Jennifer and Trader's Love

This thread traces Jennifer Rockwell and Trader Faulkner's intimate partnership from their courtship through a concealed crisis neither fully understands.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Tennis Court Meeting

A Tennis Court Meeting A First Impression Trader writes to Jennifer after noticing her tennis game, beginning their relationship through admiration and a formal note. Their early courtship grows through games, conversations, and small messages. A Shared History Letters and photographs preserve the development of their partnership. The archive later shows Mike how sustained and attentive their affection had been.

A Home Together

A Home Together A Long Partnership Jennifer and Trader move in together and build a life around work, conversation, laughter, and sex. Their shared interests make them appear exceptionally well matched. A Private Reserve Trader knows that each keeps an intellectual part of the self private. He interprets that distance as healthy independence, not as evidence of an approaching separation.

A Life of Mutual Attention

A Life of Mutual Attention Domestic Intimacy The couple spends much of its free time together, preferring evenings at home to social events. Their erotic and intellectual life seems unusually abundant. An Ideal That Misleads Friends see a dream couple, and Trader sees no clear reason the relationship would end. The apparent completeness makes Jennifer's concealed illness harder to detect.

The Last Sunday

The Last Sunday Familiar Rituals Jennifer and Trader sleep together, spend the day walking and playing tennis, and share their usual Sunday routine. They make love before Trader leaves to sleep at his campus office. Distress Misread Trader's small mishaps on the way out make him appear distressed to a witness. In retrospect he searches the ordinary departure for a sign he failed to understand.

Love After the Death

Love After the Death The Farewell Letter Trader learns that Jennifer hid a year of mental distress and apologizes for leaving him. Her message makes love feel inseparable from guilt and belated knowledge. No Complete Consolation Trader says he wishes he had killed her because that would be easier to understand. His grief refuses the comfort of a clean explanation, even when Mike tries to provide one.

June 1988

About eighteen months after Jennifer's graduation

The years before March 4

March 4, afternoon and evening

Late March through April 2