Chapter 3: She Flew Away

Colin and Shannon were still chatting near the door to Jane’s classroom, so I told her I’d grab our regular seats. When the bell rang a few minutes later, she joined me.

“I guess we’ll have to check out the photos later,” Shannon said apologetically.

“Tomorrow’s another day,” I said, grinning.

“Nah, no school tomorrow.”

I turned to her as Jane called for quiet. “Really? Why?”

“Another big storm,” she whispered.

“Whoa! They already cancelled?”

“I don’t know. But we’re going to get slammed all night.”

“That’s the best news I’ve heard today!”

Shannon smiled, but Jane got busy and I didn’t want to miss what she had to say. She held up what looked like a long black tube with a bunch of small letters printed on the side.

“Filters,” Jane announced, as she handed the object to the nearest student. “Pick one end, unscrew one ring carefully, and then pass the stack around ... How was holiday break for everyone?”

Vague and disinterested murmurs punctuated her question.

“Wow, sounds so exciting,” she deadpanned. “I’m sure being back at school will get you going again. Remember that our last class for the first term is two weeks from today. There won’t be an exam, but instead you will be displaying your best photos in the hallways near the gymnasium. Everyone should start planning for that now. Pick your favorite three images from the term and reprint them to improve them. You all saved your negatives, right?”

While some of the kids asked questions about misplaced negatives, I turned to Shannon.

“Which three are you going to use?”

She smiled. “Tough one. Probably my favorite three photos right now are ones I shouldn’t show!”

I laughed. “I was thinking the same thing! We need to start our own secret gallery.”

Jane spoke to the class again. “We do have one project left for this term. For this, you will use the lens filter you get from the stack to show some before and after examples of how best to use it to your advantage. If anyone needs a larger ring size for their lens,” she added, glancing in our direction, “just see me after class and you can trade it in.”

The stack was down to two when it finally reached Shannon and me in the back of the room. She held it out between two fingers.

“What side do you want?” she asked.

“Tails?”

She laughed as she studied the pair. “Um ... Okay, how about the screw side, or the screwed side?”

“Rather screw than be screwed,” I whispered.

Shannon’s eyes widened, but she only grinned as she separated the two filters. She passed me my choice, and I held it up to the light. It was perfectly clear.

“Wow,” I drawled sarcastically. “This is really going to change the way I take photos!”

She giggled. “Did you just get a plain UV filter?”

“Looks like. What did you get?”

She held up a dark blue circle.

“Wow, that’s cool! Looks like I got screwed after all,” I joked.

She sniffed and patted my arm. “As usual. What does yours say?”

I read the markings on the side. “It says ‘Diff’. Difference, maybe? Even though I can’t see a difference.”

“I think it might be diffusion.”

“Hmm. All right, maybe there’s something to it.” I peered through the filter at the room beyond, but whatever effect the glass was producing, it was understated. It was only when I turned to look at Shannon’s face through it that I caught onto the slight softness it seemed to produce.

She smiled exaggeratedly at me as I eyed her. “How do I look?”

“A bit ghostly,” I answered.

“Really?”

We traded filters, and she studied mine while I enjoyed the world through her alien azure.

“It’s subtle, but I see it,” Shannon said.

“I can’t tell what yours does,” I joked, eliciting a giggle.

Jane got the class’s attention again. “Most of you will have gotten colored filters. Does anyone know what these do for your photos?”

“Make them come out in color?” one guy suggested.

I almost laughed, and then realized that he was serious.

“Well, not quite,” Jane replied, smiling. “But, perhaps, in a different way, you might say that,” she added kindly.

Shannon was much less merciful than our teacher as she leaned close to me. “Seriously? You’d think that after half a year of this class Ryan would realize how black and white photography works!”

“Any other ideas?” Jane asked.

Shannon had her hand up now. Jane gave it a few more seconds before calling on my friend.

“You can control the contrast between different colored objects in your scene,” Shannon explained.

“Yes, indeed.” Jane proceeded to tape a photo onto her easel. “Look at this color photograph here. It is extremely basic: a red apple sitting on a blue tablecloth. Now, who has the 82B filter, and who has the Red 29?”

