SearchIt all began when I found an old camera in the attic.
“It’s not what you would call portable, is it?” said Ben. Ben is my best friend, and he’s a bit of a joker. “You want to get one of these.”
He took out a small silver-grey box the size of a pack of playing cards. “It’s a digital camera,” he said proudly, “I got it for my birthday.”
“But this one’s an antique. Look.” I showed him the brass plate which said, in tiny copperplate writing, “Rochester Optical Commodore, 1886.”
“Does it work?”
“I suppose so,” I said, “It doesn’t look broken - but I haven’t a clue how to work it.”
“I know,” said Ben, “we can look it up on the internet. Come on...”
We found a web site called Bygone Cameras where it explained how to operate old cameras and even sold the photographic plates which they used instead of film. I was shocked at how expensive they were, but as Ben said, there’s probably not a huge demand for them these days. Luckily, my dad took an interest, and ordered them for me.
As soon as the plates arrived, I invited Ben round, and we set the camera up on its tripod in the back garden. We had to take photographs outside because it had no flash. I slid the ground glass screen into the back of the camera and put the dark cloth over my head. I twirled the focusing wheel, and an image of Ben jumped suddenly into focus. “Hey,” I shouted, “it’s great!”
“Let me look!” said Ben, pushing me away and putting his head under the cloth. “It’s upside down!” he said after a moment.
“It’s supposed to be,” I told him. “That’s how lenses work. Remember when we did about the eye at school?”
“It’s not bad. It’s really clear, and it’s much bigger than the picture on my digital camera! Mine’s only got a measly 2.5 inch screen. How big is this?
“10 inches by eight inches. Funny when you think about it. It’s taken over 100 years to go from a 10 inch screen to a 2.5 inch screen.”
“What’s the resolution? Mine’s 10 megapixels.”
“This is much greater – but only Black and White.”
“Boring – never mind, let’s try it!”
I slid the ground glass screen out, put a dark slide in its place, then pulled up the cover of the dark slide. “It’s ready,” I said. “All you have to do is press the shutter.”
“Go over there,” said Ben. “Back a bit...say cheese...” He took the picture, and we swapped over. Then we tried a few different camera angles in different parts of the garden.
“That’s it,” I said to Ben.
“What?”
“There’s no more plates left. I only had six.”
“But my digital can take hundreds on one XD card!”
“Don’t forget that this was made in 1886.”
Ben laughed. “I’ll be surprised if it works at all!”
“We’ll soon find out. My dad’s going to send them away to be developed tomorrow,” I told him.
Ben was at my house when the photographs arrived. With eager fingers, I opened the package and spread the photographs out on the table. They were 10” x 8” black and white contact prints and were sharper and clearer than anything from a modern digital camera. Ben gasped in amazement. “Wow!” he said, “Fantastic! I’d get one myself if it would fit in my pocket!”
But I had seen something odd. “Who’s that?” I said pointing to a faint image which was standing beside me in the picture.
Ben looked closely. “It’s very faint,” he said, “but it looks like a girl dressed in Victorian clothes.
“Wait a minute,” I said, “There’s a note here. Listen: Dear Sir, Your photographs are enclosed. Unfortunately there is a fault on the plate which could be the result of a double-exposure...”
“Thought so,” said Ben. “Stupid old camera doesn’t work properly.”
“I’m not sure,” I said, “I’ve got a spooky feeling...”
The girl was in every photograph, but the last one I had taken was the strangest. In that picture, behind a grinning image of Ben, the girl was pointing downwards at something.
“What’s she pointing at?” asked Ben.
“There’s only the rockery there.”
“Weird.”
“Ben, I think we should investigate. Will you help me? I’m too scared to do it alone.”
There was only the rockery - nothing else. Ben suggested digging it up to see what was underneath, but I resisted at first. After all, I didn’t want to get into trouble for spoiling the garden - that rockery was my mum’s pride and joy. However, curiosity got the better of me, and we started digging. It wasn’t long before we came to a large circular stone.
“What are you two up to?”
It was my dad, home from work. He came to see what we were doing, and for a moment it looked as though he was going to lose his temper, but when he saw the circular stone, he hesitated. “It looks like a well cover,” he said. He looked more closely. “It’s cracked too - probably unsafe. I’d better get the local authority to check it out.”
What a performance that was! Draining the well was bad enough, what with all the workmen and pipes and pumps all over the place, but when they found the body, all hell broke loose! We had yellow tape round the house saying: “Police line. Do not cross.” Three police cars outside the house, and worse of all, detectives who took statements from everybody present. I think they thought it was a murder enquiry at first, but the forensic experts soon established that the body - bones would be a more accurate description - had been there for over 100 years.
It turned out that a little girl had lived in that house many years ago. One day she had gone missing, and though they searched everywhere, no-one, not event he police could find her. There was even an article in the local newspaper offering a reward, but she never turned up. It looks as though she must have fallen down the well, and nobody ever knew about it - until now that is.
So why the ghostly photographs? Ben reckons that her ghost was trying to find a way to communicate with the living, so that her remains could be given a Christian burial - or perhaps it was just a camera fault after all. I’ll never know for sure. I know one thing though, I’m selling that camera as soon as I can. It should fetch as good price. And do you know what I’m going to do with the money? I’m going to get a shiny new digital camera, just like Ben’s.
© Kit, 2008. All rights reserved by the author.
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January 12, 2008, 06:48
Lovely story Kit. It's memorable, it's got a moral, and it's spooky so it cuts across lots of different tastes.
I like the way you explain how the camers works. It's a great 'how to' lesson. you're teaching without it feeling like a lecture, and it makes for a fun science lesson.
And I like the way you sneak in the ghost of the little girl, and the comparison of old and new. It does seem sometimes that we've spent years developing things backwards instead of forwards.
The delivery style is beautifully simple, as usual. Well done!