Thursday, March 18, 2010

"It's like this. I have been doing a lot of reading on the web. I need a hobby but one that at least might pay for itself. What I have in mind is making mini posters. I have been reading about a guy in Pennsylvania who does it. I want to give it a try, but do it a little differently. So would you guys be willing to kind of model for the samples." I hurried on to explain that they got to keep their clothes on.

"I can't speak for Molly, but I would love to. Do I get copies of the posters?"

"Since you are my first, not only do you get copies but you get to pick the shots I use for them."

"Then when do we start?" she asked.

Rather than answer I went inside and came back with my 35mm camera. I would rather have used a different camera for the posters but I didn't have one. I shot pictures of the two of them individually. I decided that I wasn't quite ready for the 'we area a couple' look just yet.

Shortly after I shot the last frame, I took the film to the drugstore with the one hour lab inside. It took half an hour to get the negatives processed. So while they were being developed, I took my laundry to the Liu family laundry service. I found out about Lucy from a patrol sergeant for her district. The story goes that Lucy and her mother came to the US after the boat people fiasco of the seventies . Mom spoke no English but Lucy spoke a little, so they were inseperable. To avoid starvation mom found a small laundromat in a good area of town. Mom began doing wash for people in the public machines. All around her were white middle class women doing their wash as well. Soon Lucy's mom was doing almost all the wash for everyone who came in the place. She and Lucy stayed busy and they also saved their money. One day the place closed as a public laundromat and became the Liu family laundry.

I arranged to pick up the laundry the next day. Yes the Liu family laundry was open on Sundays. After the laundry visit, I returned to the drugstore for my negatives. The negatives kept me busy all afternoon. I stayed locked away in my bedroom with the scanner going full blast until dinner time. I took a short break for a grilled beef patty and salad, then it was back to the negatives.

I loved what Misty looked like on film, but Molly had the 'every woman' look which would be more realistic. I worked on a couple of versions before sleep overcame me. I hadn't realized just how long I had been working.

When I awoke the next morning, I went for my walk before I did anything else. First thing I did when I returned home was to check the images from the night before. I found that even half asleep I couldn't ruin Misty's images. She was just flat beautiful on film. Just to keep peace I transferred three images of each girl to a thumb drive. I planned to take it to the print shop after I picked up my laundry.

Lucy Liu, who had taken over after her mother retired, had a rule. Every order had a 24hour delivery time. It did not matter if the order were finished in one hour, she wouldn't even look for it until the 24hours had passed.

I continued to work on the images of my neighbors and tenants all morning. I had a bowl of cereal for lunch then went to the computer to continue my search for information. I made sure the time was right before I left for Office Depot. I had the girl behind the office services desk make me three prints of everything. Some of them were black and white others were color but I had three of everything made. The bill came to under $20 for 18 11x17 prints.

I had the cop discount with Lucy Liu, so my bill was always ten bucks. As long as my bag didn't weight more than twenty pounds and I brought my own hangers, I paid a flat ten dollars and eighty cents for the tax. It was a great deal but I expected her to find out that I had retired at any time. What difference that would make I had no idea. I was sure that it would make some kind of difference though.

When I returned home I found the girls from next door waiting for me. They were curious to see how they posters looked. "God I love this shot of you," Molly said to Misty. They pretty much ignored me while they went on and on about the poster images.

"Okay, you can use any of them you like," Misty said.

"Same goes for me. They really are cool." Molly agreed. I hated when a grown woman used the word cool, but I said nothing.

"Fair enough, I'll give you the digital images, if you give me a disk." I replied.

"How about just burning us a cd of everything," Misty suggested.

"Sure, I should have thought of that. I'll do it when I get back. I need to get ready to go to Williams for the week."

The drive to Williams didn't take nearly as long on Sunday. I suppose the traffic was worse on the weekday commuter drive than I had realized. `It was shortly after six when I arrived at Mary's condo. When she came to the door her eyes lit up. I was still worried that she might have an unrealistic view of our relationship, but I expected that the therapist would straighten her out. It was the reason I had insisted that she see one.

We watched TV for three hours like an old married couple, before I decided to go to bed. It was very early, but I had been up late the night before working with the kid's images. I heard Mary moving around, but she didn't come into the room. I felt pretty good about that. I had most likely been over reacting and even maybe a little wishful thinking as well, I decided,

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