Shannon took her blue filter to Jane, while another student handed his over. Jane held the two rings over the photo so that each contained part of the apple and part of the tablecloth.

“What do you expect to see for each of these filters, when you print your photos? Given that they will still be in black and white,” she added with emphasis, likely for one particular student’s benefit.

Shannon raised her hand again, but Jane ignored it this time so she eventually put it down.

“I guess that was my quota of answers for this year,” she whispered to me.

I laughed quietly, trying to remember the last time she’d been called on. Late October... ?

“Look at how the two colors come through,” Jane suggested.

The effect was interesting, though it was hard to see beyond the stark difference in absolute color, especially from the back of the room. No one spoke for a time. Shannon fidgeted and sighed impatiently beside me.

“Well, what type of light do you think a red filter lets through?” Jane prodded.

That was finally enough of a hint for me, so I raised my hand. She nodded my way.

“Red light. So ... red things will be brighter if you use the red filter?”

“Yes, good. And it will tend to block some blue light, making those areas darker, in general.”

She handed the filters back to Shannon and the other student, and then taped up another photograph.

“This one: a black and white print of the same scene, taken with no filter. It’s quite terrible, honestly.”

It was. The apple was the same shade of gray as the tablecloth, and only the shine of its polished skin lent the photograph any indication of shape. Jane added two more photos, one to each side of the monotone boredom. These were much better.

“Hmm ... Which one is the red filter?” Jane hummed. “I wonder...”

Ryan raised a redemptive hand. Jane called on him and he promptly guessed the left one.

Shannon turned to me, rolling her eyes dramatically. “You literally just said red things would be brighter, and he picks the one where the apple looks burnt?”

I sniggered quietly. “He’s never been the sharpest lens in the bag,” I quipped.

She giggled way too loudly, eliciting a raised brow from Jane.

I returned my attention to the photos again, realizing how incredible it was that you could make an apple go from almost white to almost black, just by putting on a colored piece of glass. It almost seemed like Jane was fooling with us and had actually burnt the apple with a torch. Then I remembered my own clear filter and felt slightly disappointed at my pick. Screwed indeed...

Regardless, the class turned out to be quite eye opening. By the time it was over, I was ready to go to Murph’s and blow my savings on a full color filter set. When the bell rang, Shannon and I approached Jane.

“You said we can trade out our filters, then?” I asked.

“Sure. What did you get?”

“‘Diff’, it says. Diffusion?”

Jane nodded. “A softener.”

“So it just makes things blurry?” I asked.

“Matt’s pretty good at doing that just with the focus ring!” Shannon joked.

I gave her a foul look, but Jane actually laughed.

“It’s not really a blur,” she explained. “The optics are very different. The best way to find out is to experiment with it. Obviously, you want to pick a subject where a softer look is desirable.”

“Like architecture,” Shannon suggested to me.

I was onto her tricky ways today, though, so I ignored her.

“I think not,” Jane replied, laughing again.

“Hmm. I really want to try the colors, though,” I hinted.

Jane shook her head. “You can trade for a bigger filter thread, but not a different filter! Luck of the draw.”

“Okay, fine ... I’ll have to think about what I’ll do with the diffuser.” I glanced at Shannon, and then turned back to Jane. “If I take pictures of her yet again, will it count against me?”

“Of course not. It is almost impossible to photographically exhaust a subject, if you are creative enough.”

“You better watch out, Matty, or I’ll use my filter on you,” Shannon said. “I hear the print will come out blue!”

“Shannon!” Jane warned, but it was a very amused reprimand.

“Sorry,” she peeped. “Couldn’t resist!”

I managed to get her out of there before she got into actual trouble with Jane. Or with me, for that matter. Once in the hallway, I raised a brow at her.

“You’re frisky today!”

She hummed a little song. “Yeah, it’s kind of funny, isn’t it?”

“Are you high?” I whispered.

She looked at me with a mock-horrified face. “Matt! No!”

I sniggered. “I was just joking. Let’s go,” I urged.

“Where?”

“The sooner we look at those pictures you printed, the sooner you can chill out!”

It took a little time to wade through the end-of-school crowds as people flocked to their lockers. As we climbed out of the basement level, we could finally see outside. White bombs were falling from the sky, as the heavens seemed in a rush to paint the town with even more snow than it had delivered over break.

