How Many Words is a Picture Worth?

The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 26]

My relatives were packing up to leave the next morning. It was pretty much the end of the break, after all. That Monday two days from then, everyone would be back at work and school. I had to wake up early again to see them off. At least it wasn’t as early as we did the day before.

“You need to get us those pictures, somehow, Dave,” my dad said to my uncle as we were eating a simple breakfast. My dad was talking about the pictures from his fancy digital camera. He had snapped a lot during the past few days, including the pictures of us out in the woods in our hunting gear.

My uncle nodded. “Well, you’re in luck. It’s all digital now. Once I’m at home I can plop them on the old computer and shoot them over an email. It only takes an instant!”

My mom sighed. “No regular photos? Those digital ones don’t have the same feel. You can’t put them in an album or anything.”

I must remind you of the time, specifically of the year. Digital cameras weren’t as good, and we definitely didn’t have phones with their own cameras built in. A lot of people were still using film cameras that only took so many pictures before they were full and you had to put in another roll of plastic film.

Many people bought these things called disposable cameras. You took all the pictures built in, then brought them back to the store to get the film ‘developed,’ or turned into proper photos on shiny paper. The camera bits were thrown away (that’s why they were called disposable). Probably not the best for the environment, but I don’t think people were thinking about that back then.

“I can print them out,” I said to my mom, then to my uncle. “I can give you my email address that you can send it to.”

“There you go, Dave,” my dad told my uncle, “Mike’s the tech whiz of the family. You must have seen that big fancy computer we bought for him back in the den. Though all he does with it is play games.”

My dad and uncle both laughed at that. I almost got annoyed enough and thought about not dealing with my uncle’s pictures. Then he asked me a question.

“Is that so? Yeah, that computer back there,” he said, nodding. “We can just skip a step and hook the camera right into your computer. You know what a USB port is?”

“Of course!” I said with a grin fueled by my knowledge. “My computer’s got a whole four ports on the back! The printer’s plugged into one of them already!”

“Well it’s a good thing I didn’t pack away the camera yet,” my uncle said. “Before we go, Seth, help Mike copy them off the camera, would ‘ya?”

My older cousin sat with me in front of the computer. It made a beep as we hooked up the camera with its little included cord. All of the little pictures on the camera’s memory began to pop up in their folder.

“There’s the pics from when we went out on our canoes this summer,” Seth said. “That’s too far back. Here we go. I took this pic from the back seat while we were driving.”

We began copying the pictures from my camera to my pictures folder on my computer. Seth just stood around, studying what I was doing.

“How’d you get so good at this, Mike? My dad took forever learning how to hook up the camera and find out where all the pictures were stored.”

I smirked. I was better at my older cousin than something. “I go to the school’s computer lab every day at lunch. I’m even pretty good friends with the computer teacher at the school.”

“Dang. You could be a programmer or hacker or… just, like, make games and stuff,” Seth said.

“Maybe,” I said with a shrug. I was kind of happy at the suggestion. I hadn’t thought of any of those things.

“Does that mean it’s done?” Seth said suddenly.

“Yep, they’re all here,” I said, double-checking the new folder.

Seth went to disconnect the camera from the computer. I noticed the instant messenger icon flashing with a new message. It was actually my first-ever message. It only could have come from one person; Kyle. I almost looked at it. My dad called from the front room before I could.

“You boys done playing around, yet? Uncle Dave wants to get a move on.”

Reluctant Friendship

After my relatives left, I rushed back to the computer. The unread messages from Kyle were still there waiting for me. They were almost a day old at that point.

Nov 29, 2002 8:32 P.M.

FirePlay3r: omg im back

FirePlay3r: mike u there?

FirePlay3r: my mom ungrounded me

FirePlay3r: finally

FirePlay3r: r u ignoring me

FirePlay3r: ????

FirePlay3r: bro

FirePlay3r: fine dont talk to me

FirePlay3r: ull never get ur stuff back

FirePlay3r: I dont even want 2 play rune quest

FirePlay3r: stupid game 4 babies

Kyle’s profile picture had a green icon. That meant he was online. I typed back as fast as I could.

MikeShep1: im here

MikeShep1: u there?

MikeShep1: had family here

MikeShep1: couldn’t log in

MikeShep1: just get me my stuff you saved

MikeShep1: I won’t make you play rune quest with me after

MikeShep1: pls

I sat back for a little bit, hoping he would notice. After a little while, I saw little dots by his name suddenly. I guessed that meant he was typing.

FirePlay3r: about time

FirePlay3r: you just didnt want 2 talk to me

FirePlay3r: dont care anymore

FirePlay3r: your stuff is gone anways

FirePlay3r: I wasnt able to get anything good

MikeShep1: man

MikeShep1: come on

MikeShep1: I was gone all yesterday when you messaged

FirePlay3r: yeah?

FirePlay3r: prove it

MikeShep1: was going hunting

MikeShep1: irl

FirePlay3r: no way

FirePlay3r: u dont hunt

MikeShep1: my uncle brought me and my dad

Mikeshep1: cousins there too

FirePlay3r: u kill anything?

I rushed to open the folder of pictures I had gotten from my uncle’s camera. I had seen there was a way to send them over the instant messenger. Kyle was still typing as I sent it over.

FirePlay3r: ur probably 2 week 2 shoot a gun

I sent the best picture of the bunch. It was the one of me, holding the rifle while I stood with my cousins and uncle. My face looked like I didn’t enjoy any of it. But it was the perfect way to prove I was telling the truth. The picture was big, so it took a while to send. Kyle responded quickly after it made its way to him.

FirePlay3r: lol

FirePlay3r: nice camo

MikeShep1: it was too heavy and hot

MikeShep1: my mom might make me get off for lunch and cleaning. can u just get on rune quest?

FirePlay3r: fine

Not long after talking to Kyle again, I was in game and making my way to his character. We met up outside a storage vault. Little by little, he traded me some of the stuff I had lost. It wasn’t very much. There was no gold either. At the very least, it felt good that Kyle was sort of making up for what he did.

FirePlay3r: think thats all

IcyMike203: thx

FirePlay3r: like I said not much

IcyMike203: jakey gave me some of his stuff 2

FirePlay3r: cool

FirePlay3r: going now

IcyMike203: okay

I didn’t know if Kyle was leaving because he had to, or if he was just done with me. Either way, he had (sort of) made up for the things he did wrong. If we never became proper friends again after that, well, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

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