Jack & Jill

wide-angle to shoot them as a group—like a family. My wrist twists back, and I go tight, shooting them one by one.
Who were they? What happened to these poor people? How did they die?
    Don’t think Kristin, just shoot.
    Two muscular paramedics walk out of the hotel and approach a couple of cops. Detectives, like on
Law & Order.
They all talk, they all shake their heads, and they all have that hardened New York look to them, as if they’ve seen it all before.
    One of the detectives—older, rail thin—looks my way. I think he sees me.
    Click click click.
    Having burned through a roll of film, I furiously load another.
    There’s really nothing more to shoot, and yet I keep firing away. I’m late for work, but it doesn’t matter. It’s as if I can’t leave.
    Wait!
    My head snaps back to the gurneys as something catches my eye. At first, I can’t believe it. Maybe it’s the wind, or just my mind playing tricks early in the morning.
    Then it happens again, and I gasp. The last body bag…
it moved!
    Did I just see what I think I saw?
    I’m terrified and want to run away. Instead, I edge even closer. Instinct? Undertow?
    I’m staring at that zipped-up body bag, and all I know is that there’s been a horrible mistake by the police or the EMS.
    The zipper!
    It’s creeping backward.
That body bag is opening from the inside!
    My eyes bulge, and my knees buckle. Literally. I stagger through the crowd, staring through my lens in shock and disbelief.
    I see a finger emerge, then an entire hand.
Oh, God, and there’s blood!
    “Help!” I scream, lowering my camera. “That person is alive!”
    The crowd turns, the cops and paramedics too. They glance at me and scoff in disbelief or reproach, shaking their heads as if I just escaped from Bellevue.
They think I’m nuts!
    I stab the air, pointing at the body bag as the hand pushes through the plastic, desperately reaching out for help. I think it’s a woman’s hand.
    Do something, Kris! You have to save her!
    I raise my camera again, and?—