Forgotten Photo

“This is it?” asks Donald.  

With a deep sigh, Julia responded, “Yep, that’s it. I won $20,000 on top of it being put up on the billboard. It should only run for a couple of weeks. It was just a marketing scheme to draw attention to the gallery I guess.”  

“And you don’t remember entering the contest?”  

“Donald, I don’t even remember taking it.” 

The couple stood 12 stories below the newest advertisement for the City’s art gallery, staring at it inquisitively. Both searched every aspect of the contorted picture, hoping for a clue that would tell them where it was taken. After a few more moments of silence, they decided their efforts were useless and to go about their usual Tuesday evening plans. Checking out the latest lounge and ordering a craft cocktail.  

Upon entering the treehouse themed lounge, you are immediately hit with the aroma of moss after it’s rained, the signature smell of alcohol, and unexpectedly the scent of s’mores. A waitress walked by, carrying a tray of graham crackers, chocolates, and a fire that is contained in a miniature bon-fire to confirm the sugary smell.  

After Julia and Donald were seated and placed their drink and s’mores order they stared at each other. Waiting to see if the other would address the elephant in the room.  

Julia broke the silence first, “what is that picture of? Forget that I don’t recognize it as my own, but I don’t recognize what it is at all. Do you?”  

“No, I can’t make out any specifics. It’s too blurry and the lighting is dark” answered Donald.  

“I still do not know how they would have me as a winner. I never knew they were running such a campaign. If I did, it certainly would not have been that. Even if there is another Julia Matthews in this city, how would they have my contact information?”  

“You must have entered it and forgot about it. It was a long time ago and is why you do not recognize it.” 

“Maybe, but…” 

The waitress brought over their 3-tier s’more tower, interrupting the conspiracy theory from taking root any more than it might have. A stiff drink is probably all that is needed to have a laugh about the entire situation. However, Julia could not shake the thought from her mind, but decided to let it rest for the night.  

* * * 

The next day when Julia woke up, the contest winning photo was still on her mind. She could not stand to have her name so publicly attached to something she did not fully back, let alone remember. She kissed Donald on the cheek and let him know she would be right back with fresh coffee and tea.  

As she strolled down the sidewalk Julia scrolled through the photos on her phone hoping to come across the picture.  

It had to have been recent right? The campaign would not have taken place much in advance of the winner being announced.  

Julia continued to scroll.  

But what if I had used an old photo?  

After a few more city blocks she arrived at the same spot she was at yesterday with Donald. Once again, staring up at the massive billboard of a picture she didn't recognize. Julia could stare at the billboard all day trying to jog her memory, but Donald would wake up any moment and want coffee. She decided to take a few photos of it with her phone before heading in the direction of their favorite café.  

Julia’s attention was still glued to the photo album on her phone, but something out of the corner of her eye made her look up. It was the photo printed on the front page of the local newspaper. There was a stack of the newspaper by the cashier, additional copies on the tables, and a few people currently reading the paper. She was surrounded by this photo. It was taunting her. She needed to get to the bottom of this before this menial event consumed her thoughts any further. Julia snatched a copy of the newspaper off one of the tables as she left the cafe. With her hands full she would have to wait until she was home to read what the article said.  

Being the cynic that she was, Julia let her thoughts wander into the darker reasoning for how this could have come about.  

Was someone intentionally messing with her? Had someone she had known entered the contest under her name? If so, was it with good or bad intentions? Was someone trying to ruin her chances of establishing herself in the art community? Would there be something else to come?  

Julia’s train of thought abruptly ended when Donald reached for his coffee as she walked into the foyer.  

“You’re thinking about that billboard, aren’t you?” asked Donald.  

Julia did not reply, she looked at him with narrowed eyes as she took a sip of her tea.  

“I know you. I know that faraway look you get when something is spinning in your mind. Look, it's a blurry, dark photo, with a cobblestone road. Not like it was anything scandalous. Let it go. You were given credit for a successful art campaign and a check for $20,000. You won. Now get on with your weekend.”  Donald ended the conversation as he strolled off to begin his morning routine.  

Julia knew Donald was right. She should consider this a victory and not fuss over the details, no matter how odd. Her involvement within the art community was only known by a few people and her life goal of being a major donor was known by even fewer. None of which she could imagine would want to cause harm to her life. Julia decided that she needed to focus her energy elsewhere and let this mystery pass. And with that, Julia headed off to their Pilates studio in the west wing of the house hoping Donald was still in the sauna. She was not in the mood to see him right now.  

