Nils was doing it as a favor to an old friend. The friend’s daughter, Ella, had just turned 19, graduated from high school, and according to the father was thinking about a career in modeling instead of going to college. The father didn’t approve, and the daughter insisted it would just be to see what it was like, that she could always go to college next year. “So I thought you could give her a taste of what it’s like,” the father told Nils. “You know, how it’s not all a bed of roses. Nothing too distasteful. Fine arts sort of stuff.”

“So you want me to dissuade her?” Nils said.

“If you could.”

Nils said he would see what he could do.

Ella arrived at Nils’ studio twenty minutes ahead of the appointed time, attempting without much success not to appear nervous. Nils had met her a number of times over the years, but not for the last year or two. He greeted her warmly.

“So you want to be a photographer’s model?” he asked.

“Yes, very much,” she said. “My dad doesn’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Why not, do you think?”

“He wants me to go to college. He thinks models get exploited.”

Nils chuckled. “I suppose some of them do.”

“But not all of them.”

“No, I suppose not,” Nils said. “I can introduce you to some of them. They can give you some idea. Some of them have been pushed into it by their parents.”

“Not my parents,” Ella said with a frown.

“Right,” said Nils. “So first a couple of legal documents for you to sign. Just at the X at the bottom of each page.” He handed her the forms attached to a clipboard and a pen, and she signed without reading.

“Great,” said Nils, placing the clipboard out of the way. “Now if you’ll take off your clothes.”

“All of them?”

Nils nodded, picking up his camera.

“Right here?”

Nils nodded again.

“You’re going to photograph me while I...?”

Nils’ camera clicked. Then clicked again.

“The sound is artificial,” Nils said. “I could turn it off, but it reminds me of the old days.” His camera clicked twice more, and then again and again as Ella undressed.

“Perfect,” Nils said, once Ella was naked. “For starters I’m going to do you with the cattail. It’s over in the corner in that tall vase. If you’ll just stand behind the vase for me.”

“Perfect,” Nils said, once Ella was behind the vase. “Now if you’ll just stand on tiptoe. Just so your pussy hair is an inch below the rim. Perfect. Could you touch the rim of the vase with your thumb? Just inside the inner lip, please. Perfect. The fruit of that cattail is almost exactly the size of a man’s fully tumescent penis. Are you a virgin, Ella?”

Click. Click. Click, click, click.

When Nils set his camera down, Ella asked, “Do you think I’m pretty?”

“Stunning,” Nils said.

“Really?”

“Do you not think you’re stunning?” Nils asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe. Do you think I’m sexy?”

“Is it important what I think?” Nils asked.