More Than Just A Camera

After selling it Paul knew he had to have it back. He didn’t regret selling it. Even hoping he’d never see it again. It must have been in the shopkeeper’s possession only five minutes when Paul got the call. It didn’t take him more than a minute on the phone to realize what he had to do. The old camera might just save a life.

For Paul and his friends, it all started over a month ago. Summer was just beginning and they had been talking about going camping far from the city. The cubicles that the three of them worked in were getting decidedly smaller by the week. The plan was to get out of the city. Anywhere was fine. No cellphones, no laptops, no distractions. No exceptions. Except for one exception. Photos.

Ricky suggested they buy a traditional camera. Paul and Hunter agreed and the three of them pitched in. Paul would use a day off to go and buy the camera.

Paul would buy it. The budget allocated to purchasing the camera was low, as none of them would find much use for the camera after their trip had ended. Even so, Paul found it difficult finding something within their price range. He considered consulting his friends to add more money to the pile, or just making up the rest of the amount himself. But eventually settled on a small pawn shop near his job. He had passed by it several times and never saw anyone going in or out. Never saw much of anything. The shop itself was tucked between two giant chain stores. Somebody must’ve pawned off some old nearly-useless camera at some point and it was waiting there just for him.

He walked in and the shopkeeper didn’t even pretend to look up from the newspaper he was reading. All the electronics were in and around the front counter but Paul pretended to eye up the other wares. A chainsaw and a hand push lawnmower hung behind each other along with other garden and garage tools. Paul ran his hand on the mower and inspected the other tools which he had never before seen. The opposite wall held mostly musical instruments and abandoned handbags. He glanced around and saw right beneath where the shopkeeper was resting his elbows an old camera. The price would be just right for their budget.

“See anything you like?”

“What about this camera?”

The man folded up his newspaper like a newly-pressed dress shirt and put it off to the side.

“What, that one?”

“Yeah, can I have a look?”

The man reached down and opened up the back of the glass case with his set of keys and pulled out the camera.

“It was sold to me not too long ago; fella came in from Egypt or Morocco or some such place. Don’t really remember.” He popped open the back where the film is stored. “He was really eager to have it sold.” The man made a point of emphasizing this fact.

Paul reached for camera as the shopkeeper slid it in his direction.

“The film is brand new, even have an extra set or two somewhere in the back.”

“Why was he so eager?”

“What? To sell it? Never told me, but said he found it somewhere in some dune or desert some place. Said it seems to work fine but sometimes the film develops funny.”

“How do you mean?”

“Didn’t ask him. I tested out the camera around the shop and it looks alright.”

The man turned around and took some photos out of a drawer behind him.

“Here, I took these a day or two after I got the camera. Seems alright to me.”

Paul examined the camera and flipped it over looking at the underside. He wasn’t much familiar with old equipment like this but it did seem odd there was no label or anything anywhere.

“What’s the brand?”

“I’m not too sure myself but I’d imagine some Japanese company made it and over time the labels fell off or something.”

Paul looked through the camera’s lens and aimed it around the shop.

“On account of its age I knocked the price down to what you see there.” The man tapped on the glass case.

It’ll only be for a few days, Paul thought. Even if it takes just a few photos, it’ll be worth it. Paul bought it along with two extra rolls of film. He put the camera in his backpack in the car and forgot about until the day of the excursion. During their first hike they came upon a waterfall opposite a lake and suddenly Ricky remembered to ask about the camera.

“Yeah, I got it in my backpack, actually,” Paul said. He reached in and pulled it out after several seconds of searching. “Haven’t tried it yet.” He handed it off to Hunter who began inspecting it and looking through the lens.

“Looks old.” He focused it on Ricky and snapped a photo. “Works alright though.”

“It definitely doesn’t have a digital option,” Ricky said. “But I imagine we could ask for digital copies.”

The three of them stood around analyzing the camera and decided to set it on top of a rock with the timer on. They stood together at the edge of the lake with the waterfall in the background and waited until the camera flashed. The camera throughout the week-long holiday worked well enough. They ended up taking photos around the park including at the top of the waterfall and the bottom. Paul promised to have the photos developed as soon as they all got back and make copies for each of them.

After several days Paul got a call from the nearby studio that he went to that his film was ready for pickup. He went after work, picked up the three copies of photos and drove home to examine them. He phoned Ricky, then Hunter to inform them that the photos were ready. Most of the photos turned out really well. The photos brought out detail in every photo so eerie that Paul felt like the camera actually captured a living memory of the place. The more Paul looked at the photos the more real they became.

“It’s fascinating, isn’t it?” Paul said.

They both went through each photo eventually landing on the last few at the top of the waterfall, then the ones taken at the base. Both seemed off, somehow not right.

“Do you remember there being someone in the lake when we were there?”

“The whole place was deserted. It was just us,” came Paul’s reply.

There appeared to be a figure standing in the middle of the lake, several meters behind them. It slightly shifted around depending on which photo they examined but if they looked closely enough it was definitely there.

“What could it be?”

“Look, it’s in this one, too.” Paul held out one of the first photo taken with the camera. It was Ricky standing by the lake. In the far distance, a figure could be just barely made out. At the top of the waterfall, too. It seemed to be off in the corner of the photo, as if mid-flight.

“Must be some film development anomaly. Like they forgot to take out it before giving them back.”

“Or maybe exposed it to light too soon,” Paul added.

“Anyways, I’ll take that set and drop it off at Hunter’s on my way back home.”

