"Rachel" he says, with an Italian accent. He sounds like Massimo from The Wedding planner.
"I need to show you these images in the book."
I sigh heavily. "I have tried. I don't see anything the pages are blank."
"Rachel, just look, I put them in a book, so maybe to help see them."
I open the cover of the book to the first page. there are some words centered in the middle of the page. They are blurry. I pause and try to get my eyes to focus on them. for a moment I can read it. Dedicated to, and in loving memory my Grandmother Bertha.
I turn to the next page. The index.
I turn a few more pages until I get to a page that only says: Chapter 1
I turn the page over. Bob Seger's Turn the Page starts to play from inside the book somehow. I stare at the pages, they look blank to me. ummm.... I see a glimpse of red on the right page and then its gone. On the left page I see blue...like the ocean and a boat, a sailboat, in the ocean. The image fades in and out. on the other page it looks like a drawing or painting. The red dress....it's on a woman. She is sitting on a bench.. in a park, or on a trail. she is looking away, I cant see her face in the picture. I turn to look at Roger...."Ok I can see these two pictures."
"Yes Rachel" as he smooths the page over with his hand .."that is good, look more, can you find the words in the picture? I will get myself a cup of coffee while you look."
I turn and look at the page with the boat. I can barely see the image. I have to keep repeating Boat, boat, boat, in my head to keep the image on the page, or it fades to white. I smooth the page over with my hand. Maybe its the light glare on the shiny page. For a moment I can see writing under the boat in the water. I run my hand over the page again..but its gone.
In a blink I am back in real life. Sitting in the chair in my living room. I get a real cup of coffee, peruse Facebook for a minute, watch my dad play his fishing game...
I can hear Roger yelling at me from the kitchen.
Ok, back to the book.
I sit back down in the chair, in the kitchen next to Roger.
"I've been calling for you." Roger laughs...."I am only kidding ..where you go, I go."
"Can you see the words?" Roger asks.
I stare at the boat picture. It is staying on the page for longer. I can see the details of the water. The fuzzy line where sky meets the sea. I lean in to look closer at the picture.
Roger laughs again. "You do not need to bring closer to you. Maybe imagine it like a zoom on your phone." He pinched his fingers on the page and expanded them ...the picture got bigger.
"Hmm OK let me try."
I look at the boat in the ocean, and reach out and expand the image like I would on my phone. It gets bigger, but blurry, then nothing, its gone. I pinch the image..the boat is back. I try again, slower. There are numbers on the side of the boat. I see for a brief moment what looks like GPS coordinates in the water. hmm...some words mixed in too. M.. comp...s...45
On the boat there is the letter C and then numbers.
Back to trying to see the words in the water... 0645N.
Roger places his hand over the image. "Look at the next page, we will come back to this later."
"OK." I reply.
I look at the other image on the right. The girl is white, thin, with reddish brown hair. She is wearing a red summer dress.
"See if you can read the sign." Roger said.
"I don't even see a sign in the picture." I said.
"You must walk in the image past her to see."
I look over at him, trying hard not to roll my eyes.
"I'm already imagining that I am here in the kitchen with you, now you want me to imagine in an imagination?"
"Yes."
I stare at the picture. next hing I know..I'm standing on the dirt trail.
"Hi" i say to the girl.
She doesn't turn towards me or respond.
"She cannot hear you yet. These are just pictures for now." Roger said.
I start to walk past her. She seems frozen in that spot. I can see the sign now. It's around the bend just enough to not see it from where I was. It's a wooden sign like what you see on hiking trails.
The words are printed white on the board with a brown background. I can't focus on them.
Roger whispers "White River." "That's cheating" I tell him, "I'm supposed to reading it and I can't."
"Yes but you can hear me so well, and I can read it." Said Roger. "It is OK. we will try again in a bit."
I looked back at the girl sitting on the bench frozen in time. and with a deep breath I was back to here. sitting typing the words out onto my computer.
**I have since learned that the letters on a boat are registration. The letters correspond with the state.
** There is a town called White River, and a campground called White River, both here in California.
