Chapter 49
***
- Your Highness!
He only laughed at my horrified cries.
Still, I couldn't bring myself to say that I wanted a bed.
Finally, my feet hit the floor of the clock tower.
It was close to midnight, and the bee-like crowd had thinned out.
Only a few people remained, enjoying the festive revelry with small firecrackers.
Lowering me to the ground, he took my hand in his.
- Let's go for one last spin before curfew.
He pointed to a spot near the clock tower.
In a world of darkness, it was the only place in the neighborhood that was filled with light.
An unfamiliar square box sat on a peculiar pedestal that resembled an easel.
The difference was that the easel had two feet, but this pedestal had three.
The man guarding it was wiping a clean cloth over and over again at a circular hole in the center of the box, as if it were something very precious.
- What is that?
- It's a photographic machine, you can think of it as a device that draws objects as they are on a special piece of paper. It doesn't take much time at all.
His friendly explanation continued.
A rumor I'd heard somewhere flashed through my mind.
- Do you mean that thing............ that's said to take your soul if you get stamped on it?
It's been said, but I didn’t believe it was true. It's a myth, a rumor.
- Well, it is.
- There was an uproar among painters when that thing came out. It was going to put them out of work. I think that's where the rumor got started.
If you could just draw things as they are on a special paper............... it would make sense among painters.
Even a single portrait took a month to complete.
It was quite a painful time for both the artist and the person who had to sit in front of the artist in the same position every day.
Anyone who could get a portrait or landscape painting without having to go through that process would love it.
Stepping from the darkness into the light, he approached the man.
The man's face lit up at the sight of him.
- Do you want to take a picture?
-Yes.
He handed the man some coins.
Naturally leading me, he stopped me in the blinding light.
I had to frown slightly as the pure white light of the night was almost blinding.
-Use this. It's carnival time, so you should have something fun to remember.
The man handed us some kind of headband.
A weird looking thing with cat ears on each side.
Unlike me, who freaked out as soon as I saw it, he spontaneously put the cat ears on top of my head.
I didn't like the feeling of them squeezing the bones behind my ears.
-..................Do I have to wear them?
- What do you say, give me a rabbit too.
I put the big blue stuffed rabbit in his arms, the one that had been sleeping in my arms the whole time.
When he saw the blue rabbit, he shook his head.
But it's as if I'm in your arms, all of me.
As we stood side by side in front of the light, the man called out.
-On three! Now, you two, face each other. Smile, it looks better with a wide smile. Now, on the count of three, I’ll take the picture. One, two…
The man pressed a strange thing with a string on it, and poof, a light burst twice from the box.
It was so intense, I could still see the afterimage of the flash in front of my eyes.
- Just a moment, please.
Speaking in an excited tone, the man fondled the black paper he had just taken out of the box and dipped it into the strange liquid. Soon enough, he pulled the paper out of the liquid and waved it around in all directions.
Soon, the paper was black and white, and gradually, images of me and my husband began to appear.
I watched the whole process in wonder, as I had never seen anything like it before.
- It worked out well, thank you for your service. I'll see you again at the next carnival.
The man handed him a piece of paper.
That was the moment he took the paper.
The lightweight piece of paper, caught in the night breeze, flew into the air with a whoosh.
-ah!
He shouted and ran after the photograph.
But his desperate pleas were not heard, and the paper flew away on the wind, through the crowd of people.
The only problem was that people were having fun, setting off all sorts of little firecrackers.
Unable to run after him blindly due to my bad knees, I had no choice but to stand still.
I didn't want to run after him and end up on the wrong side of the road.
It wasn't long before I realized that I hadn't run far enough.
- Madam.
The man who was taking the picture spoke to me.
- yes?
- You two look so good together, in fact, I took two pictures. I have one more left, please take it.
Having said that, he handed me a piece of paper.
This time, calmly, I took the paper and looked at the images of us on it.
The first thing I noticed was the strange cat ears on my head. He and I, close together, he with the blue rabbit and me with the pink one.
The paper was black and white with no color, so his rabbit was a darker shade of brown.
He looked down at me, and I looked up at him. His face was clear and smiling.
The way he looked at me was so sweet. Like looking at the most lovely thing in the world. Even then, I could see my eyes, puffy and swollen from my frenzied crying earlier.
- I'm so.................. ugly.
I said to myself.
Still, against the darkness of the night and the faint glow of the firecrackers, he was beautiful.
But my sobbing, puffy-eyed form was ugly.
The countless stars in the night sky, the nameless wildflowers blooming in the night breeze.
All the beautiful things in nature were no more beautiful than him, looking at me and smiling spontaneously.
I didn't want to show him, so I hid the black-and-white photo under my sleeve before he returned.
And then, without anyone knowing, I slipped it into Largo as I wrote down the day's events.
Every night, when I unfolded you to write down the day, it would be the first thing I would recall.
May this record, too, remain and breathe in you, one of all my languages.
At the end of my secret tale, you retraced my rapidly disappearing steps.
Stumbling unsteadily along, he muttered in a half-delirious voice,
- we took the best shot we could, and it's turned to ashes...................
Reduced to ashes?
- The photo............... got blown into the firecrackers people were setting off. No luck, I don't know how it can fly into that...................
- But at least we have the memories.
Instead of telling me we could take another one, he gave me a sly glance.
- I don't think you want to wear that headband.
-....
It was actually the right answer.
I didn't want to make a permanent mark next to his beauty, and I certainly didn't want that weird headband.
I had to turn the tables.
- Soon, it would be curfew.
- Do you know what time that is?
Unable to answer, I was understandably silent.
The kingdom started at midnight, but what time did it start here?
My apathy wasn't the problem here. It was just that I had no business outside of the palace that I knew of.
With a slightly rueful smile, he thankfully didn't bring up the subject of photography any further.
One short, waning spring night.
The first carnival I had ever attended had left me with one precious photograph.
Halfway home, after more walking than usual, I found myself being carried on his back again, thanks to my weak knees.
He wasn’t even struggling.
He didn't listen to my pleas to slow down and let me walk a bit more.
When he brought up the curfew, I was at a loss for words.
It was ironic that it was his job to set the curfew, I realized later, as I reflected on the day.
- By the way, Duchess.
As he was walking down the street at night, he spoke to me.
***
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Write a comment
Toti (Sunday, 14 July 2024 10:09)
I feel like crying is coming, so I get ready and get my tissues