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| Smiling Face | ||
All begins unfinished, like something is missing, or I've forgotten. I'm walking alone in the nature, taking pictures of autumn with my digital-camera. Beautiful surroundings with so many colourful trees, bushes, roads and paths. I'm thinking about taking few pictures of berries when I see magnificent rowan ahead. Perfect, I notice few cluster of berries that seem to have enough room not to mix too much to the background. I step under the tree and raise my hands high up holding the camera and zooming a bit to crop extra twigs off. Preview is perfect so I'm slowly press down the trigger. For a brief moment the screen goes black and then it is replaced by something that really startles me - a smiling face of a child. I quickly turn and look around astonished, but I can not see anyone. I take another look at the picture I just took. Child is about few years old with a pink jacket, a white cosy, dark hair, smiling eyes and the smile on the mouth almost touches the ears. Only head and the shoulders can be seen in the picture, but the pose seems very odd. I fall to my dreams, until a strong wind tries my balance and I awake. Looking at the picture once more, I feel the shivers running up my spine when I start to wonder, how did that child appeared on my camera screen. I look up to the tree again, berries seem to be more aside and higher on the tree I see something dark. I look closely and notice an old tire, which has very likely been popular swing among children. Are those children haunting for me? Even though I believe in ghosts I take my camera and zoom up. I marked up that you can not see through the tire, there is something inside. I keep zooming. Suddenly I feel the jerk on my wrist, camera has fall and is hanging from its strap. I notice that I am staring at the tire with my bare eyes now. For the first time I can see the real picture, but I can not understand what I am seeing. Once I have gather my thoughts again I take my camera, close it and put it away. I look around me, crying for help, at least in my thoughts. Not far away I see a house and run towards it. In the yard I see a police car and stop. Did someone hear my cry for help after all? I open the door and climb up the stairs behind it. Soon I arrive to narrow hallway, along that hallway there is many doors and from the middle of the floor up goes small spiral staircase. I walk towards the stairs when two doors open. Suddenly I'm hugged by three children, they laughs as would they know me and are welcoming me home - I'm confused. Once the children leave, I continue going up the stairs. I'm expecting to find at least one adult to talk to, so I continue even higher. The house seems to be some kind of tower, which is weird because it looked like ordinary two-storey row house. Finally I arrive to the floor with some kind of kitchen and few women. I ask them why there is a police car outside and where might those policemen be. One of the women leads me back downstairs telling me the reason why the police is there. From her story I figure out that in the same week there has been little girl missing, and that this is the third day that police has been looking for her. Woman takes me outside, goes around the corner and opens another door. I'm asked to step inside and go down the stairs behind it. While I'm quietly stepping down the stairs, smell of wet hay enters my nose. There seems to be a small pond in the basement, with some reed, lily pads and few birds. I notice that there is a desk on the other side of the pond, two men are sitting next to that desk. I start walking around the pond, determined that I would talk to those men. But when I notice little duck family, I stop. Plashing little ducks are so cute and funny that I forget why I'm there. I take my camera thinking that I need to get some pictures of them. After a while, one of the men yells at me and asks what the hell am I doing. I shut my camera and walk to the desk. Men seem to forgot me in this time, they are looking at some papers, writing something down. I sit on the chair opposite to them. I follow their work a while, thinking how I should tell them my matter. Finally I open my mouth and tell those policemen what I had seen in the tree near by. One of the men roars that they don't have time for bad jokes. He get up to show me the way out. I take my camera and scream that I have a picture of it. Men become quiet and are staring at me. I calmly sit back to the chair and open my camera. Looking for the right picture, I come across the ducks that I had just shoot, I totally forgot what I was doing, just staring at the ducks. When men together snap at me, I'm looking for that right picture again, but it just does not seem to be found. I start to panic. How many did I actually take these pictures! Wait a sec, what is happening? Film turns off. I'm laying in my own bed and staring at the wall next to me. So, it was a dream. That is why the beginning was so confusing and unfinished. But how. It felt so real, so familiar. I must have seen the same shocking image before. Indeed, same laughing face the same old tire, I've seen them in my dream before. Even though the dream was different. I don't think that the child was inside the tire earlier. This was from different view. Still, this image of the child stuffed inside the tire is horrifying that seems to be repeating in my dreams. Where does it come from. And why is the child smiling, when she is probably dead. Original (finnish)version 16/11/02, english translation about year later. The dream I saw one day. I did not put much thought in the translation, so please tell me if you found something funny, or something like that. I would be glad to write it well, with your help. |