swallowing the truth: no Cause or Excuse — "Here is no Cause or Excuse…"

The scene's recovery thesis and the meeting's answer to itself. Recovery is figured as an act of ingestion that replaces the substance: instead of swallowing chunks, powders, and Proof to keep the truth down, she finally has "to swallow it, the responsible truth" — the switch from anesthesia to acknowledgment is the whole turn. And the narrator's flat verdict is the doctrine perfected: "Here is no Cause or Excuse. It is simply what happened." No explanation is offered or wanted; responsibility without self-pity is what burns the last defense away, and the hall recognizes it instantly.