Going through her Pilates routine her mind went back to what Donald had noticed about the photo having a ‘cobblestone road’. How had she not noticed that? And why didn’t Donald mention yesterday that he could recognize a cobblestone road? Julia was too anxious now to focus on her workout, she needed to look at the pictures she had taken of the billboard, and the one in the newspaper she had left on the foyer table with her sunglasses. She jumped off the reformer and dashed off to her study, grabbing the newspaper on the way.  

* * * 

It began to give her a headache staring at her phone and the newspaper inches from her face.  

“Ugh!” Julia exclaimed. “I’m going to go cross-eye!” 

After a moment she popped out of her chair and headed for the floor to ceiling cabinets that neatly stored all her journals, crafting supplies, and equipment for the various hobbies she dabbled. Her eyes were wide, searching for just the thing. A devilish smirk appeared on her face once she located the projector. Julia shut all the curtains, doused all the lights, and set up the projector. It only took a moment before the mystery photo was splayed across the white wall. 

“Much better.” Julia said to no one in particular.  

The whole picture had a dull hue, like it was taken at night. The bottom of the photo was trimmed in solid black. The top of the photo was also shadowed with almost a pinkish tint, at an angle from the top left corner to the top and across the top, not as solid as the bottom, but certainly was darker than the rest of the photo. And in the bottom half photo was the cobblestone Donald mentioned. Although it didn’t look quite like a road. It was too clean and there were no major chips out of the stone from years of traffic. She moved closer to the wall, looking for anything she could identify. In the top shadow there is a trace of silver and a short band of gold.  While considering what the floating gold could be, she shifted her gaze to another part of the photo.  

“Grass?”  

Continuing her thoughts in her head, Julia thought; well, that would make sense since cobble stone would be outside. And for sure it isn’t a cobblestone street, there isn’t grass anywhere near downtown.  

Julia began to pace her study to recall anywhere else she had seen cobblestone on grass. And what that band of silver could be, nothing but the dark shadow surrounded it. She needed to do something else to jog her memory. Photo albums. Over the years Julia had taken so many photos and printed her favorite ones from various trips and key moments in her life. Maybe the cobblestone would be in the background of one of the pictures. She flipped through the most recent albums first and she quickly noticed a pattern. Nearly all her photos were taken during the daytime. Julia’s nightlife had been essentially nonexistence since her early 20’s, meaning the photo was taken either when she was younger, or the photo was taken during daytime hours, and it was simply dark outside or in the shadow.  

She continued to flip through her many photo albums, until she found what she was looking for. Cobblestones on grass. Julia was so focused on looking for cobblestones and excited at her find that she hadn’t realized how far back she went in her albums, or the subject of this particular photo. The photo was of her and her friend Suzie, standing in the middle of some castle ruins. And on Suzie’s finger was a gold ring, Julia wore a matching one but in Silver. Was that the source for the band of gold from the photo? Julia started to smile, recalling the many months her and Suzie spent looking for castle ruins for no reason other than it would have been cool. Julia was always known as the princess between the pair and so they got it in their heads to find her a castle. Julia flipped a few more pages that contained more photos from the day they happened upon their first and last castle ruins. This fairytale adventure was about 5 years ago. Suzie went missing about 4 years ago. Her body was never found, her apartment looked undisturbed, no money had been taken from her bank accounts, and her cell phone was found plugged in on her nightstand. It was as if she vanished from the face of the Earth. Sometimes Julia liked to pretend that she had run off on some grand adventure and was living life to the fullest and away from modern technologies.  

The sudden ‘clink’ of Donald’s water bottle against the glass door startled Julia from her thoughts.    

“I see you have gone full detective on this.” said Donald as he entered the room, looking at the projected photo, her open laptop, and photo albums scattered on the floor.  

Mildly embarrassed, Julia responded “I couldn’t help myself. My mind has been spinning over this. I believe I am making progress though.”  

“Oh? Care to explain your theory detective?”  

With a sarcastic laugh, Julia began to explain her mind map and how the minute details lead from one thing to another before creating a bigger picture. Julia became more excited as she verbally communicated her process to Donald. She had expected him to poke holes throughout her story, but he hadn’t and that made her more confident in her developments. 

Julia continued her explanation, “. . . and then I remembered where I have seen cobblestone on grass before! It was years ago with Suzie. We were adventuring way out in the country looking for castle ruins. And we found one! Do you remember that?” Julia laughed a little recalling the memory. “Remember how we tried for months to figure out where they might be and only found herds of sheep and cows? We only ever did come across the one castle site.” 

