Memories On A Wall

by B.A. Varghese

Plastic frames pressed together alternated between gray and black giving the illusion of a large dark checkerboard mounted on the wall. In front of the squared pattern of pictures, an old observer stood. Snowy hair rested on frail shoulders, and withered blemished fingers touched dry cracked lips. Eyes encased in wrinkled skin squinted at the arrangement of photographs. Each frame a frozen unique moment of time. An instance of existence occupied by the space of people. A young boy with shiny black hair wisping in the wind, blowing out five candles sitting in the icing of a blue cake. An older boy snacking on sweet kettle corn at a festival of lights and pumpkins. A young man rafting in the raging water with the waves dashing into foam against the red rubber craft. Each instance of frozen time suspended until unlocked and the memory relived. Clouded eyes darted from picture to picture. A couple kissing and toasting champagne glasses together. A young child clinging to a man's orange swim trunks against the ocean's teal waves. His eyes ricocheted faster from photo to photo. Christmas. New York. Wedding. Birthday. Valentine's. Graduation. Following the slick road of plastic frames too quickly, confused eyes crashed and fixed on the portrait of the aged man in the center of the patchwork.