Timid
Author: Ukari
To say here is far, and to call yonder nearby. Stories on the edge of the every day, strange tales you may or may not be moved by. Strange, curious, fantastic stories told by me, you, him and her. There are many stories but they’re all concluded within a single page, each story around 200 to 1200 characters in length, a short story collection you can easily read. Please enjoy them. Updated every Saturday at 6pm.
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Last weekend I went to the amusement park with my girlfriend. We took a lot of photos; not with a digital camera, but with film. My girlfriend laughed at me, but it had been a hobby of mine since my dad’s time, so I wanted him to take a look.
My obsessed father even went so far as to buy a quasi-dark room to develop photos at home. I used to hang around there as a kid, so it was probably inevitable that I would be enthralled as he went about his secret work.
I went to develop the photos in my father’s dark room, telling him to look forward to them. But the developed photos were something even beyond what I expected. There were packed with the unexpected.
A child with an abnormally large head. It was about twice the size of their body.
A businessman with no shadow. I had no memory of seeing a businessman with such a worn-out suit at the park. I didn’t remember it at all.
A woman hanging off the outside of the ferris wheel. The tour guide pretending not to look at her.
The metre long mouse sticking out of the trash can. Hygiene management, sure, but before that, look at the size of it!
A dog sleeping on the bench with heads on both ends. It probably wagged one of its heads instead of its tail when it was happy.
Nobody around seemed to notice these strange things, and I didn’t either. Even so, it was just like a night parade of demons! They were reflected in the photos so clearly, but if I took them somewhere I’d no doubt be told they were photoshopped.
Intrigued, I took another look. The photos taken outside the park showed nothing. Every single photo taken inside the park did. Thankfully, the photo we took just before departing at the station showed nothing. It appeared they couldn’t leave the park.
Tons of people take photos at the park on the weekend though, so why were they all over my photos? And then it hit me.
They feel shy in front of digital cameras.
It’s not just humans that fear the advance of technology.