Brother Broken


About Denis and John:

I inherited a black-and-white photo of Denis and John together. The image was captured one summer, probably just before my family moved to town. Denis was about five years old, which means John would have been around a year and a half. A scar like a blister belt ringed the side of John’s little potbelly, a remnant from the surgery he’d had the year before.

They looked playful in the photo, grinning, with twinkle eyes. Behind them a clothesline was laden with wet laundry. It hung like a curtain between them and the bush line surrounding the farmyard. They were carefree and shirtless, and the sun was shining bright. They looked to be having an outdoor bath and it didn’t matter if water splashed over the side of the washtub.

The camera lens focused on their fun. The shutter blinked and captured two lively youngsters at play. The snapshot held them inside a quiver of time, and if I fix hard enough on Denis’s stare-back eyes, I can bring the moment back to life.

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