There He Go by Ladee Hubbard, 2013
The magic trick:
Triggering a story’s themes and plots with a photograph
“There He Go” follows yesterday’s SSMT feature, “The Man In The Moon” by William Maxwell, a story that begins with the narrator examining a photo of his uncle in an old box of keepsakes.
Well, here we are with something similar. Hubbard triggers her story with a photograph too. It’s a photograph of a long-lost uncle of questionable morality too.
The young protagonist in this story is so enamored of a photo of her great uncle that she soon idolizes him. In fact, she soon is creating entire stories about him and using this persona to fill crucial holes in her family life.
It’s a remarkable way to kick off a story’s set of themes.
And that’s quite a trick on Hubbard’s part.
The selection:
Whoever took the picture was actually aiming the camera at her great-uncle Martin, up in front and flashing a toothy grin while an anonymous, light-skinned girl hung off his left arm. Latonya could just barely make out her grandfather near the edge of the frame, a thin shadow turning a corner to join them, his image so faded behind the veil of smoke he himself was blowing that his features were barely recognizable.
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