Pinhole, Higher Learning
Copyright© 2024 by Fanlon
Chapter 20
Dana insisted on giving me a ride home Friday after school. She still wouldn’t stop pestering me about last night’s photoshoot. She wanted to know everything, and I wouldn’t blab. It was driving her crazy and I knew it, which was why I refused to give her an ounce more detail than I already had when I climbed into her car last night.
“Josh, come on already!” Dana whined as I opened and walked in the front door of my house.
“I already told you,” I replied, keeping my back to her as I made it down the stairs to the basement.
“I know what you told me already, but I need to know more! You can’t just give me that little, tiny bit of information and expect me to just let it go.”
I headed straight for the studio in the basement, not saying a word. If there was anything that could drive Dana crazier than only giving her bits and pieces of information, it was none at all and I was relishing this newfound power I had over her all too much. I knew there was going to be a reckoning, eventually. But I was living in the moment. I would deal with potential consequences when the time came.
Dana still hadn’t put two and two together yet when she followed me into the darkroom. She was so focused on her need to know everything that she hadn’t stopped to think of why we walked right into the darkroom. Even after I pulled out the still sealed pinhole camera, she hadn’t quit pestering me for information.
“I can’t believe you won’t tell me,” Dana snapped, crossing her hands in front of her chest, scowling deeply. “We’re friends, that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
At that comment, I looked over my shoulder and just raised an eyebrow accusingly at her. I didn’t say a word; I didn’t have to for her to understand my meaning.
“What?” Her eyes narrowed in question. “Don’t give me that look. I tell you everything. Hell, I show you everything!”
She uncrossed her arms and grabbed her breasts for added emphasis, not that I needed the reminder. I was well aware of how much she shared with me.
That said, if she wasn’t going to see the forest for the trees, I wasn’t going to explain it to her. When she figured it out, then she would have all the answers she needed—hopefully.
Dana leaned against the wall, right by the door where the light switches were mounted.
“Can you turn off the lights and hit the red ones, please?” I asked, trying to keep the knowing smile out of my voice.
“Why?” Dana asked a bit more snarkily than I thought she would.
She was genuinely pissed off now. I debated lying to her, coming up with some other excuse as to why I needed the change in light, but I couldn’t do it. She was my friend, and I wasn’t going to put off developing these pictures just to spite her.
She must not have realized I used my pinhole cameras last night, instead of the camera I got for Christmas from my parents, the one I was using for class. If I had, then I would have left my roll of film behind to be developed by Professor Peterson and Jasen Anderson, which was the general rule.
When I used the pinhole cameras though, you couldn’t just leave the photopaper behind. I suppose you could, but it would be more trouble than it was worth. That, and the risk that it was accidentally exposed to light was a risk that wasn’t worth taking. Besides, Dana had been here with me that first night when we got back and developed my first club photo.
Professor Peterson made it clear on my first club shoot that I could develop my own images, as long as they were only for private use, which this one was, except for the copies that were going to be made for Wendy.
To Dana’s credit, she didn’t question me anything further. She reached over, flipped off the regular overhead light, thrusting the room into momentary darkness before flipping the second switch, bathing the room in a dull red glow.
“Thanks,” I said and placed the first and then the second pinhole camera on the counter.
“What are you—”
I turned to look over my shoulder at the still sulking Dana. I grinned brightly and waved her over to join me.
She didn’t move but just recrossed her arms and stared.
“Oh, come on. You’re going to want to see these.”
“See what?” Dana answered in a mocking tone. “Did you take some more super-secret pictures that you didn’t tell me about?”
“No,” I answered, matter of factly.
“Then what are they—” It only took a moment, but I saw the wheels turning in her head stop, and realization flashed across her face. “Are those...?”
I nodded.
“You mean—”
“Are you going to help or not?”
“Yes! Uh, I mean...” Dana cleared her throat nervously at her sudden outburst. “Yes, if you want me to.”
Dana hadn’t said a word the whole time I worked on developing the two images. She stood at my side, watching over my shoulder as I went through the process but didn’t make a single peep as I did.
It wasn’t until both pictures were hanging from the drying line that she finally spoke.
“Those are truly incredible.”
“Thanks,” I replied, giving her a friendly little hip check.
The picture on the left, the one I had developed first by mere chance, was the one of Wendy and Abby from behind and off to the side. I had held my breath waiting for the first image to appear hoping it was that one. I reminded myself then and there that I needed to do something to mark which camera was which. There may come a time where I don’t want someone to see one of the pictures developed as it happened, like my parents, not that they ever came in the darkroom with me to develop my pictures.
Dana smiled when she saw the first image, not in a sarcastic, accusatory way, but more in appreciation. The image wasn’t at all vulgar or suggestive. If you didn’t know the subjects, you would have had no reason to believe they were related at all, let alone mother and daughter.
The results of the picture weren’t quite what I was hoping for. I managed to get the framing I wanted, however. The picture showed the two models from just below their shoulders down to their ankles, both of them just standing there, the natural curves of their legs up to their backs were highlighted slightly. It would have been amazing if the rest of them hadn’t been illuminated. Still, it was a good picture, if not one of my best.
The second picture, that was truly a thing of beauty, and from the way Dana focused so intently on it as it dried, I knew I had gotten what I was hoping for. Dana, for the first time in as long as I could remember, was speechless.
Looking at the image, I remembered every step I took to create it. Everything, all the way up to the point where I used the barndoor, shuttering the flaps to direct a perfectly vertical line of light that wasn’t quite wide enough to cover either Wendy’s or Abby’s face completely. That wasn’t the point, or the focus I wanted.
What I got was a flash of a mother embracing her daughter. Just because the light was focused on their faces didn’t mean you couldn’t see the rest of them. You could, but your eyes were drawn toward the subjects’ eyes. The way the light blended and faded into the shadows created a depth, a motion. Even with the two standing still like they were, you could feel the warmth, comfort, and safety from the way Wendy wrapped her arms around her daughter.
I hadn’t realized how long it took for me to develop my pictures. It wasn’t until Dana and I heard my father call out that I realized how late it really was.
“You better get going or you’re going to be late!”
“Shit!” I gasped.
“Yeah, shit’s right,” Dana agreed.
Thankfully, Dana offered to give me a ride to Laura’s. I was already nervous and the last thing I needed was my mom dropping me off. Still, Dana wasn’t much better but was very much the lesser of two evils, as my dad liked to say, when trying to choose between two bad options.
I had offered to walk or even ride my bike. My mom gave me a mortified look as if I were suggesting I was going to go walk blindly off a cliff that may or may not lead to my death. Dana, who was standing next to me at the time, started laughing, hard.
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