“I'm so glad you're
here,” Robert tells Tom. “Why have you brought me back to this
meadow?”
“Back?” Tom
replies, “I haven't brought you back anywhere. I've brought you to
the safest place I could think of.”
“But it's the same
meadow,” Robert insists. “Wait a minute, what did you mean about
coalescing?”
“You'll see,” Tom
replies. “Yes, they are the same meadow. Only the last meadow was
a cage constructed from your memory, while this meadow is a
collective memory.”
“A what?”
“Collective memory.
This is how all your family remember that day, even if they've almost
forgotten it like you had; it's still there, deep in the
subconscious.”