by Alexa Woods
So far, with Morgun, she was making things work. Morgun accepted that Laney’s work schedule was completely crazy. When she had to travel, Morgun didn’t give her a hard time about being gone. Morgun didn’t ask for terms or labels or demand that they spend every second that they weren’t working with each other. Laney felt like she could breathe. She didn’t feel stifled. She felt kind of wonderful.
“Laney?”
“Oh. Of course. I want to. I’ve been thinking about it, and it’s something different. I appreciate that.”
She should just tell Morgun that she’d been dying to photograph her, but she couldn’t. There were still so many times when she struggled with her emotions. She allowed herself to feel them, but emoting them? That was always the hard part.
Laney had a whole day free and so did Morgun. Today was the natural choice and Laney was glad that she’d dedicated her one day off for the next three weeks to Morgun’s project.
The outer edges of the city gave way to orchards and landscapes that were green and lively. It was much different than the concrete jungle. Beautiful in a different way. Laney loved the city. She would never pretend otherwise. She’d done the occasional outdoorsy stuff and enjoyed it, but she also liked her condo and the way a city seemed to have a heartbeat, like a real human body.
Who was she kidding? She liked the convenience. She hated having to drive for long periods of time. It was fine once in a while but commuting for long stretches every single day would get pretty old pretty fast.
Eventually, Laney consulted the list of directions and pointed to a turn well up ahead. They’d driven past the orchard for the past couple miles and it wasn’t hard to spot the blue farmhouse on the corner or the massive, weathered old barn behind it.
Silas was the old man’s name. No one else came out to greet them and Laney wondered if the elderly man lived alone. He was indeed elderly. He had a mane of white hair and a bushy white beard that went halfway down his chest. He kind of looked like Santa, and she wondered, glibly, if he played the part at Christmas in the mall and gave out the very oranges that he grew to kids.
Silas wore a set of ancient overalls that were worn, but clean, and a plaid red shirt below. He smiled a toothless grin, and his eyes lit up to see them.
“Whooo, you girls look strange.” He directed that mostly to Laney before pointing out the barn, which rose above the farm like a gray wood mountain before explaining to them that they had the run of the orchard as long as they didn’t harm the trees.
Laney wondered what harm they could do, but then maybe Morgun had mentioned something about sparklers, and so she assured him that they wouldn’t harm anything. Photos were mostly about the subject, who looked and never touched.
“Well, I’m mighty happy to have you. First request of the kind I’ve ever got.” Silas grinned again. He kind of looked like a happy pit bull, how their whole face basically turns into a gummy mass of pink lips and wrinkles. Laney happened to think that pit bulls were adorable, and she thought of Silas the same way. “When you’re done, you should come to the house for some coffee and oranges.”
“Mmm.” Morgun licked her lips at the thought of the fresh fruit. “Will do. I have to pay you too.” She grabbed her purse, which she had draped over her shoulder, but Silas waved a gnarled hand in the air.
“No, no. After. Over coffee. Wouldn’t feel right otherwise.”
“Okay. Thank you. We’ll only be a few hours, if that’s alright.”
“Yes, yes, you go ahead.”
Once Silas went back into the cutest little white farmhouse with red shutters and red trim that ever existed, Laney and Morgun got back in the car and drove towards the barn. They parked there, since it was closer to the orchard.
Morgun got out and shaded her eyes with her hand to take in the rows and rows of trees. It looked almost unending from where they were standing, even though the road wasn’t so far off in the distance.
“I should go first,” Morgun said. “If that’s okay? I mean, not just because this was my idea and I think we’re both nervous and I’ll be the test subject, as is only right, but because I think the wood nymph slash fairy pictures should have more light.”
“Yes. Sure.”
Morgun was right. They had about an hour and a half of good daylight left. While it wouldn’t be dark by any means for Laney’s shoot, one of her friends was going to help her out with the editing after and she assured her that they could shoot in the sunniest of sunny days and still have it come out looking like it was night. They were also going to put in the fire and sparks, so she’d bought a package of sparklers more for fun than anything.
Laney and Morgun shouldered all their gear, including two backpacks with costumes in them, and started through the orchard. It was beautiful and fragrant. Laney had to admit that she wasn’t really aware of which season oranges grew best, but she figured in California it was year-round. The heavy, round fruit hanging from the branches seemed to prove that theory correct.
She inhaled the sweet, citrus scented air. She’d never done a shoot like this before and she’d never seen a real orange growing on a tree either. Sure, she’d driven past orchards, but she’d never seen one up close. It was a neat experience. Her mouth watered at the honeyed scent that coated her nostrils and tongue when she breathed in.
“This is pretty cool.” She glanced around once, looked up at the sun, then set her bag down with her gear. “I think here would be alright.” She finally looked at Morgun and found her looking nervous. Laney understood. She was glad she was going second. “I promise to make this as painless as possible.”
“Sorry. It’s stupid to be nervous. This was my idea. I’m just…it’s weird being on this side of things.”
