I’ve always worn glasses, but now, with my wonderful cataract-removed eye, I don’t need them anymore (or at least, not all the time). My mum complained at first that I didn’t look like me, but she got used to my new appearance before she returned to England. Meanwhile I grew accustomed to the glasses-free image in the mirror. Then I started to look, with clear, unclouded, cataract-free eye, at those various pictures of me around the internet and on the backs of books. It seems I can’t get used to the old me anymore. I need a new photo!
A wonderful friend, who happens also to be a wonderful writer and photographer, offered to take a publicity shot for me. I shall, of course, say yes, with much delight. But I wonder what that picture will say about me. Shall I ask her to touch it up, remove the bags beneath my eyes, smooth out those wrinkles a little? Perhaps I should suggest she darken the hair or lighten it. (I kind of hoped I’d go white when I grayed at forty, but it was not to be, unless… well, she could…) If it’s a full-body shot, I might request she slim me down a bit – I’m working on the diet. And if my eyes, even the cataract-free one, looked tired…
Of course, the question then is, who would the photo be of, if it didn’t look like me. Because I do have wrinkled, bags and gray hair, and I haven’t quite slimmed to my ideal weight. What thousand words do I want her picture to tell?
I guess I’ll figure it out in a while. Watch this space for the “new me,” coming soon!
Sheila Deeth is the author of the mathemafiction novels, Divide by Zero, Infinite Sum, Subtraction and Imaginary Numbers. Infinite Sum, the second in the series, will soon be release by Indigo Sea Press. Meanwhile, find Divide by Zero here.
can’t figure out the point of view
and what’s that background meant to be
out of focus – think she’s lost the plot
