Once upon a time in 2004 a woman and a man were married in a backyard ceremony on a glorious September Saturday on the West Side of Chicago, handmade streamers in the trees, friends and family present to bear witness. They were happy and in love and people knew they were happy and in love. If anyone thought, Oh this is a terrible idea, they forever held their peace. Many of them spoke as the spirit moved them to share why they celebrated this love, and the celebration seemed genuine, and the couple was like, These people all get it, cool, we knew it, this marriage really is a good idea. But who knows, maybe someone did hold their peace. Maybe they could ask. They would have to ask everyone. They’ve lost touch with some of them. Sometimes on purpose. Which is not a thing you want to have to say about people who were at your wedding. What if someone held their peace and then they died? What if they got in touch with everyone who had been in attendance and every one of them said No we didn’t hold our peace, we were psyched for you, but it was one or all of the people who died or lost touch who had held their peace? This wedding was fifteen years ago. Several people in attendance have died. Her dad died. The woman was so sure her dad loved her husband. But what if he was just happy that she was happy, and just crossed his fingers and hoped for the best? Or what if people lied about holding their peace, and said to their faces We were not holding our peaces, and/or what if everyone was just going along with this obviously doomed union, because let’s face it, love isn’t always enough, and maybe more than one person who died had extensive notes on why they thought this marriage was doomed, but held their peace, because they knew people did what they wanted, but then everyone died always having held their peace, leaving the couple to never know what they really thought and/or, moreover, maybe possibly in some universe, changing the course of the couple’s history, you know, if they’d listened, and they were like You’re right, love isn’t enough, and they walked away and had lives that were better in ways they couldn’t have imagined then, since everything seemed so great at the time, but instead they went ahead and got married, because they didn’t know there were all these unspoken predictors of doom. If everyone held their peace, and then they died with all their peaces, how would the couple ever know? We were there. We doubt either of them would have listened.