So Long, See You Tomorrow

by William Maxwell

What Clarence Smith sees as he helps his wife into the front seat of the buggy after church is a woman who in the sight of God is his lawfully wedded wife and owes him love, honor, and obedience. Other people, with nothing at stake, see that there is a look of sadness about her, as if she lives too much in the past or perhaps expects more of life than is reasonable.

She was standing at the stove, with an apron on, rinsing the supper dishes in a pan of hot water. She had moved the lamp to a shelf higher than her head and the light fell on the nape of her neck, the place that in women and small children always seemed to express their vulnerability. Looking at the soft blond hairs that had escaped from the comb, he thought of all those people who, because of their religion, had knelt down in great perturbation of mind and had their heads chopped off. His heart was flooded with love for her and he lost the thread of what Clarence was saying.

They’re already in Heaven. And on the Resurrection Day their bodies and their souls are joined and they live happy ever after.” Looking at him she could tell that he partly believed what she said and partly didn’t believe it, having seen the crows picking at the carcasses of dead animals.

The cats followed Fern Smith around, purring as usual, and with their tails straight up in the air. Since they were neither faithful nor obedient themselves they saw no reason why women should be.

for some reason love, even of the most ardent and soul-destroying kind, is never caught by the lens of the camera. One would almost think it didn’t exist.

roached

Innocence is defined in dictionaries as freedom from guilt or sin, especially through lack of knowledge; purity of heart; blamelessness; guilelessness; artlessness; simplicity, etc. There is no aspect of the word that does not apply to her.

without all this, what have you? A mystery: How is it that she didn’t realize it was going to last such a short time?

He knew what had been done to him but not what he had done to deserve it. It would have been a help if at some time some Baptist preacher, resting his forearms on the pulpit and hunching his shoulders, had said People neither get what they deserve nor deserve what they get. The gentle and the trusting are trampled on. The rich man usually forces his way through the eye of the needle, and there is little or no point in putting your faith in Divine Providence.… On the other hand, how could any preacher, Baptist or otherwise, say this?

sense of cause and effect suffered a permanent distortion.

Whether they are part of home or home is part of them is not a question children are prepared to answer.

Daybreak was a comfort. The birds. A rooster crowing. It meant that time existed. At night everything stood still.

temporized.