Being there made Laney feel like she was a kid again. When all the problems and trials of being an adult were still a long way off and she was free to just be a kid, doing something she loved in a beautiful place. With someone who meant something to her. A lot to her.
I’m real great at defining the feelings over here.
Laney produced her camera as Morgun slipped off her plaid button-up blouse and jeans and threw on the gauzy green dress. It was totally see through and Laney’s friend, Carol, who had loaned her the costumes since she owned a store with rentals and props and stuff like that, assured her that there wasn’t supposed to be anything underneath.
“Dear God,” Morgun exclaimed when she looked down at herself.
“I think you should take off the bra. Leave the panties on.” She had a black lace set on and Laney immediately felt her body heat up. Her palms grew clammy and she had to tighten her grip on the camera.
She’d done a lot of photos of beautiful women before. Many of them were risqué and involved nudity. She’d never once gotten all hot and tingly over them. She supposed that was because for those photos, she had to act like a professional. Popping a lady boner for a client was a good way to get fired, or at least not hired again, and she liked repeat business.
A lady boner? I did not just go there.
Morgun looked around the grove like it might be full of stalkers hiding behind every tree trunk. She made a decision and quickly undid her bra and slipped it through the sleeves of the dress, maneuvering one arm out at a time. She threw it on her pile of clothes, which was set on top of her backpack.
“There are a few different crowns in there and a veil. So I was told. Want to start without them so they don’t mess up your hair?”
“Sure.” Morgun breathed out a sigh of relief at having the direction provided to her. She still had her arms crossed over her chest. “I don’t know if the bra was a good idea. Taking it off, I mean.”
“Don’t worry. We can make it so the dress doesn’t look see through if it doesn’t look good. And you can do some angled away, with your arms placed over your chest. Maybe you can take an orange in your hand for one of the shots. We’ll pay for it after, of course.”
“O-okay.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I just…” She looked around Laney, off to the direction of the farmhouse. “I think Silas is a nice old man, but do you think he’d have a pair of binoculars in there?”
“Ha!” Laney roared with laughter.
Morgun finally let loose too. She had to wipe at her eyes carefully so she didn’t smudge her makeup. Laney was careful not to touch her face so she didn’t wreck hers either. It was heavy, exaggerating every single facial gesture she made. She could literally see the darkness under her eyes.
“Don’t worry. You look beautiful,” she assured Morgun, and she watched the other woman transform before her eyes. She became automatically more confident.
Laney took out her camera and fitted a lens. She played with the settings for a few minutes, then gave Morgun a grin. A shiver of excitement coursed through her. She was seriously going to enjoy herself.
Morgun, with her sandy blonde hair done up like that, her flawless skin, lush lips, and high cheekbones defined by makeup, her green eyes popping with the emerald of the gossamer dress, couldn’t have been more beautiful. The photos were going to turn out freaking amazing and Laney felt the stirrings of an old excitement that she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
Morgun was going to be the most beautiful fairy or nymph, or whatever they decided the pictures should come out as, in the entire universe.
Chapter 23
Morgun
They went through the props. The crowns. The flowing emerald headdress that matched the sheer dress. They went through poses. Under trees. Against them. Shaded. In full, golden sunlight. Sitting. Standing.
There was a point where Morgun realized she was no longer nervous and could just have fun with it. She did things she wouldn’t have been able to do even at the start of the session. She stopped worrying about the dress being so sheer, which she knew could be fully edited to hide whatever she didn’t want in there. She twirled. She leaped. She danced. She bent her body into crazy positions. She laughed. She smiled. She picked an orange from the tree and held it in front of her like she was considering it for size, ripeness, and sweetness.
It helped to have Laney on the other side of the camera. She encouraged her. Whispered little words like beautiful, amazing, gorgeous, breathtaking, exquisite. Laney was so genuine that Morgun really believed everything she was saying. She believed that she didn’t normally tell her clients things like this.
Halfway through the session, Laney showed her a couple of the raw shots and Morgun was amazed to see herself transformed like that. She barley recognized herself, and not just because of her hair and makeup. Laney was a real artist and Morgun felt like a masterpiece taking shape under her capable hands.
When they were done, Morgun was relieved to be able to get back into her clothes. They walked up to the ancient barn together. It was built of cedar, Morgun thought, though she wasn’t sure. She’d just read things about old cedar barns and assumed that it was probably made from that. It was deliciously weathered and didn’t stand straight. She wouldn’t venture into it for any kind of money. It looked like it might sway violently with the slightest breeze. If a person were to lean against it, it might literally keel off to that side and tumble into a splintery heap.
It did make for a beautiful background.
Laney was stiff and awkward in her clothes, a flowing black dress with leather and faux metal accents. It was beautiful and matched perfectly with Laney’s hair and makeup. At least she was fully covered, even if the dress had high slights that showed off her shapely legs and had an even lower neckline and a scooped back.
Morgun got out her camera and encouraged Laney like she’d done with her. She suggested poses and even went to help Laney into them when she was too stiff or when she didn’t understand what Morgun wanted.
Laney eventually relaxed and got into it too. She started holding up her hands like she was playing with fire, or holding it, producing it. She danced and leaped, changed her facial expressions, swirled so that the dress flowed around her like dark water.
