The Photograph by Jason Powell

​The Photograph


       Not all pictures are worth a thousand words.
       In retrospect we should’ve known the young lady in the photo wasn’t his child or grandchild. Jencks was in his eighties and though she looked like she was in her late teens or early twenties in the photo, the photograph itself looked to be as old as Jencks was. And anyway that was the case with all of the residents there. All of them were in their eighties or at some late age where their families wanted them to be cared for but didn’t want to do it themselves. And nearly all of their rooms had a bedside table with an old framed picture of their wedding day or a time in their marriage when anniversaries were looked forward to and less of an accomplishment. I think our interest in the photo was caused by the fact that Jencks himself was absent from the photo. Also because although it was always in his hands, he never spoke about it.
       Many of the residents would lie in bed with a letter or a post card from their grandchildren and tell stories of first days of school or first times in the snow or performances in school plays; things like that. Jencks too would lay with his photo and smile at us when we came in as if the photo was a sleeping newborn. But he never offered a story.
       I don’t know why we never asked. It was an unwritten requisite of this job to be able to engage the residents in conversation. Help them cling to the now, usually by reliving the past. But we all kinda found the mystery more exciting unsolved. We all created our own version of the untold story behind the photo. Georgios claimed it was Sanders' daughter from a marriage that ended before the baby was born and so all he had were photos and letters as a relationship with the child. Kelly figured it was a grandchild whose life was too far away for him to be a part of and that before Jencks’ time with us was done that grandchild would show up in reception with a couple of balloons and two baby great-grandkids attached. Silly things like that. Possible but with no real evidence to support them. He didn’t think to tell us so we didn’t think to ask.
       Then Joe, whom for some reason everyone called “Joe Dirt,” came to work with us for the spring. Dirt was one of the interns from Polinaire community College. One day when making the rounds, Kelly told him about Jencks and his mysterious photo. Dirt was young and had no sense of romance for unsolved mysteries. He walked into Jencks room and smiled back when Jencks looked up. Joe asked if he could see the photo and Jencks held the photo by the top, pinched between the first three worn and wrinkled fingers on his left hand. The fourth finger had two plain round bands of gold on it. When Dirt said she was beautiful Jencks smiled and brought the photo back to face him. All five fingers held it.
       Dirt looked at the hand holding the photo and the smile on Jencks’ face and the mystery was solved.

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Jason Powell is a New York City Firefighter in the FDNY and an avid people watcher. He spends all of his free time and (some of his work time) writing and reading and eating chocolate covered pretzels.

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