Enigma Variations

by André Aciman

The other day while riffling through a box of old photographs, I landed on a picture taken of me at the beach when I was twelve. I hadn’t seen this picture in years, and yet it radiates a startling new meaning to me now, because all I want is to show it to you, to draw you into my life, and let you see that the man I am today and the boy I was once are the same person.

Yours, I realize, is the first real card on the table. I admire this. Mine had been just a joker.

In the end, and without ever admitting it to myself, I’d grown to love serving two masters—perhaps so as never truly to answer to either one.