Lights on the Lake

“Okay, don’t move, stay right where you are,” Alana Bennett said as she grasped onto her camera tightly, snapping the photo of two twin girls pretending to be happy, but were truly miserable in their poofy dresses that resembled large and in charge Christmas presents. Their firey red curls were sticking up in all directions, which their mother had tried to contain by placing random bows all over the place. Alana tried her hardest not to cringe every time one of the girl’s bows got stuck to the other’s, making them Siamese and also causing them to scream bloody murder. Their exhausted mother stood behind Alana, her arms crossed over her hips.

“Do what she says girls!” She almost barked. Alana flinched from her high-pitched voice and took a few more shots. She then stood up and let her large Nikon camera lay comfortably from her neck.

“I think we’re done here!” She said, faking enthusiasm. The mother raised an eyebrow skeptically.

“I mean, are you sure? Are you sure you got the perfect shot? I want the Christmas card to be perfect, my sister and her twatty little family up in Connecticut send out pictures of their babies all over the place and I want to finally beat her at something. You’ve got to understand-“

“I understand,” Alana said quickly, trying to make sure that she wasn’t going to be sitting around all afternoon listening to this woman’s life story. She had better things to do.

“All right, I’m trusting you, but if they look like shit, I’m getting my money back. Come on girls! You both look adorbs!”

Alana raised an eyebrow as the woman gathered her twins, who continued to kick and scream about how much they hated their lives, and promptly left the studio as Alana tried to tell them that the photos would be ready in two weeks.

“Wow, she was a charmer,” Alana heard someone to the left of her say. She turned her head over to her coworker and closest thing she could call to a best friend, Julie Vaughn- a hardcore gymnast and hardcore everything. Her black hair with thick blonde streaks was pulled into a messy bun and she assembled the mop of hair with two chopsticks she got from the Chinese restaurant across the street.

“Yeah, well, money is money, I suppose,” Alana responded and tucked her auburn hair behind her ears. Her grayish blue eyes scanned over the form she had the mother fill out as she went behind the counter of the small photography studio she worked at for almost two and a half years. She had come to the city for adventure, and 6 months later, ended up working 9-5 at a place that made her cringe and regret ever coming almost on a regular basis. But anything was better than Lake Vedleu. “Why these mothers insist on taking Christmas pictures the day after the fourth of July, I will never know.”

“Six months early is the new two months early, didn’t you know that Alabama?” Julie said and adjusted her white button up shirt they both had to wear to work. She sat up on the counter and flipped through a couple of pages of a magazine she left earlier as Alana typed some information on the computer. “Where’s the fiancé?” She asked. “He usually comes to pick you up around this time for lunch.”

“He’s not my fiancé,” Alana responded and turned around to face Julia. “At least not yet. And I don’t know, he said he’d be here twenty minutes ago.”

Almost immediately, the two girls heard the clinking sound of a bell and looked up to see Alana’s boyfriend of eight months, Trey, walking through the door. He was tall with messy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He was born in Germany, but moved to the city with his parents when he was young. Every time Alana looked at him lately, she couldn't help but feel a small pain in the bottom of her stomach because she knew that he was going back to Germany for the summer to visit his relatives, just like he did every summer. This year he invited her, but she politely turned him down, even though she wasn't quite sure why she did. It was possible that the prospect of her meeting his relatives scared the crap out of her, so that could have been reason enough to say n to the o.

Trey was perfect to her, almost too perfect, as Julie would say. He attended the university downtown, wanted to be an architect, and had a good relationship with his family, all of those things Alana could not relate to. She was an aspiring photographer, didn’t know the difference between blue prints and a drawing of a stick house, and she hadn’t spoken to her family in almost three years.

“What’s up, pretty boy?” Julie asked as Trey walked into the store. He smiled and grabbed Alana’s hand to pull her away from the counter.

“Well, as you know, I am leaving tomorrow, which means,” He said, obviously used to Julie's nick names she had for him, some of which were 'Toe-head', 'Blondie', 'Abercrombie and Bitch', and 'Oswald'. Neither Alana nor Trey had any idea where the last one derived from. Trey leaned down from his 6’3’ frame to kiss the top of Alana’s head. “I’m going to spend as much time with this girl as possible.”

Alana smiled and looked up at him, he gazed back down at her and Julie pretended to vomit a few feet away.

“Leave before I kill myself,” Julie croaked and Trey laughed before pulling Alana of the store.

“I’ve got a present for you,” Trey said as they passed through the crowds of people in New York City. Someone bumped into Alana’s shoulder but she didn’t even react, it was something she was used to.

"You do?" Alana asked.

“Yeah, I left it in your apartment,” He said as he placed his lips on her ear.

“Oh really?” She asked back. He kissed her temple and they both began to walk faster to her apartment, their minds on the same thing.

Trey kissed her neck softly as Alana tried unlocking her apartment door once they finally got to it. She threw her head back and laughed as she finally got the door unlocked. The two stumbled in and Alana saw a nicely wrapped gift sitting on her small round kitchen table she got at a swap meet two days after she moved to the city. She looked up at Trey, who just smiled at her and she made her way over to the table. She looked over at her answering machine and saw a blinking green light, and she absentmindedly pressed onto the button. A loud beep was heard and then muffling on the other end as Alana grabbed the present and undid the yellow bow that laid on top of it.

“Um, hi, Alana.”

Alana stopped dead in her tracks as she heard the voice of someone she hadn’t heard in almost three years. Trey looked over at her confusedly as Alana clutched his present tight in her hands, staring at the answering machine as if it had four heads.

“It’s your aunt Ker, I - well I found your number in a drawer in your dad’s desk... I don’t know how to say this but. ”

“What’s wrong?” Trey asked Alana. “I didn’t even know you had an aunt.”

“Ssh!” Alana hissed.

“I’m sorry to say this, but, your dad, well, he died three days ago. I’m so sorry, Alana. His funeral is this weekend and it would mean the world to us if you came back to attend it. He would have loved you coming back here. Give me a call. I know you still have my number."

There was another loud beep and Alana placed the present back on the table. There was a thick silence in the air and almost a minute later, Trey finally broke it by clearing his throat.

“Alana, you told me your father died four years ago.”