“Damn!” I breathed, feeling the excitement of the storm in me.

“Told you.”

The library was quiet when we entered. Only the desk monitor seemed to be there, and she let us know that everything was closing in ten minutes because of the weather. Plenty of time. I walked to the card catalog and opened a random drawer.

“What are you doing?” Shannon whispered.

“Giving us a reason to go back there,” I said, as I riffled through the entries. I made a show of studying one, and then shut the drawer. “Otherwise, she might think we were, you know ... up to something.”

She raised a brow at me. “We are up to something, Matty.”

“Exactly!”

Soon we had secured our deserted library aisle. Shannon wasted no time in slinging her backpack to the floor and pulling out a manila envelope. After a quick glance to make sure the monitor hadn’t decided to follow us, she pulled out the prints.

“Whoa,” I breathed. “Is that...”

“Yeah, it’s you!”

“Jeez.”

“And you look damn good!” she gushed, unable to help herself.

“I don’t know about that, but it’s a really cool shot. The lighting is insane.”

“I tried some different printing techniques, and I’m pretty happy with it. But I still want to give it another try, tweak the shadows a bit more. I didn’t have time in the school darkroom.”

“Well, you know where I live ... Wow, this is amazing too,” I said, switching to the other photo. “Like, really amazing!”

“I just wonder which one Heather will like more. This one of both of you, or the one of just you.”

I shook my head in wonder. “Nice job, Shan. I wasn’t expecting them to look quite like this.”

“Thanks, Matty.”

“Seriously, this is your calling, I think. I love your other pictures, but these belong in a museum!”

“That’s why I was thinking of putting them up at the school art show.”

I guffawed. “I’m starting to think you should!”

“No, I was just kidding. Can you imagine? Shame though, that we have to keep them hidden.”

I spent a few minutes looking at the pair again, still trying to convince myself that they were from that shoot at Clara’s. Heather, in particular, looked magical as she lay on top of me. The light caught her features in such a way as to make her look sculpted. Not a shadow was out of place and her infinitely smooth skin appeared even more so in the shot, defying even the film’s grain.

“Wow. I’m definitely going to need a copy of this one,” I added.

“You know where you live,” she echoed.

“Funny. But you have the negatives.”

“True. What do you think of Colin?” she asked abruptly.

Heh heh heh... I kept a straight face though.

“Barely know him, but he seems cool.”

“He’s funny,” she remarked.

“He is,” I agreed.

“Are you going to start jamming with him?”

I shrugged. “We talked about it. The twins are coming in two days, though, so I’m not sure exactly when that’s going to happen.”

Shannon nodded.

“What do you think of Colin?” I asked.

She smiled evasively. “He’s funny.”

“You already said that.”

“So I did.”

“Here,” I said, digging through my bag and finding a folded piece of paper.

“What’s that?”

“His number. Write it down and call him!”

“What? No!”

“I bet he’d love hearing from you.”

“I’m not going to just call him out of the blue!”

I shrugged as I considered her somewhat mortified expression. “All right, all right ... What if, uh ... What if I invite him over for some jamming tomorrow, and you come over too? To develop pictures, you know. Complete coincidence.”

Shannon smiled. “Now you’re onto something that’s more my style!”

Then her face fell.

“What?” I asked.

“The snow!”

“So?”

“My car is useless in it!”

“Oh ... Well, guess what. Matty has yet another brilliant idea.”

“What?” she asked warily.

“Do you have anything going on after school or tonight?”

“I was thinking of going to Clara’s to work out a bit, but I don’t have to. My little kids’ class doesn’t start up again until next week. Why?”

“You want to sleep over?

Shannon looked a bit taken aback. “At your house?”

“Well, in the cabin, but yeah.”

“Why?”

“I’ll invite Colin over tonight, we’ll jam a bit, hang out. Then you can just stay there instead of driving home.”

“What about Colin?”

“He can stay too. It’s a double bed, you know,” I teased.

Shannon turned beet red and slapped my arm. “Matt, oh my god!”

“Sorry,” I said, though I couldn’t stop chuckling.

She scowled at me until I was quiet. Then she got closer and lowered her voice. “So you mean, we can do that?”

