A Tenth Anniversary Photograph, 1952

Look at their faces. You know it all. They married the week he left for the war. Both are gentle, intelligent people, as all four of their parents were. They’ve never talked about much except the children. They love each other but never wondered why they married or had the kids or stayed together. It wasn’t because they knew the answers. They had never heard the questions that twisted through the jokes to come of Moses and the Ten Suggestions. They paid their debts and never doubted God rewarded faith and virtue or when you got out of line had big and little ways to hurt you. People walked alone in parks. Children slept in their yards at night. Most every man had a paying job, and black was black and white was white. Would you go back? Say that you can, that all it takes is a wave and a wink and there you are. So what do you do? The question is crueler than you think.