Ыоуве Been Warned   ::   Patterson James

Or is it already old news? Maybe what I saw this morning was the lead story for the noontime broadcast and now they’ve moved on to other tales of woe. It is a big city, after all. Plenty of mayhem and misery to go around.

I flip the channel.

Another anchor duo appears, but it’s the same result, nothing about any “tragedy” at the Fálcon. Maybe they had it as one of their top stories and I missed it.

Or maybe I just imagined the whole thing. This is getting really creepy.

The dream was a real dream, but what I saw on the way to work was a figment of my imagination? A physical manifestation of my emotional distress, as my ex-shrink, Dr. Corey, might say. Yeah, and in my spare time I’m Gwyneth Paltrow!

I know what I saw and I know it happened on my way to work this morning. I was there! And should there be any doubt, I know just one thing to do.

I get up from the TV and head over to my shoulder bag. Reaching in, I grab my camera and the rolls of film I shot this morning.

It’s time to hit the darkroom.



3

Chapter 12



I THINK OF IT as my home away from home – never mind that it happens to be inside my apartment. A converted walk-in closet, to be exact. Basically a shoe box.

I step in, close the door behind me, and take a long, deep, stress-releasing breath. Hello, darkness, my old friend.

After the creepy day I’ve had, it’s strange that a narrow, claustrophobic room with black corkboard walls, no windows, and a mere seven watts of light makes me feel at peace.

But that’s why I built this thing in the first place.

My darkroom.

My safe house.

Beyond the joy I derive from developing my own pictures -Call me old-fashioned; no, call me a purist – there’s that wonderful feeling in the darkroom of being able to shut out the rest of the world and all the problems that go with it. Problems – outside! Out!

Inside here, it’s strictly my photography and me.

Okay, let’s do this. Let’s get it over with. Let’s see what’s what.

I turn off my safelight and, in complete darkness, load the rolls of film onto developing reels. Everything is by touch, but I’ve done this so many times I don’t even have to think about it.

With each reel secured in a small processing tank, I’m able to turn the safelight back on. A faint red glow fills the room immediately.

Time for the soup.

One by one, the magic ingredients get added to each tank. Chemical developer followed by water mixed with a pinch of acetic acid followed by a fixer.