The first page is where the second chapter begins. The two of them are sitting close on a hammock, wearing matching Yankee baseball hats. His jaw line is strong and his arm is around her. Her face is the soft, smiling face of beautiful youth. They are looking directly into the camera, confident. This is where it ended and began for them on the same day–chapter two. It’s the first picture on the first page of the album, taken the first week that they knew each other. She had fled Los Angeles, dusted off old dreams and created new ones. He had survived the betrayal of a divorce and giving away a fortune to someone he now called “ex,” and somehow they had found each other, fallen into each other in the aftermath– in a chaotic life that makes no sense at all when you are living it, but in retrospect is absolute order and perfection.
Now they are in their sixties and it seems strange that such a full life, a so many feelings and experiences life, rushed by them faster than they ever thought it could. Over the years they aged, took fewer pictures, but for this one: a 60th birthday when she was standing behind him, leaning over, with arms wrapped around him. A birthday cake sits in front of him with candles lit. They are still smiling, but their eyes are cast down, more focused on the event than the camera lens. The third act is about to unfold.
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