In the Attic
The last thing my father told me was to take care of Fay, my sister. Our mother had passed years ago, we don’t remember her. The only thing that reminds us of her are father’s old photos. And now, years later, our father got stricken with illness and couldn’t recover. I remember our last conversation, in his old shack by the sea.
“Briana, my girl - he said, gasping for air - I’m sure you’ll grow into a fine lady one day. Take good care of little Fay, and whatever you do - he coughed, eyes full of blood - burn all of my photographs.”
I felt his grip over my hand loosening up, his eyes closed elegantly, very slowly. A few days later, I took Fay with me to the attic, where all of his photos were. Folders upon folders with black and white photographs, ranging from people to the most bizarre, unearthly sights. I was going to listen to him and burn them, of course, but I wanted to see them first. We sat on the floor and started browsing them.
“What’s this, Briana?” my little sister said, holding a photo of a white oval, in the middle of what looked like a cave.
I couldn’t make anything out of it, this thing looked foreign, I’d never seen anything like it. I took the photo from her and said:
“It’s one of the many place father has been. I don’t know what that big oval is, probably a cave formation. Here, take a look at these ones.”
I handed her some of the portraits our father had made. So many people, all in different clothes, different smiles or smirks. A collection of souls, gathering dust in the attic. Sometimes I wonder if the photographer captures a part of a man’s soul, and then stores it forever in a box, in a corner in a dusty old room.
When we finished browsing through the photos, we went down into our room. Tomorrow we would have to find a way to bury our father, and after that, to burn all of his life’s work.
***
Fay was screaming, she had escaped from bed and gone up, into the attic. When I went up, she was holding the photo with the oval in her hands. Her eyes were green, light green. Her screams were haunting, they pierced right through my skull and shattered my sanity completely. I started feeling dizzy, I was almost about to feint. The picture was emitting a strange light, I didn’t know what was happening. And then, just when I was about to close my eyes and let go of my very self, it came out of the photograph. It came out and…


