After Ricky was out the door Paul went back to mulling over the photos. It was definitely a person, Paul thought. This was no anomaly. He remembered that there were two extra rolls of film that he bought that weren’t yet used. Popping one of the rolls in he took several photos of his home and outside in the backyard. Looking through the lens revealed nothing. The camera needed to be further tested, that shopkeeper did say that the man who sold it to him seemed a little strange.

The next day he took it with him to work and on his break, he walked around the city snapping photos of buildings, cars, people, intersections, anything. Anything, he thought, that might recreate the bizarre figures present in the first set of photos. The film ran out and Paul went back to work to finish his sandwich. After work he dropped off the film roll at the studio and lost sleep for the next few days.

He picked up the film after work one day and ripped open the envelope in the car. Before he could look through the photos, his phone began vibrating. It was Ricky.

“Yeah?”

“You home?”

“No. Driving there now.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you there in a bit, got something to tell you. Hunter is with me.”

The phone went silent and Paul started up the car. He opened the envelope and looked through the photos on his passenger side seat while driving. Nothing looked off in the photos but then again, he couldn’t get a clear look at any of them while driving home.

He pulled into his driveway and saw that Ricky hadn’t made it yet. Before he could sit down and look through the photos he heard his doorbell ring.

“Hey, check this out,” Ricky held up a folded-up newspaper.

Both men walked in and saw the pile of photos laying on the sofa.

“Are those new ones?”

“Yeah, I took them a few days ago.”

Ricky and Hunter both looked at each other then back at Paul with a state of shock.

“I think you should have a look at the paper, page five,” said Ricky.

Paul sat down and opened up the paper.

“At the bottom,” added Hunter.

It was a story about a missing man thought to have been dead for over a year. He walked to his family’s home, rang the doorbell and told them he had no recollection of the past year. The police investigation continues.

“Okay, so what?”

“So, read about where he went missing.”

Eastwood Park

“He was thought to have disappeared and died but no body was ever recovered,” said Hunter.

“They thought it might be mob-related,” said Ricky.

There was a photo included in the paper of the day he went missing. Paul realized the resemblance and reached for the park photos. There he was.

“You’re saying this guy is the guy in the photo?”

“We’re not sure of anything, Paul but that guy in your photos looks really familiar to the guy in the newspaper.”

Hunter began sifting through the new photos.

“Hey, what are these?” Hunter asked, holding up a pair of photos.

Paul stood up and snatched the photos. The first one was of an intersection near his work. Several cars were waiting at a red light while people crossed the street. From what he remembered, there was nobody crossing the street diagonally. But the picture clearly showed a figure standing in the middle of the intersection. It was difficult to make out the details exactly but it looked like he was wearing ragged clothing. The second photo showed much the same but a different angle.

“So, a homeless guy standing in the middle of the street?”

“He’s not homeless,” said Hunter. “That guy was hit by a drunk driver in the middle of the night around a year ago.” Hunter ran his finger along the photo. “This road is where the car came from, and this is where the guy landed. Killed instantly.” The spot where the stranger in the photo was standing.

“You’re saying he’s a dead guy?”

“Are you saying you saw him actually standing there when you took the photo?”

Try as he might Paul could not recall anything quite as strange while he snapped the photos. The two men flipped through the rest of the photos but found no other oddities.

“I don’t know, it’s creeping me the hell out,” said Ricky. “That camera you bought is either really malfunctioning or…”

“Or we’re going crazy,” added Hunter. “Get rid of it, forget this ever happened.”

They ripped up all the photos, including the ones taken on vacation and vowed never to speak of it again. Whatever was happening must’ve been some coincidence, or strange happenstance. They repeated and reassured themselves it wasn’t supernatural. Paul thought so as well on the drive to the pawn shop with camera in tow. Hunter and Ricky told Paul they were going to pick up some things while he was out. Then the three of them could meet back up at a restaurant. It wasn’t sitting well with Paul, he wondered if the others could truly forget about this and put it behind them. He turned the car radio on full blast to drown out his chatty conscience. The very intersection that Paul had photographed a few days earlier was in front of him as he waited at a red light.

And now some news, blared the radio. City News at 6 reports that, according to police, a man believed to have been killed by a drunk driver over a year ago has returned home to his family, having no memory of what happened. Although understandably thankful, the family and community are at a loss as how this miracle has taken place. The man, having been pronounced dead at the scene, was given a funeral and buried at the city cemetery. The family and local authorities are baffled. This story and others at the top of the hour.

Paul turned his head to one side almost straining and turned off the radio completely. Maybe his friends were lying when they said they could easily move on. He got to the pawn shop, which was once again deserted of all customers. The shopkeeper, once again, was leaning on the counter not too concerned about anything in particular and leisurely reading his paper.

“I’d like to pawn off this camera I bought earlier.”

“Oh? Not satisfied with its quality.”

“Don’t need it anymore,” he placed it on the counter as the shopkeeper folded up his newspaper.

“Let me have a look here.” The man eyed the camera and eventually gave a low-ball price which Paul expected and accepted. The money wasn’t important to him. He was about to walk out when his phone began to vibrate. It was Ricky’s number.

“Hello?”

“Hello? Yes, this is Officer Patterson, I am calling in regards to a serious matter. Your friends have been in a car accident. One of them is battling for his life as we speak. He told me to call this number. The other one, I’m sorry to say, has already passed.”

Paul took a deep breath and with one hand on the shop door to steady himself, asked the officer for the scene of the accident.

“But they have been taken to hospital. It’s City Memorial Hospital,” came the reply.

“Is that so? Well, then I’ll be right over, thank you,” Paul hung up. He closed the shop door and turned around, watching the shopkeeper as he began to unfurl his paper. He was certain he had enough money to buy back the camera.