Michael Malone - Weebly

"For God's sake, Ernest, please!" as the camera
zoomed from them to the Acropolis, St. Peter's, Mount
Kilimanjaro. Ransom was a compulsive photographer,
not because he particularly enjoyed the hobby, but
because he was afraid that if he did not capture the
moment, it would not exist. He felt compelled to collect
his past and bank it, to preserve a record of
experiences whose meanings he believed would
someday come clear if they were only framed. The
movie titled The Ransoms was therefore carefully
shelved; short reels spliced together into long reels,
slides labeled in carousels of baptisms, first steps,
birthdays, presents, performances, trips, graduations,
heights, weights, freckles, skills, fashions, moods,
friends, and Kate's broken leg and Emerald's sunburn
and little Ray's return from the hospital. All had been
photographed. Ransom had lost nothing.
Dingleyans cultivate their gardens. Even Cecil
Hedgerow shoved the lawn mower up and down a third
of his backyard before giving up when foot-high weeds
twisted hopelessly around the rusty blades.