A flash-fiction look at why one sometimes takes on a unique companion in life. (Image by nardarshankar)
Companion In Hand
I’m getting old you know?
How long has it been?
So many doors we’ve traveled through,
Experienced differently.
Open,
Closed,
Hanging,
Hinged,
Wood,
Metal,
Glass.
So much you’ve taught me.
Opposites do attract
For good reason.
Everywhere we went,
You remained my confidant,
Companion,
Advisor.
You brought so many meanings to me,
From such close up intimacy,
To our sharing of distant places.
You taught me panoramic vistas,
Tender touches of butterflies,
And most importantly,
Insight into that which I could not see.
How helpful you’ve been,
Faithful to a fault, you know.
Even with the times
I became infatuated with a newer companion,
You understood so well
The insecurity crisis
That fouls up so many relationships.
Yes,
You’ve proven to be a classic,
But…
Well…
You’ll have to be left behind soon
The door at the end of this tunnel
Is too bright for you to see
To know
To remember
To save as picture.
Don’t be sad, dear camera.
Companion in hand
We’ll always be.
Our memories are forever
Stored up high in the Cloud
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When my hands became paralyzed at 20, my mother gave me her old 1941 Kodak bellows camera. I could actually load the film, wind the film forward, take pictures, remove and seal the film for processing. I even got the negatives back--all color photos and film.
I lost that camera when it was stolen while I was dancing to a steel drum band at Expo 67 in Montréal. Including all the pictures I had taken on our cross-country trip with a companion, Nick, from work. Fortunately, my landlady had a similar camera and gave it to me when I told her about my loss.
When I left my home in 1980 with an unknown destination, I packed the camera in a suitcase in the basement storage room. When I retrieved my things from that storage room in 1989, the room had been flooded, 2 inches deep from a water line leak in 1983. The suitcase with all of its contents, including the camera, were destroyed by mildew.
I bought a Canon for pictures after that. My partner sent the camera to Vietnam without even processing the pictures we had in. Since then, I have been taking movies with camera and iPad. But not alone anymore because I can't use those handy companions anymore.
Ron