Frames

She stared at the picture frame, looking through a window to the past, at a single moment frozen on Polaroid. Two smiling faces- blessed with ignorance. She held up her hand and looked at the new picture. The same woman, laughing with another man, but the laugh was more muted- hopeful but guarded. She looked at it for a long moment and then moved to the desk. She picked up the old picture and kept the new one in its place. She opened the drawer and kept the old one inside gently, but her hands shook when she tried to close it. She took it out again and kept it on the desk side by side with the new one. She felt herself ripped in two but fused together violently, unnaturally. Time did not seem to flow from one moment to the next. The past and the present seemed to exist together but not in peace with each other. She leaned with both hands on the desk, with her head bowed, as if in front of an altar.

After what seemed like a lifetime, she wiped her face and picked up the new picture frame. She took the photo out and tossed the frame into the trash. She moved to the old photo frame and ran her fingers delicately around the ornamental edge. Carefully, she lowered the new photo into the old frame on top of the old picture- the muted laughter of one moment superimposed over the carefree joy of another, a man’s face slipped over another’s....and walked away from both

Notes:

This was a writing exercise. The theme was supposed to be to write a scene which shows a character preparing for something significant. I took a female character for a change. The scenario, or the thing that she is preparing for is remarriage. Her first husband has been missing for years- presumed dead. She is about to start a new life, but has to do something which seems insignificant but is painful. Her house, her room and everything about it is a testament to an old life, a shrine to memories. But it cannot be that anymore. How much of the past should she let go of to start afresh? How much of letting go would be an insult to the past? How do you reconcile a glorious past with hope for a different future?