[Tattles]

"The mechanism: stamped black tin,
Leatherette over cardboard, bits of boxwood,
A lens
The shutter falls
Forever
Dividing that from this."

She gave each of her friends a hug, one that was tight enough that her small suitcase smacked into their backs. Most of the other kids let out some kind of 'oof' when the leather met their shoulder-blades, but there was little time for much chatter or talk. The boat gave out a loud noise, a foghorn that sounded to alert the soon-to-be passengers to hurry along their way. Though some of them tried to grab her to keep her there for just a second longer, she wouldn't be stopped. There was work to be done, after all, and she had been handpicked for her role, even if it wasn't something to brag about. It was a foot in the door, a beginning to something new. And once aboard the ship? She struggled to remember the names of those on the shore, and while many waved from the rear of the vessel to their families and bid them farewell, she was instead at the bow, eyes not on the horizon, but shut. She felt the wind and heard the waves crash, and by the next morning even the concept of yesterday had become little other than a glimmer of memory among a vast expanse of forgotten thoughts that she would never dwell on again.