THE IMAGE

Jodie is a nature photographer by profession, captivated by the beauty of the natural world. An encounter with Monet's series on haystacks seen at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston inspires her to find an object in nature that she can follow through the seasons with her photography, much like Monet did with his art. She finds the perfect subject, a worn bench on the side of the lake, and makes that the center of her project. Her year-long mission is almost at a close with her final season and final time of day when she is thwarted by an old man sitting on the bench. She is so captivated by his aura that she begins photographing him, a contrast to her previous focus on solely inanimate objects.

What she finds later in her studio, so baffles her that she sets out on a mission to prove that she is not crazy or imagining things. What results is so mysterious that the reader may never know the answer.