Currencies

Found Photograph

Untitled, by Caroline Gormley

Two people are riding in a car. The passenger is holding a picture.

Driver: What's that you got there?
Passenger: Where?
D: What's that you're looking at?
P: A picture.
 D: Yeah a picture of what?
P: Oh, not sure exactly…home I guess. A home I've never been to.
D: Can I take a look?

 The passenger hands the driver the photograph. There's a small
structure off center. The driver shifts his eyes between the picture
and the road.

D: This doesn't look like a home. Not to me.
P: Well, it's what I've got. See how it's not centered? Kinda out of
focus? It's like whoever took the picture didn't have time. Or didn't
know the ways it would matter. Just snapped it while they could.

The driver hands the photograph back to the passenger.

D: Looks like a lousy lot to me.
P: I found it in my parents house. After they died. You know, I rent
it out to travelers now. I was going through the dresser drawers
trying to find anything that was left after my sister took most
everything to Houston. Found some pliers that were rusted shut and
this. The date on the back is the year I was born. I don't know
anything about it. Couldn't find any other pictures like it.

The two drive in silence for a while. The sun is setting ahead. The
passenger takes his billfold out and places the photograph back
inside.

P: Isn't that funny though? The way the subject shifts over time?