Donald’s demeanor had changed, his arms were now crossed, and his jaw was tight. “You don’t even know that you took that photo. Like you said, you couldn’t find it anywhere on your phone. Seriously, you are letting your mind take over.” He turned on his heels and left, slamming the door behind him.  

Julia remained frozen, staring at the door wondering what had just happened. The last few things she said replayed in her mind, trying to figure out what it was that could have made him so upset. It took her a few more minutes before rolling her eyes and with a sigh, said, “Suzie.”  

Donald didn’t care for Suzie and grew more annoyed as their relationship became more serious and Suzie was still around just as much. Julia assumed it was because her and Donald were more “up tight” and sophisticated compared to Suzie, and he probably found her annoying. In the last year before Suzie went missing Donald was extra short tempered with her when she would make jokes about Julia considering moving in with him. Suzie would joke that Donald is going to steal Julia’s freedom, that he only wants her to move in to be his maid, and so on. This petty teasing went on for months, and then finally the war seemed to have ceased. Donald just started to laugh it off or play along. It took the fun out of it for Suzie, and she stopped. Sadly, right when they were starting to get along again, Suzie went missing. A tear began to roll down Julia’s cheek as she smiled at the memories immortalized in the picture. 

Now that Julia had an idea of when the photo was taken, she went back to her phone, and scrolled to the shared album titled Princess Julia’s Castle. Another tear rolled down her cheek. She tapped on the album to reveal its contents. She had mindlessly scrolled through the album since she had seen it so many times. The months following Suzie’s disappearance Julia would spend hours looking through the photos from their last adventure together. Donald had been supportive during this time, and Julia moved in. Ironic that it was circumstances surrounding Suzie that she finally moved in with Donald. Suzie certainly would have made some joke at the turn of events.

She continued to go through the digital photo album with minimal expectations. But then, there it was. The blurry photo, with the band of gold, the dark trim on the bottom, and the cobblestone in the bottom half. Julia clicked on it to review the details. It was added to the shared album by Suzie and the time stamp for when it was taken matched the date of their castle adventure. A memory from that day had flooded back to her.  

“Alright, my turn to play director.” Julia teased as she reached for Suzie’s phone.  

Suzie was sitting on the crumbling cobblestone and laughed as Julia pointed the phone’s camera at her.  

“Princess Suzie, say hello to your subjects.”  

Suzie laughed and put her hand right up to the camera lens, waiving as she said “hello” as Julia was taking the picture.  

Julia had been the one to take the picture, but with Suzie’s phone. That’s why she hadn’t seen it before in her own photo album. Why had Suzie uploaded such a bad picture? Why not delete it? Did Suzie intentionally keep it because of the funny memory behind it?  

The day had turned into late evening, and Julia was getting hungry. And with perfect timing, Donald knocked on the door and entered with a bowl of chicken and veggies.  

“I’m sorry Princess, I shouldn’t have gotten so upset like that.”  He offered the bowl of warm dinner to Julia. It was a peace offering that she accepted.  

Donald continued to explain his behavior, “I just don’t want you to get sad from reliving memories of Suzie. And don’t want Suzie’s thoughts to worm their way into that pretty head of yours and get between us like they used to. I know Suzie was your best friend, and you miss her, but it’s not good to live in the past.”  Donald bent over and kissed Julia on the forehead to reassure her of his affection.  

Julia swallowed the bite of chicken before saying, “You have nothing to worry about. I just wanted to figure this photo out. It will drive me crazy until I do, you know it will.”  

Donald gave a laugh and responded, “yes, I know.” Then once again, he left Julia alone in her study.  

Julia padded across the wood floor of her study over to the couches and read the newspaper while she ate her dinner. The art gallery was trying to regain the attention of the public with a new exhibit about dreams.  

Julia thought, “Makes sense why a blurry photo would be used when trying to advertise for something as ambiguous and foggy as dreams. Leaves it open for interpretation I suppose.”  

She nearly choked when she read the caption under the photo, “Princess Julia’s Castle.” This was all too much for Julia, her head began to spin. First, she was informed she had won a contest she hadn’t entered that was held by the city’s art gallery; then spent hours going full detective on where the photo even came from, only to discover it was from the last trip she took with her now missing friend; and now the contest winning photo was titled the same as the shared album from that trip with her missing friend.  This was all more than a coincidence. What is going on?  

Still staring at the photo in the newspaper, all Julia could manage to whisper was “Suzie?”.