Camera in a Hatbox

Daily Prompt: Antique Antics
What’s the oldest thing you own? (Toys, clothing, twinkies, Grecian urns: anything’s fair game) Recount its history– from the object’s point of view.

I am a Kodak camera, made in England. I was my owner’s proud possession. When he brought me home, he used me to take photographs of his young children. He would look so pleased when he would collect the photos from the shop. Why not? My photos were sharp and well defined.

My owner had made for me, a leather case to carry me around, and protect me from damage. The leather was shiny brown. No one looked grander. Others like me, must have been casting envious looks in my direction.

One day my owner’s young daughter Sheen discovered me. She kept asking her father, to give me to her as a present. He thought her too young to own a camera. He made a stipulation.

She had to stand first in all her subjects till the summer vacations. She usually stood first over all in the class, but to come first in each and every subject was a stiff challenge.

Poor Sheen! Was she worried? She was, because she was weak in Maths, and one of her subject was Elective Maths.

June came around, and Sheen came home with her report card. Her eyes were shinning with excitement. From the look of her I got the feeling, that I was going to belong to her from now on.

When she showed her father her report card, her father said, “if you find it, it’s yours”.

It wasn’t fair to Sheen, to make her search for me, but that’s what she had to, to get me.

My owner had hidden me in his hat box. I was beneath the lowest one. Sheen searched for me, everywhere in her father’s room. I was nowhere to be found. How could she know where I was hidden?

She did take out one hat at a time, but when she reached the lowest one, she didn’t take it out.

Her father looked on smilingly. He thought she won’t find me. She was tired and cross from searching. She was about to give up. She gave the hat box another try, and finally found me to her great delight.

I belonged to her now. Wasn’t I pleased too!

She used me for the next three years. She stopped using me, when she got a Canon camera. I was jealous of my rival, but what could I do? I became a relic of her past.

She has kept me me through the years. She never used me again, but she didn’t throw me out. I now lie forgotten, in the attic of her home.

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Camera in a Hatbox