I raised a brow at her. “Wow, that was a quick change of heart!”

“I’m talking about me staying at your place!” she cried. “Not Colin, like—Jeez, Matty! Are you high?” she asked, a bit too loudly.

“Of course not. And yeah, you can stay over. Why wouldn’t you be able to?”

Shannon calmed herself and considered.

“I don’t think Colin will have any problem getting there,” I added. “He drives a Jeep.”

“I know that! And it’s a really cool Jeep, too. I guess that means he won’t have any trouble going home after the jam either.”

“You sound so, so sad about that.”

I received another warning glare.

“What if he can’t come?” she asked.

“Then he’ll definitely come tomorrow. It’s going to be a snow day, so it’s not like he had any plans.”

Shannon seemed to steel herself. “All right, I guess I’ll do it.”

“Cool. And if he can’t make it tonight, we can actually print some more of these pictures.”

“Okay, now I’m sold!”

I sniggered. “You actually sound more excited about printing than about Colin coming over!”

“Well, I get to be in a darkroom with you all night. What’s not to like?”

“Wait, why are you allowed to tease me but I’m not?” I exclaimed.

Whatever answer Shannon was about to offer was interrupted by the desk monitor.

“Do you two need help finding something?” she asked.

I duly noted the aroma of reprimand in her tone. Shannon couldn’t stop herself from giggling, though, which only added to the awkward intrusion. I eyed the pictures, which she’d set on an empty part of one bookshelf, in plain sight. Oddly, I didn’t even care that the monitor could see them. I was of half a mind to even hand them to her, so she could enjoy their beauty as well.

“Um, no, we found it,” I replied. “Thanks, though.”

Fortunately, the desk monitor didn’t give us anymore grief after reminding us of the impending closure.

“We better get moving,” Shannon said. “I need to stop by home and get some clothes and stuff.”

“Lead the way, wild woman!”

It was with much quiet laughter that we gathered our things, from my locker first, and then hers. After letting Lara know I’d not be riding home with her and Alice, we walked out to the lot. Colin’s Jeep was nowhere to be seen. I hopped into her old Camaro, reminding myself that if Shannon did get together with him, if nothing else they’d certainly be the coolest couple based on their set of wheels.

In a moment the engine roared to life. Shannon sat still, staring out the windshield.

“This is going to be interesting,” she murmured. “It’s already a couple of inches deep.”

“What’s with your car in the snow?”

“It’s rear wheel drive, and even on dry roads it likes to get loose if you’re not careful.”

“Well, better get moving then! It’s not looking like it’s going to get better any time soon.”

We made it to her place without incident, though it took four times as long as it normally would have. While Shannon was upstairs packing for her mini vacation, I used the Fitzpatricks’ phone to call Colin. There was no answer.

We started the somewhat longer drive to my house.

“You brought the negs, right?”

“Of course,” she replied. “How about... ?”

“No answer. I’ll call him again from my house, don’t worry,” I soothed.

Soon the clumps of falling snow were making audible ticks on her windshield, and the conditions deteriorated significantly as the storm bore down with its full weight onto the landscape. I wasn’t particularly fearful of the drive, as by this time I was sure I could walk faster than Shannon was going. But driving into a ditch even at a crawl wouldn’t be a fun start to the long weekend.

“Can you even see the road?” I asked.

“Getting harder by the minute,” she admitted.

“Should we stop? There’s a wide dirt pullout up here that just leads to a gated field.”

“Maybe. But then what do we do?”

“Wait until the snow slows down a bit, so you can see better?”

“All right.”

“We’re not that far, so we can even walk home from here if we have to.”

“And I won’t see my car for a week, then.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Shannon eased into the pullout and then sat back.

“Well, that got bad quick,” she huffed.

She seemed a little drained. Although I figured it was the driving conditions, I decided to clear the air, just in case.

“Sorry I was teasing you in the library,” I said. “You know, about Colin.”

Shannon smiled gently at me. “It’s okay. I wish I was as comfortable as you about that kind of stuff. Especially when there’s a little chance it might actually happen.”

“I do think Colin is into you,” I said, leaning on Lara’s powers of observation at least as much as on my own.