Washington, District of Columbia, appears as a place Joe Williams passes through on his way north, but the visit briefly brings his estranged domestic life into view. The city’s familiar waterfront and his mother’s home recall an earlier sense of belonging even as Joe conceals his marriage and leaves again.

The City on the River

Joe reaches Washington by boat after leaving Norfolk. In the sharp November morning, the passage along the Potomac feels like old times: he sees redbrick Alexandria and Anacostia, the Arsenal and Navy Yard, and the Monument rising pink through the mist. The wharves, anchored yachts and power boats, an arriving Baltimore boat, excursion steamers, oyster shells underfoot, and dockworkers make the waterfront recognizable to him. This accumulation of ordinary landmarks gives the city the force of a remembered home rather than a new destination.

After landing, Joe takes a streetcar and walks up a redbrick street to his family’s house. As he rings the bell, he wonders why he has come home. The question unsettles the apparent comfort of the return: he knows the route and recognizes the surroundings, but familiarity does not resolve his uncertainty about belonging.

The Family Visit

Joe’s mother looks older but is in fairly good shape, occupied with her boarders and the news that both daughters are engaged. The family says Janey is doing well in her work, though living in New York City has changed her. Joe tells them he is going to New York City to seek a second mate’s ticket and promises to look Janey up. When they ask about the war and submarines, he evades a serious account by joking along. He also leaves his marriage to Del undisclosed.

The family treats Joe kindly and seems to regard his prospect of becoming a second mate at a young age as evidence of success. Yet the visit offers no full reconciliation: Joe is glad when it is time to go across to Washington to catch his train. His silence about his marriage, set against his family’s warm reception, makes the homecoming a scene of distance as much as welcome.

A Point of Departure

On the train to New York City, farms, stations, billboards, and the grimy streets of factory towns in New Jersey keep calling Joe’s thoughts back to Del, places outside Norfolk, and the good times of his childhood. Washington is therefore a hinge between a family past he can still recognize and a present he does not explain to his family. The visit ends not with a settled return, but with Joe moving on toward Janey and the next attempt to establish himself at sea.