As the light faded, changing from that bright, sure golden to a darker, richer bronze, Laney went for the sparklers. Morgun adjusted the camera settings. She was used to shooting in low light thanks to just about every wedding reception she’d ever done.
Why people thought getting married in total darkness was a good idea, at least photo wise, was beyond her. It never failed that the bride and groom always wanted their first dance to be all dark, moody, and lit like they were dancing in the moonlight. She was okay with low light. She’d done a few sparkler photos for people before as well, so she adjusted the settings on her camera to what she could remember using before.
“Shutter speed around ten seconds?” Laney couldn’t help herself. She had the sparklers ready in one hand, a lighter in the other.
Morgun nodded. “Yeah. Maybe fifteen. It’s not dark.”
“ISO one hundred? Everyone always says that works best, but that’s when it’s just about pitch black.”
“I’ll try that.”
“Just tell me when you’re ready.”
Morgun set the camera. “How good is your friend with the overlays and backgrounds?”
“She’s amazing. She can take a normal photo of a kid running and make it look like she’s in a fantasy world being chased by a dragon breathing fire all around her. She can make it look black.”
“Okay. Just checking.”
“I think you’ll be amazed.”
“I wish I could amaze myself.”
“There are always classes. Although, I think Lisa is more of a graphic designer. I’m also sure that she went to school to make video games. She’s incredibly artistic. You should see the digital art she makes.”
Morgun felt two seconds of irrational jealousy, then realized it was totally ridiculous and misplaced. After that, she felt regular jealousy. She wished she could have half that talent, but she realized Laney was right. There were always classes, and even if she couldn’t design a video game, she could learn to play with light and backgrounds.
“Don’t get that sparkler too close to the barn. I don’t want it to go up. That would be the worst. I don’t think my insurance would cover that, although, who knows? But my premiums would be a disaster after I used it for something like that.”
“What’s one of these things even worth?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to find out either.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“It’s awfully dry out.”
“It’s not that bad. I won’t wave it around crazily. Just do an arc above my head with it and out in front.”
“Okay. Are you ready?”
“I’m ready.”
Morgun lifted her camera to her face. “Okay….go!”
Laney lit the sparklers. She threw the lighter away from her so that it wouldn’t be in the photos and started waving the sparklers. Morgun went with it, quickly adjusting settings as she shot. She didn’t look at the raw photos until after the sparklers burned out. They had a couple packs just in case, but she was astounded to see the results.
“Look!” She brought the camera over to Laney, who laughed in amazement as soon as Morgun started flipping through.
“That worked out well, didn’t it?”
“Yes! Oh my God, these are going to look so good!”
“I guess we can start packing up, unless there’s something else you want to do.”
“No, I think we’re good. Unless there’s something else you want?”
“I think I’m good. Silas is probably waiting to serve us tea. It’s been a couple hours.”
“Don’t worry. He knows exactly what we’re doing. He’s watching us with his binoculars, remember?”
Morgun groaned. “Please don’t say that.”
“It was you who came up with it.” Laney laughed. She very unashamedly stripped out of the costume and got her regular clothes back on. She, at least, got to keep her underthings on, and the barn hid them from view of the house.
&nbs
p; Morgun felt the same burning heat she always felt whenever she looked at Laney, especially Laney stripped down to just her bra and panties, but she turned and forced herself to start packing up equipment.
“Oh look!” Laney suddenly announced. Morgun whirled. She saw Laney first, slipping her jeans on, and nothing else. “A cat!” Laney thrust her other leg into her jeans and pulled them over her hips. She left her costume on the ground and made cute little kissing noises, calling, “Here kitty. Come here.”
Morgun still didn’t see a cat. Laney obviously hadn’t lost sight of it. She went cooing and kissing around the side of the barn, calling for the cat, which was probably a farm cat and likely feral. Morgun set her camera carefully into its bag, then went trailing after Laney. You’d think that a person who didn’t even know what an opossum looked like and was about to attempt to mace it, albeit with hairspray, wouldn’t be so gung-ho about a wild cat.
“I don’t see a cat,” Morgun whispered behind Laney, now rounding the other side of the barn.
“It was just here. It keeps running up ahead. I saw it. It’s one of those, what do they call them? Tuxedo cats? With the black and white?”
“Oh. Well, it probably doesn’t want to be pet. That’s why it’s walking away from us. We should probably just leave it.”
“Okay.” Laney turned. “Yeah. You’re probably right.” She was about to follow, but then she caught sight of something again and pointed. “No, look. It’s right there!”
Morgun followed her finger and she did indeed see something black and white, but the creature that popped back around the barn’s weathered corner was no cat.
“Ah!” She yelled frantically. Too loudly. “That’s not a cat!”
“What? Oh shit!” Laney could obviously finally see that it was indeed not a cat.
That black and white cute tuxedo was a huge freaking skunk.
“Should we run?” Laney hissed under her breath, trying not to startle the animal, which now was, alarmingly enough, heading straight towards them.