Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, frames both a moment of domestic ease and the return of an unresolved fear. On Christmas Day, family company briefly restores Ernie and Faye Block; in a later nighttime scene, Ernie’s repeated dream-murmur about the moon unsettles that calm and suggests that something remains active beneath the ordinary household setting.

Christmas with Family

Christmas Day with Lucy, Frank, and the grandchildren proves fun and therapeutic for Ernie and Faye. The visit leaves them feeling better than they have in months, a change made tangible when they go out together toward the end of the afternoon. Rather than presenting recovery as a solitary achievement, the scene places their improved spirits within family company and shared celebration.

An Evening Walk

The walk gives their reprieve a quiet physical shape. The weather is cold and crisp but windless, and the sidewalks are clear beneath the four-day-old snow. As twilight approaches, the air takes on a purple radiance. Bundled in coats and scarves, Ernie and Faye stroll arm in arm past the neighbors’ Christmas displays, talking animatedly about the day. For Faye, the years seem to fall away: she feels as if they are newlyweds again, young and full of dreams.

The Moon in the Guest Room

A separate Milwaukee scene moves from companionship to unease. In the guest room of her only daughter’s house, where a nightlight has been left on in consideration of Ernie’s fear of the dark, Faye wakes to his soft cry and brief thrashing in the sheets. He is asleep and dreaming, and his muffled words carry a panicky urgency. When he turns his mouth away from the pillow, she hears him repeat, "The moon, the moon, the moon, the moon." The family home offers shelter, but the recurring words make clear that the earlier ease has not erased the disturbance that follows Ernie into sleep.