Twenty-one-year-old Isaac Hanson stared down at the faded and crumpled pictures that he held tightly in his hands. The photo held many memories. So many beautiful ones… two cruel. He had taken his newfound friend to the carnival with his family that year, so long ago.

"What year was that?" He asked leaning back in the whicker chair on his back porch. "Ninety-two?"

He thought for a moment, staring down at the two young faces staring back up at him. "So long ago." He whispered, sighing as his fingers gently trailed over the face of the pretty girl sitting next to him. Their arms wrapped tightly around each other.

Jacquelyn Jackson was so sweet, so innocent, and so pretty. He'd met her through a mutual friend. It never really crossed his mind that he would like her so much when his friend bragged about her. But when they met, it was like an almost instant connection.

What kind of a connection could such young kids have? Simple really, the same love for friendship and life. So easy to understand, so easy to comprehend. But no one else did, they didn't seem to see what they saw, as if they were all blind.

They never saw their own way of love for each other. They saw something infinitely worse than one would have thought. What they saw, was the one thing those two didn't see, the one thing that they never even thought about. The color of their skins, Isaac being white and Jacquelyn being black.

Such a little thing compared to the feeling of love and admiration that passed between the two. Such a microscopic thing compared to the sense of joy that enveloped them as they played together, or talked with each other.

Though it seemed after they started showing their affection for each other, everyone tried to pull them apart. Like the time he held her hand at May-Fest, his parents had gotten so angry with that, and he couldn't understand why. She was his friend and all, what was so wrong with holding her hand?

They had to sneak off to the small photo booths that was near the ferris wheel. Both fearing heights, chose the booth, and hugged each other so tightly then. Showing off their love and friendship for the other while the flashes went off.

Then later on that day/evening, when they were sitting on a bale of hay at the horse auction, their arms were wrapped around one another and not only did people stop and stare, or give such dirty and condemning looks, but many teenagers made remarks.

One being when a group of the teenaged boys stopped in front of them. "Don't you know you ain't her color, boy?" One asked sharply.

"Let 'em be, Ray." The tallest of them scorned.

The small had one had looked up from his scuffed up boots. "I have colored people in my family tree." He announced.

Isaac smiled reassuringly down at Jacquelyn who had long ago cringed in his arms; she slowly gave him a small weak smile back.

"And they're still hanging there." The kid finished off; leaving the two on the hay as him and his friends walked off, laughing loudly at the racist unfunny joke.

After that scene, they both removed themselves from their arms and stared blankly at the arena. As the time crawled on by, Jacquelyn's father came and jerked her from her seat. "He's not one of us!" He said harshly.

The tears came to both of them, so painful, so harsh. Was this how the world had seen them as? Only as colors? Not as the two friends they were?

Hardly getting the chance to say good-bye, Jacquelyn was forced to walk with her father as the left the fair grounds.

Isaac had cried then as he ran from the arena. His parents wouldn't understand, they were against it in the beginning… now so was everyone else.

"Isaac?"

Snapping from his reverie, Isaac looked up at the soft sweet voice that he fell in love with. He smiled as he watched his wife lean halfway out the swinging screen door. "Yes?" He asked happily.

"What are you doing out here, baby?" She asked as she walked out, and stood beside him. Her hands running through his soft wavy hair.

He sighed in the pleasure and leaned into her hand, before pulling on her arm, and into his lap. His arms snaked around her and he kissed her cheek softly. "Just thinking." He admitted as he held up the old pictures.

Looking them over, she smiled down at him and kissed the tip of his nose. "We were just kids back then." She said laughing lightly.

Isaac chuckled quietly and nodded. "I love you, Jacques." He said as he pressed his forehead, ever so gently, against hers. His eyes closed as he breathed in her familiar scent.

Jacquelyn giggled softly, as she breathed him in too. "I love you too, Ike." She murmured.

She heard him humming, the sound so soft, almost like a whisper.