Turn of the Tide | ONC 2023

[3] Bold Moves

Thud.

A dull noise swooped past Sally's ear. She listened out for it to loop back, yet all her hearing picked up was the delicate dance of the morning breeze through the fields beside the main road. Only heaving farm equipment and murmurs of milling sheep breached the ride's peace in the sound's wake, and Sally settled back into her study of the land beyond the car.

Thud.

The noise's return came with a blow against Sally's heel sudden enough to send a jolt up her leg. Lifting her feet up, she waited for the unseen object to rattle out from beneath her seat. Her core complained after holding her legs up for too long, however, and she wondered if she had imagined the impact as well as the sound to stop herself dozing off again. Falling asleep in Flick's car was a one-off mistake she did not want to grow into a bad habit.

Thud.

Cursing to herself, Sally lowered herself as far as possible to reach beneath her seat. Rather than the bottle or drinks can she expected to find, however, her hand brushed against the outer shell of a bag that, though rugged to the touch, was sleek enough to slip between her legs. She held the messenger bag over her lap, eyes passing over the small bulge in its slender shape. "What's this doing under my seat?"

Flick stirred a wad of chewing gum around her mouth. "Nice one! I was hoping you'd find that, that's my prized possession right there." Her answer gave Sally no hints as to what it was, but the pride that glimmered across Flick's face confirmed that she valued whatever the bag held as much as she claimed. "Take a peek, let me know what you think."

Though Sally's head screamed at her to stay far away from any nondescript bags with vague contents, her base curiosity won the battle. She rattled the zips apart to uncover a bulky, well-used instant film camera. "Your prized possession is...an old camera?" Sally asked, taking the device in hand.

"First off, Miri's not old, she's experienced. She's been there, done that more times than you have fingers and toes to count!" To stress her point, Flick took both her hands off the wheel, returning them as a yelp screeched through Sally's throat. "Sure, she's got a few nicks and scratches here and there, but who hasn't?"

Sally removed the camera from the bag. Scuffs darkened its blocky white casing, yet its flawless lens shone through the scars, ready to capture every amber leaf that sparkled in the sunlit fields beside the car. A thin silver stripe glided through the centre of the unit, the slim chips in its sides taking nothing from its air of elegance. Though she liked the aesthetic appeal of film photographs, Sally buried her desire to test the camera out herself. "Is this why you're all the way out here? To take pictures?"

"Can't a girl have a hobby?" Flick feigned a note of hurt, winking at Sally over the rim of her sunglasses. "Miri and I are two peas in a pod. Where I go, she goes. Where she goes, I go."

Holding her tongue about the oddity of Flick's final statement, Sally slipped the camera back into its home. "It – I mean, she's lovely," she said, her gaze cast towards the fields to avoid needing to say more. She had wondered who 'Miri' was since she met Flick, but not once had the camera seemed like a valid answer.

Flick spat out her gum over the side of the car and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. "She's a total boss, right? I've tried other cameras, both film and digital, and not one of them holds a light to Miri. She's just better." The boundless love that lit up Flick's face was too infectious for Sally to resist. She found her lips curling up as she stared through Flick's sunglasses, the girl's unblinking eyes shimmering through the shaded lenses. "My friend thought so too."