powerless // f.w

Pictures Tell 10,000 Words

Finn stopped at the doorway and knocked on the frame.

"Hey Strae?" He used the nickname Caro and the boys had used. He liked the sound of it.

When he got no response, he popped his head around the corner and saw the bathroom door closed and heard the shower running, with Declan nowhere to be seen. He sighed and entered the room, figuring he'd just wait until she was out.

As he walked around the room, he took closer note of its contents than last time. The photographs were mostly of cityscapes, body parts in dance positions, and people. So many people, and so many faces. A few he recognized from her other projects—big names—but mostly they belonged to strangers. People Declan had met and left just as quickly it seemed. Sitting on concrete steps, smoking in a circle, on set, covered in dust and dirt, and they were all film, of course.

Her drawings and sketches were like looking through her eyes. Places she saw:
the caves, the court, brick buildings, theater stages, set lights. The people in her life: Cameron. The scenery outside her trailer, recorded by state names: Montana, Nevada, Arizona, Massachusetts, New York, Florida, Tennessee. Lots of Tennessee. And California, of course. Deserts mostly.

Her mess seemed more organized. Her bass and guitar and sheet music and drum sticks on her bed. The sketch pads and pen and loose sheets of scribbled on paper on her desk. Her clothes in cubbies in the corner, hidden under shoeboxes and shoeboxes of developed photos. On the floor things were in piles. Messy but organized. He felt it was a reflection of her, in a way.

He grabbed a shoebox and started looking through the pictures. They were older, and mostly of children. Young kids playing in a garden or on a swing set or in a sandbox. Little girls holding their baby siblings. A dozen kids lined up next to each other, hands behind their backs, smiling toothily. Paint smeared on arms and cheeks and in hair. The dates were from 2002-2005, Declan would have been a baby, and in the background of one of the pictures was a plaque in what looked to be a farm house. It read: "England is my home. England is my heart."

"England?" Finn mumbled in confusion as he continued to go through the pictures.

The more he went through them, the more he was convinced that's where they took place. Finally, in a binded bundle at the bottom of the box, was a collection of photos of a young woman with blue eyes and dark hair and an absolutely mischievous smile. There were a few just of her, and there were some of her holding and playing with a baby.

Declan.

Her eyes shone the same way and her smile was identical. It had to have been her and her mother. He looked back on some of the other photos and recognized similar features in the other photographed children as well. There were at least ten other siblings, and Finn marveled at how Declan had never mentioned them. He pulled another box down, labeled Tennessee. He realized instantly that the pictures were blurrier and of more scenery. As if they were taken from the inside of a car, passing through small farm town after small farm town. There were more pictures of her siblings, but only four of them, and now a man was with them. As he looked closer, he realized he recognized the man. Alexander Petcoff. He was a famous director. Declan, however, wasn't in any of the photos of horse riding or fields of grass or white picket fences. The photos were dated 2008-2010. Declan would have been 6 or 7 or 8, meaning she had probably taken the photos herself. He chuckled at that. But then his mind refocused on Alexander. He picked up a photo of him and the four other kids and squinted at it. Why was he with them?

That's when Declan opened the door. She was startled at the sight of Finn.

"Fuck!" She jumped back and held her hand over her heart. She was only in a towel.