He would create an eccentric recluse tucked away in Santa Fe or Sausalito all these years, a third cousin of his mother's, something like that, and embroider the personage with details remembered from a brief meeting in Boston when Tom had been a small boy, orphaned as Tom really had been.
Senide bitxi eta bakartiren bat sortuko zukeen, urte guzti haietan mundutik aparte bizi izan zena Santa Fe edo Sausaliton, bere amaren lehengusu txiki bat edo horrelako zerbait, eta hornitu egingo zuen pertsonaia Bostonen izandako topaketa laburraren xehetasunekin, bera, Tom, mutil-koskorra zela, umezurtza, benetan izan zen bezala.