A Peck of Gold

The Orchard Continued

If you want to read the first part, go here. (That was the first draft, it's changed a little since then)

And now, an exerpt from the next chapter, again, just a draft.

I moved into a cramped apartment on the west side, and settled into the pace of city living. I took long walks, absorbing the activity. I immersed myself in the early morning bustle, the sounds of sirens and people calling for taxis, the smells of hotdog vendors and exhaust fumes, the bright neon lights flashing
at night. I took my camera with me everywhere, and I experienced life through my lense. I was the woman with her red-headed baby bouncing on her shoulders in the park. I was the seventy year old man jogging around the lake with his dog. I was the homeless guy in an army jacket with his cardboard sign that said, "Waking up from the nightmare, please help". I was everybody, every day.

I then spent hours in my darkroom, developing the moments I'd captured on film. I wasn't interested in making friends, and I went largely unnoticed by anyone except the boy who delivered Chinese food. And yet, I was happy for the first time in my life. I was filling a space in this world with my photography. I was part of the mechanism, a silent, but active participant in the perpetual grind. I began freelancing for papers and magazines, and found enough work to pay my rent and upgrade my equiptment occasionally.

I regularly took assignments that sent me out of town, and it was one of these occasions that turned my world upside down.

To my utter shock, I had found the orchard.