Portrait

Photos

Bill Erwin :
December 27 1985 (# 361)

A retired photographer, Harold Beard specialized in newborn photography. As a privileged photographer, he had the opportunity to enter Santa Barbara maternity hospital for his work. He used to give Dr. Charles McRae a picture of all the babies he had given birth to. Today, Harold Beard is nothing but a shadow of his former self; as a senile and penniless old man (it is also because he no longer paid his APP dues that Brick Wallace finds his address), he lives in a dark apartment, full of birds and cats.

Brick, who hangs around waiting in front of his apartment, surprises Harold while he enters his home with a cage under his arm. Brick invites himself home, Harold having no other choice. He explains that he no longer has any money, which is why he no longer pays his contribution. Brick explains his request to him : he would like to see all the negatives or all the photos in his possession of the children born on December 11, 1961. While listening to Brick, Harold opens a box of cat food, food which he ends up eating. Moved by his distress, Brick offers to pay him for the information he will give him.

In the middle of the mess of the room, Brick finds a box containing photos. His research is complicated when he understands that the dates on the back of the photos are not the children’s birthdates, but the development dates of the photos. He ends up finding a picture of a baby identical to his one-day picture. The child’s name is on the back...

If Harold has slipped slowly into another reality, he nevertheless remains the guardian of a secret of more than twenty years, secret that was known until then only by Mathilda Cordell and Minx Lockridge.

Portrait written for this site by Lilian

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