Translucent Silver Hair (Page 16)

//Panel 1//
Charles:
Ah, you must be her daughter.
Wasn't your mother named Marybel…?
//Panel 2//
Marybel:
…Oh, I’m not sure. I am Marybel.
I…don’t know anything about my mother who gave birth to me.
//Panel 4//
Charles:
Then she must have given you the same name.
…I knew your mother.
I was a young boy at the time…
//Panel 6//
Charles:
My word, you’re smiling, aren’t you? Is it odd for this old man to be reminiscing on his first love?
Marybel:
No…not at all.
It’s an old story, isn’t it?
//Panel 7//
Charles:
Yes. It was thirty years ago…
You…you’re the spitting image of your mother as a little girl. I…
//Panel 8//
Charles:
That’s right…She taught me a song. It went like this:
“There was a girl, long ago…”
Marybel:
Oh, I know that one!
Song:
“…with translucent silver hair…”

(In a weird though irrelevant way, this scene brings me to mind of the initial encounter of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. I had to double-check to confirm that Marybel wasn't selling him flowers!)

It's also interesting to see how Hagio adeptly takes her time, teasing Charles with all these coincidences: the name "Marybel," the lullaby...making it slowly dawn on him that she could be...

And how quickly he reverts back to his own boyhood! He never forgot the song...in some ways, time stopped for Charles as well...It's such a tender, poignant scene.