138 - Shadows

*Actually, in the student handbook, it does not say anything about boys having their nails done. All it says is that the students’ nails must be clean and well maintained. If you wish to change it, that is fine, but also according to the handbook, any changes made will not take effect until the next school year. - Camille*

After everyone left, Camille and Darkness took Mitch and three of his friends out to eat at a local bowling alley and arcade. They played a few arcade games while they waited on their burgers. Then they bout three games of bowling for the four friends.

Bethany, Jake, Lena and Mitch had fun as they bowled their games. The first two games were played boys against girls with Darkness being on the boys’ team and Camille on the girls. The final game was played with the kids versus the adults.

With Camille’s natural ability at the game, it was a guaranteed win. For the kids. As she rolled her final gutter ball for the night, her husband laughed at her.

“Can we give her points for finesse?” Mitch asked with a laugh.

“Maybe for the pins that she *doesn’t* knock down?” Bethany suggested.

“You all be nice, or I’ll challenge you to Mario Kart,” Camille teased.

“I would say that you could blame it on your nails, but Mitch kicked your ass, um, butt,” Jake said with a little laugh.

Darkness and Camille exchanged a look, worried about what the kids would say about Mitch having his nails done. They held their breaths as they waited to see how Mitch and the girls reacted.

“I wish that my mom would let me get my nails done like that,” Lena sighed out. “And you got to go to the salon and everything?”

The two adults released their breath on a relaxed sigh as Mitch told his friends about the nail salon and then the barber shop. He did not get the straight razor shave like his brother did, but he did get a facial treatment. Darkness also got a straight razor shave to clean up his beard.

Jake complained that he would never get to go to a barbershop like that because “The white barbershops aren’t like that. They just move you in and out.”

“Then go to a black barber,” Lena said as if it were the simplest solution in the world.

“Could I?” Jake asked Darkness with wide eyes.

“I wasn’t aware that there were designated barbers,” Darkness admitted. “I thought that you just found one that you liked.”

All four kids looked at his bald head as Camille rubbed it.

“Do you really want to take advise on hair care and where to get your hair cut at from a man who shaves his head with a safety razor?”

He turned and looked at her causing the kids to start laughing.

And that was the end of the topic of Mitch and his nails. There was less drama than what either of them had anticipated. At the end of the night, they dropped the other kids off at their homes, both girls went to Bethany’s house for a sleepover, and Jake to his dad’s house.

Mitch talked Darkness into watching a movie but was out cold before it was halfway through. He tucked his nephew into bed, still wearing his jeans and T-shirt, before heading up to the third floor. Camille was in the office with music playing softly from the smart speaker on her desk.

“He’s out like a light,” Darkness said as he settled on the day bed. Tink lifted his head from his bed and looked at the man. Chuckling, he told the dog to go to bed and Tink made his way out of the room and downstairs to one of his favorite people.

He looked at the pictures that Camille was working on. The one on the screen right now was of Nicki as she looked up the stairs with the back lighting behind her creating a silhouette. When it was just as she wanted, she moved on to the next picture.

It always fascinated him to see her take a picture and manipulate the image in the way that she wanted. Changing the lighting color and removing the unwanted items in the background to clean up the image. He watched her for quite a while until she started editing one that had him sitting up.

When she had Vin stand in front of the mirror that hung in the entryway, Darkness had wondered about it. But now it was making sense.

The first image was of him looking in the mirror. His reflection was removed, and an image of Jasper was set in its place. Once it was placed just the way that Camille wanted, she changed the transparency of the image of his brother until it was nothing but a shadow that was looking out from the mirror.

She did the same with Nicki and Keisha. Then he took the image of the one of Darkness adjusting Vin’s tie in front of the mirror. With a few clicks and keystrokes, it was suddenly Darkness and Jasper’s shadow reflection that was fixing the tie.

The process was repeated with Kiesha being a shadow reflection to Jakes’ mother as she pinned the corsage.

He watched as she scanned through hundreds of pictures of Keisha and Jasper that Camille had uploaded or scanned into her computer. Finding one of Keisha that she liked, she cropped the woman out and placed her in a picture of just the teen.

Next was one of the rare candid pictures of Keisha as she bent down slightly and kissed the head of one of her boys. The image was manipulated again and suddenly she stood kissing her daughter’s head.

A picture from their vow renewal from a few years back was used to create a similar picture with Keisha and Vin. A tint was added to the white dress and then Camille adjusted the settings so that the mother was once again nothing more than a ghost in the image.

The process was repeated once again with Jasper allowing the kids to have the experience that they otherwise would never have.  If nothing else, they had the image that Camille made to create photographic image.

When those were all done, she found more pictures and placed the parents on either side of each of their children. Opening another file, she created the same images for Mitch.

He loved his wife. she thought of everything.

The final pictures that she worked on were the family portrait. She added the parents in on either end of the family of five.

When she was done for the night, it was approaching four in the morning, and both were slowly growing tired. She turned around and looked at her husband.

“Are you okay?” she asked as she moved to stand in front of him.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her shirt to cry.

“I didn’t realize how bad I needed that,” he admitted looking up at her. “I love you, Camille.”

“I love you, too, Amos.”