The Story in a Photograph

Perchance to Love

Are you going to Scarborough Faire? It has become a favorite time of year for me. I get to put on the studded leather (my real cloths) and go out to see the shows and spectacles and peruse the merchants in the dirt streets of the Waxahachie, TX Renaissance Festival.

I remember one of the first festivals I attended, I wasn't five steps in the door when a beautiful red head jumped into my arms and kissed me on the cheek. Deep green eyes stared into my own, mystified. She began speaking but enchanted as I was, I understood nothing.

I bumbled, as baboons are apt to do, and said something to the tune that she'd mistaken me for someone else. She was distraught and persistent, apparently I'd said the wrong thing, she became offended and asked me why I would treat her this why. Did I know her? I thought. It hadn't occurred to me at the time but I was going to see my twin brother Joshua who was working as man wench as the local tavern. It turned out, this fiery minx was his main squeeze. Certain situations are advantageous for dopplegangers, but then there are some lines you just can't cross.

He seems to be taken in by red haired renaissance beauties. A few years later, he returned after another festival with another story of love and a photograph. She was a Music Fae named Twig Oaklyn Flewinia Thistlebottom, tho she never spoke it. I suppose it must be made up tho because legend tells that to know the true name of a Fae fairy can grant you gifts and the power to summon and command the fairy. It took some creative investigation skills to even discover her alias. She had auburn red hair and a mischievous grin. When she looked into his eyes, that was it, he was in love. Gathering his courage he struck up a one-sided conversation, his feeble attempts to impress her (twin bumble gene), his ridiculously unfunny jokes that make us giggle anyway, and finally his observations of the weather.

Despite his persistent rambling, she returned only flirtatious smiles and the occasionally giggle stirred by his goofy charm. Overcome by emotion, he burst out, "Marry me! I... I think I'm in love with you!" She blushed brightly drawing the warm rosy blood into smiling cheeks. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a smooth shiny stone and placed it in his hand. As he was looking at it, she began to play a melody on her brilliant double flute, and gracefully danced away.

He was not sad that she'd flown away, but looked down at his stone and smiled. He remembered something about fairies giving magic stones as gifts. He wondered about fairy customs, particularly surrounding behavior following a marriage proposal. He drooled (a little) as he watched her float away bewitching other festivarians with her lullaby. Or maybe, he thought, the stone was her silent way of saying he's got some big stones asking her to be his wife. :) With a smile like that, you can't blame a guy for tryin'.




They say, "a picture is worth a thousand words." First off, who are the ambiguous "they" and secondly, what kind of feral paparazzi barters photographs for words by the thousand!?! The mind recoils in horror, like the rusty aperture of an antique Leica relic that survived the hippies. There is nothing quite like the modern digital world to embellish and propagate nonsense!

You get 15 seconds at most for wandering eyes that stumble on your site to look around, but the average is likely 1.5 seconds. In that short amount of time, you can dump 1,000 words into somebody's mind that will leave them thinking, inspired or amazed. Here's a call to photographers and writers alike, send me your photograph and story you'd like to see featured on The Sun, The Rain & The Appleseed and I'll post the best ones and tell your story.