Elephants Can Remember

Elephants Can Remember / by Agatha Christie / 60,000words / YL9 / ★★★★

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Mrs. Oliver was an author of detective stories
and one of the famous writer in 1970s and around.
One day she attended at a literary luncheon.
(She never usually go to those sort of things.)

There was a large woman with ample proportions, large white champing teeth.
She got Mrs. Oliver and introduced herself that she is Mrs. Burton-Cox.
She said, "I believe you have a goddaughter called Celia Ravenscroft."
"You see, it is a matter of the greatest moment to me.
Something that I really feel I must find out.
Celia is going to marry my son, Desmond," said Mrs. Burton-Cox.

"Oh, indeed!" said Mrs. Oliver. Celia was her goddaughter.
That was quite true. And Celia's mother had been a friend of hers.
But she hasn't seen Celia for a good many years.

Mrs. Burton-Cox leaned forward and breathed hard.
"I want you to tell me, because I'm sure you must know
or perhaps have a very good idea how it all came about.
Did her mother kill her father or was it the father who killed the mother?"

Mrs. Oliver stared at her unbelievingly.
"But I don't─ I─I can't understand. I mean─what reason─"
Mrs. Oliver was puzzled for this woman just coming up to she and saying that.
First of all, Mrs. Oliver didn't know her and she didn't know Mrs. Oliver.

"Dear Mrs. Oliver, you must know. Of course, I know it's a long time ago now,
I suppose twenty years at least. But it did cause a lot of attention of the time.
I'm sure you'll remember, you must remember.”

"I don't know anything and can’t help you in any way,"
said Mrs. Oliver in a voice which no longer held very much politeness,
and definitely now spoke in tones of distaste. She left with anger.

Mrs. Oliver asked her friend's Hercule Poirot.
She wants to find out why should Mrs. Burton-Cox wants to know about the case.
What does it matter which?
She said to Poirot, "I want to know why that odious woman came and said what she did to me.
Once I knew that I could relax and forget all about it. But until I know that..."

Poirot said, "I think I could help you to know at any rate the full facts of the case.
It’ll take a little time, though."

"So I thought that what we've really got to do is to get at the people
who are like elephants. Because elephants, so they say, don't forget."
Mrs. Oliver went on, "There are some people who do remember.
In fact, one does remember queer things."

They fared forth on voyage of discovery of elephants.
They had to go back, not just around 15 years ago, even further than they thought at first.
Because they got a hint of knowledge, "Old sins have long shadows."

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I thought this novel has a calm atmosphere.
I suppose that one of the biggest reason is Poirot was very composed. He was never irritated.

In "The ABC Murders" I got something creeps, dangers, traps, and a grave air.
In the "There Were None" I felt a shiver and shrink with terror, seized with panic.
In "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" I felt a light air and at the end of the story I felt quite refreshed.
In the Hickory "Dickory Dock" I got a bitter feeling.

It was a sort of serene emotion that I got from her novel this time.
At the end of this story, I felt an indefinable sadness and warm.
Old sins that had left long shadows. A beginning that had led years later to a tragic end.
That was certainly truth about sorrow and death, but there was also love.