“This has been in my possession for almost fifty
years,” Grandfather began. “It’s served me well,
but I always meant to pass it on. I had decided to
give it your father a long time ago, but… Well, I
couldn’t quite give it up, and for that I’m sorry.”
“I don’t understand.” He knew next to nothing
of his Grandfather’s life, and hadn’t talked to him
much when he visited.
“No, no, you don’t.” Grandfather smiled. “It
will take some explaining, I suppose, and some
believing. But we’ll get to that. Go on, open it.”
He nudged the box towards him.
He eagerly ripped the bow off, and unlatched
the box. In it was the same camera that he stared
at now, a little newer and a little shinier, but still
very apparently old. Older than anything that he
had ever held in his hands as a young boy.
Grandfather was looking at him with a gleam
in his eyes. As such, he tried to summon all the
energy that he could. “Thank you so much,
Grandfather!”
“You have no idea what this is, do you?”
The only response from the timid little boy was
a nod. Grandfather laughed and patted his knee.
When he got up on his lap, Grandfather chuckled
again. “Where to even begin?” He thought for
a moment, then his eyes lit up as he thought of
something. “Do you believe in magic, son?”
He remembered that moment, listening to
Grandfather. How his heart somehow leapt and
dropped at the same time. Magic wasn’t real. That
was for movies, for the cartoons and fairy tales
that he watched with his parents. Adults weren’t
supposed to know about magic, to ask about
magic, to believe in magic. So he shook his head
no.
Grandfather nodded. “I didn’t think so. That’s
the right answer, of course, and maybe ‘magic’ is
the wrong word for it. Smarter men than I could
tell you what it is, probably. Maybe not. I’ll tell
you it the way that it was told to me. Magic.”
At this point, he was utterly transfixed. A little
voice in the back of his head whispered to him
that what he was hearing couldn’t possibly be real.
Maybe Grandfather was crazy. He had certainly
never heard him talk this much before. What was
the word he had heard his mom use to describe
some of her patients in the hospital? Senile?
“I know that doesn’t carry a lot of weight nowadays. People like you are being taught to stop
believing in magic. Maybe you already have. I
certainly had when I got what you’re holding.”
“Who gave this to you?” He asked, not being
able to help himself.
“I got it when I was a boy, just like you. It
wasn’t at a party, of course. My family growing up
wasn’t always doing okay. We all had to help out
to make ends meet.” When he looked up, Grandfather’s eyes were ages away. “I got a job delivering milk.” He laughed. “Yes, back then milk was
delivered in the mornings. It was a good job for
someone my age.”
“What happened?”
“One day, I was making my deliveries. It was
early, early morning,