Extract from Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow by Peter Hoeg
The moment the pastor throws earth on the coffin and we are supposed to turn around and leave, a silence falls which seems to last for a long time. In this silence the women are quiet, no one moves, it's like a silence which is waiting for something to break. From where I'm standing, two things happen.
First, Juliane falls to her knees and puts her face to the ground, and the women leave her alone.
The second event is internal, inside me, and what breaks is an insight.
All along I must have had an extensive pact with Isaiah about not leaving him in the lurch, never, not now either.