Quick-witted enough to spirit Marybel away like that?
For a long time—I regretted this.
//Panel 7//
Charles:
A first love, once gone… is frozen in time.
Within my memories, the young girl never grows up.
As for my own lifetime, it trickled on…ticking away months and years.
Charles’ wife:
I’ll see you later, my darling. What time will you be back?
Charles:
I won’t delay. It’s our Silver Anniversary, after all.
Charles's narration:
Thirty years have gone by…

Despite the obvious turmoil in Charles' household caused by his sister's departure, it's still admittedly a huge relief for me to be back among people who shriek and display emotions, rather than lurk and glower! Still, Charles can never be completely in the moment any more..compared with his free-spiritedness he enjoyed before he met Marybel...From now on, he will always feel torn, and you can see him lost in his thoughts in Panel 6. What happened to the boy who ran around shouting joyfully, blowing into a blade of grass?

Then, he grows older and settled. Life seems to have treated him well, but still he has a somewhat sad air about him...