Chapter 10: Winner of the Year
Late the next day, Jake and Kate returned to the States—tired, but eager to get their film developed. It was a bit of a push to make a break for the darkroom straight out of leaving the airport, but their determination to make their pictures into a reality surpassed their flight exhaustion.
After chasing the sun for five straight hours, night had finally arrived, so they made a beeline for their next important destination under the cover of artificial lights. It was a quaint little room filled with enlargers and clotheslines, protected from the threat of the coming digital age by only Jake’s love for the classic photographic arts. On many occasions, the room had welcomed him with hanging duplicates of his favorite photos from memorable journeys around the country. But this time, it welcomed him with inviting temperatures in the positive side of zero. In both cases, Jake was glad to see a familiar sight waiting before his eyes.
Although he never did fill his briefcase completely, Jake was convinced that he had had enough pictures to make his calendar a smash. And even if the mild moments of savage beasts performing crazy tricks weren’t enough to dazzle the masses, he knew that at least the science and event magazines everywhere would hound him for his discovery of the amazing phenomenon. No matter what, he was bound to turn heads in short time.
As he removed his color treated negatives from the clothesline, he searched for the best picture to represent his December Lightstorm. After deciding the third shot had the most action and definition, he transferred his colored images onto three sheets of matrix paper, and finally overlapped them to construct the picture he was eager to show to the world. All he had left to do was to wait.
Once the time was right, Jake shut down the darkroom and immediately ran into the next room to find Kate cycling through her less-inspired photos. He knew the pictures he had in his hand were going to blow hers and everybody else’s away, but he figured he would at least try to be discreet about it. He sidled up next to her, unable to contain the glee in his eyes.
“Great pictures,” he said. “Ready to see my masterpiece shot?”
Kate set her pictures down and leaned close to his shoulder.
“Impress me,” she said with a smile.
Jake quickly shuffled through his pictures of wolves, and lemmings, and various other action shots until he found his…masterpiece?
“Is that it?” she asked. “Wow, you’re right. That’s pretty amazing. I’m sorry I missed it. But—”
Jake held his hand to her lips. He didn’t want to hear her comments. For the first time tonight, the light of the room revealed what the darkroom couldn’t show him. Even though the image had accurately reflected the power of the storm, which in itself made for a rather amazing shot, the heart of the photo was missing. The very element that had given the storm its magnificence and beauty had taken another flight to some kind of neverland. His masterpiece had fallen short in translation.
“I swear,” he said, “it didn’t look like this the other night. The colors were indescribable.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” said Kate. “This looks red to me. This one over here has a bluish tint.”
“They weren’t red or blue that night, Kate. These lights had colors that didn’t fit our spectrum. I don’t believe this.”
“Come on, Jake. This is still an amazing picture. I mean, you didn’t even have to feed it an apple.”
He couldn’t believe she was making jokes about this when the most amazing thing he had ever witnessed was degraded by modern technology. But, then again, how could she really know? There was no way she could’ve imagined the truth of what he saw when she wasn’t there to see it with him.
“You still believe me, don’t you?” he asked. “Isn’t it possible that I’m right and our stupid printing dyes just can’t reproduce the true colors of this image?”
She had a sympathetic look on her face.
“I guess.”
“It doesn’t mean it didn’t look differently in real life, right? You have to believe me.”
Kate took the pictures out of Jake’s hand and placed her soft palm on his shoulder.
“If our cameras can photograph only one spectrum of light, isn’t possible that our eyes are limited to the same spectrum?” she asked.
“I know what I saw, Kate.”
“And I know that you spent many hours alone in the cold after being bitten by a wolf. That’s not to forget that you were also very tired all day. These pictures prove that you saw something, but colors from a different spectrum? I really hope you go to the doctor and get your leg checked up tomorrow.”
“My leg is in the best condition it’s ever been. And I wasn’t delusional…”
He took the pictures back from Kate and looked at the Lightstorm image again. It certainly looked like an over-the-top falling fireworks show. There were definite lights of rainbow colors raining in the sky. Maybe that really was the way he had seen it and his mind had just interpreted it differently. It was certainly possible, though disappointing to think about. He set the pictures down and leaned against Kate’s shoulder.
“Maybe I should start taking safe pictures like you,” he whispered.
Exhaustion finally set in as Jake closed his eyes. The truth was that after all he had dealt with these last couple of weeks, he had had enough of this journey.
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