Softball

Yesterday, I was sent to a local high school to photograph a few girls
whose friend and teammate was killed in a car accident last summer.
The girls were graduating today, without their friend, who would also
be a senior.

Looking at the resulting slideshow today on the website, I see the
girls I'd photographed by a tree, by a plaque, in a dugout. They
seemed at the time to want to be anywhere else but with us, having
their picture taken and talking about their friend. Maybe they'd had
their fix of thinking about her.

Briana is just a picture to me. A kid I didn't meet, a girl who is now
no more. Then the slideshow calls up one final shot; Briana in a
field, throwing from second to first, her hair swinging, her shirt
moving with her as she throws.

I'd forgotten I'd taken it. She is not just a photo to me anymore. I
see her, in a field, throwing from second to first, her hair swinging,
her shirt moving with her as she throws. Alive and unaware.