The Art of Loving

[13] Tip-Toeing

"So, Eleanora, what do your parents say to the fact that you study photography?" Harold asked again, clearly not done with the topic yet.

She noticed how Brian shifted on his chair beside her, clearly uncomfortable with the situation, but clearly not about to tell his father to change the topic. She didn't really blame him though, she wouldn't dare either if she were in his position. So she just had to deal with the uncomfortable questions for now, she simply had to convince Harold that she wasn't wasting money or time with her degree.

"They support me. My father used to spend hours with me and a camera when I was younger, but they're both very supportive."

"Well that's good.." Ellie could hardly believe it when Harold gave her a small smile. "When will you be finished with your education?"

"Next year. I'm going to have to decide on a thesis topic over the summer and then I'm going to work on that mostly." Because it seemed that Harold now seemed to be genuinely interested in hearing about Ellie's education, she gladly told him what he wanted to know. Maybe that would improve his opinion of her.

"You have to write a thesis? What could that be about?"

Ellie was surprised that he was so interested, but when she glanced at Brian he seemed to encourage her. So she told his father more. "Well, my supervisor will have to approve of what I come up with, but basically it could be anything. It could be about the technical aspects of photography, such as camera and camera maintenance, developing pictures, the history of photography, a certain kind of photography such as landscapes, people, a specialisation in any of those areas... the only requirement is really that it's related to photography, and of course that we have enough material to work with."

Harold nodded a little. "That's interesting. You learned about camera maintenance?"

"Yes, we had a course on that in the first semester actually. All about the mechanisms involved, a bit of electronics, all that's needed to know how a camera works and how to fix one. If I had the right parts I could build a camera, we did that in the course as a project. The degree isn't just about pointing a camera and pressing the release. It's a lot more." Ellie smiled at Harold, hoping that the more he learned about what she did the more he would approve.

"Ellie has her own dark room in her flat actually," Brian added to the conversation. "She develops all her photos herself, and she does a great job with that. I told you about the gig in Cornwall, right? Ellie took pictures of us there, and they couldn't have been done better by a photo laboratory."

"It's good that you at least learn something useful in your education, Eleanora," Harold told her.

Ellie dared a smile and nodded. "Yes, it definitely is.." She glanced at Brian who smiled back at her, also clearly relieved by slightly lessened tension.

"Son, how is it going with your education? Are you learning something useful?"

Again Brian shifted a little uncomfortably. "Of course I am, Dad. Not right now, of course, because we're on summer break, but you know I work hard.."

Ellie looked from Brian to his father and back again before she decided to stay out of that conversation and focus on her food. She only dared to look at Ruth, who gave her a sympathetic smile that Ellie returned. It was somewhat of a relief to know that Ruth seemed to like her.

She seemed to want to relieve Brian of this situation because she spoke up next. "So have you made any plans for your time in Scotland yet?"

Ellie glanced at Brian and shrugged. "There are some. My parents' birthdays of course, we'll be at home for those, and then I suggested that maybe we could take a trip to Pitlochry an-"