She smiled. “It is human nature to project onto others what is in our own hearts.”
He looked confused.
“Don’t you see? You are the good man with a terrible purpose.”
There was a long beat as they made extended eye contact, and it was clear from the look in his eyes that he had never been spoken to in such a loving manner.
“No one has ever spoken to you that way—have they?” She gently touched his mask. “As a man—not a symbol.”
She started to pull its thong slowly—until he placed a hand over hers, softly resisting. At last he relented and moved her hand to the pad at his temple, which, realizing the strap was just for show, she pressed gently, causing the mask to hiss and release. She eased it down carefully.
And somehow, curiously, his face looked precisely as she had expected, precis
