This is an appeal to you, my son. I don’t know if you’ll ever read it. Perhaps this confession of mine is in vain... But I have to tell you my most…

This is an appeal to you, my son. I don’t know if you’ll ever read it. Perhaps this confession of mine is in vain... But I have to tell you my most terrible secret. Your mother... I killed her. No, I didn’t pull a trigger or anything like that. But it was me who signed the circular authorizing the use of pesticides in fruit groves. She was killed by my indifference and my willingness to make compromises with my conscience. The day she died, I was supposed to pick her up from work... But I was too busy, had so many important things to do... If I had wanted to turn my back on this career in the Ministry, I could have easily gotten a referral to another good job anywhere in the country. I often tried to make excuses, thinking that without me, those villains at the top would tear our country apart... But that’s all it is - an excuse... I was the unprincipled fool who authorized the poisoning of the population... And your mother only bought those apples from some old woman because she was kind wanted to support a pensioner. Every day I thank heaven that you were at summer camp at the time. ...All the subsequent “prohibitions” on apple sales were my desperate attempts to atone, and they changed nothing...