Flashback

Number seven has just made a hussy out of me.

I had to get one. Nobody could logically expect me to live for two entire months on my own. Anything could happen in two months; things could be done and seen that would never be done and seen again. Plus I could never just have one: I need a little one too, for when I'm drunk, or in a nightclub, or I can't be bothered with the weight of something important. A little fling.

I spent a long time deciding: touching them all, looking them up and down, playing with all their buttons. But this one was perfect. Shop soiled, and a third of the price it should have been. Touched by many, many strangers. It had seen better days, it was missing a few essential parts - like a warranty - and it was therefore exactly what I was looking for.

I bought it, felt pretty pleased with myself, took it home, unwrapped it and took my first long, hard look at it.

The camera looked back at me in silence. And then my stomach shrank.

"I've...." I whispered to it. "I've..."
We continued to stare each other out.
"Yes," the camera said. "Say it."
"I've seen you before, haven't I."
"Yes. You have."
"I've.... Oh God. I've owned you before, haven't I."
"Yes."

And I had. I don't know when. I don't remember what we did, or where we went, or the memories we created. I don't know where it went wrong, or where I threw it away. I don't think it was this year - have a vague suspicion it was a year or two ago - but I have definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, owned this exact camera before. Same brand, same make, same colour. All of it.

I hung my head.

"Perhaps we should pretend that this didn't just happen," I told it. "I've changed. I'm not the person I used to be."
"We'll just see about that, won't we," the camera said, getting snootily back into its case. "We'll just see about that."

If there has ever been a wake up call in the world of photographic promiscuity, I think that was probably it. And while it's still only a fling - it's not the white Olympus Pen - I'm going to treat it a little bit better this time round.

Because you never know when the past will come back to shoot you.