A Box of Photographs - Empat

Photograph #12

This is a photograph of the girl. She is in the foreground, to the bottom right of the shot. Behind her stretches a vast, silver sea, gleaming under a milk blue sky. Beyond it, an arid blue peninsula, far away. The girl is leaning back against a rusting white railing, cast in contre-jour by the dazzling light. Her round sunglasses hide her eyes, but her teeth are exposed in a wide smile. Her fair hair picked up a little but the breeze; errant strands catch the light from behind and glow like wire filaments. On the back of the photograph it says, 'The ferry to Lombok'.

Photograph #13

This is a photograph of the boy. He is lying down, head resting on the girl's lap in the foreground, legs stretching away into the centre of the image, feet blurring out of focus, though you can see that he is wearing battered brown Nikes and torn denim shorts, and that his legs are skinny and tanned deep brown. His eyes are closed. In the background, the deck of the ship, chipped and rusting paintwork in white and pallid green, the green of hospital corridors. The funnel is traffic cone orange, soiled black at its mouth by years of smoke. You cannot smell the sea-spray, the black grease, the scent of the boy's sun-warmed hair. But you can imagine it.

Photograph #14

This is a photograph of a small courtyard, full of white sand. In its centre, a sparse flower bed, lined with coral, shells and stones. Further back, and to the left, is a tree, and a bamboo hut, raised off the ground on stilts, lacking walls but sheltered by a thatched roof. The courtyard is surrounded on two sides by a fence made from slender strips of wood. In the middle the fence opens out; the white sand spills out and leads the eye down the beach to a pale turquoise sea, which deepens into blue towards the horizon. To the right there are three bungalows, terraced in a row. Each with a door, a window, two chairs and a table. The walls are painted a deep turquoise, making the sea seem pale in comparison, like sun-bleached fabric. The chairs are a lurid jade green. Beside the bungalows is a shrub with tall branches, whose flowers are a flamboyant magenta, contrasting starkly with the greens and blues. Around the yard, a black rooster and two hens are frozen, mid sand scratch, mid feather ruffle, mid peck. On the back of the photos is written, 'Melati Homestay'.

Photograph #15

This is a photograph of some items of clothing. Dirty, shabby denim shorts. A wine-red checked shirt. A sun dress with a dark green jungle print, with mother-of-pearl buttons. A brown leather belt. You recognise the former two as belonging to the young man; the dress must be the girl's. The lighting is a little subdued, as though night is falling. The sand on which the clothes are lying has taken on a violet tint. The clothes are not folded, merely discarded, haphazardly, like shedded skin. You imagine the couple bathing in the blood-warm sea, feet sinking into the soft sand, kissing with salty lips. But then, who could have taken the photograph?

Photograph #16

This photograph is a long exposure, taken at night. It shows a black sea, sandwiched between sand dimly lit by lamplight, and a vast sky, slightly reddish, though not as light-polluted as it might have been in the city. On the horizon is a long row of bright lights, tiny beacons dancing between sea and sky. You surmise that these are buoys, there to warn ships away from the coral reef. The couple must have wondered the same thing. However, you turn the photo over and see that on the back is written, 'Night fishermen hunting sleeping octopus, Kuta, Lombok.'