Sincerely, Francis

I love finding old pictures in books. Well, no, come to think of it most of the pictures I find are incredibly boring and bland and hardly noteworthy. What I really mean to say is that I love to find unique or obscure pictures in old books. When I started working at Old Editions Bookshop I found a polaroid of a rather large woman posing for the camera & wearing an ornate headdress and it ruined everything. I mean, come on, a find like that comes along, I don't know, once...maybe twice a century. How do you top that? Answer: You don't. Old, disgusting polaroids set the bar really high. All the pictures of empty rooms, houses, and beaches that came after failed in comparison.

There are plenty of sites devoted to Old Pictures. In fact, there's a really great one here that I came across this morning. And while I'm not going to get into the habit of posting the photographs that I've found, I do have an exception.  

"Francis: Stone. Cold. Fox."

Safely tucked away in a book that was headed for the recycling bin, I found "Sincerely Francis." Obviously what made this picture stand out from the rest was it's age, but I must also note the smile on her face and the 'sincerely' written in the bottom corner. I know you can't tell, but the little oval portrait is mounted on a gray rag paper and shielded within a paper, rectangular holder. In between Francis and the gray flap is a piece of tissue paper (with a spiderweb design on it). 

I don't know the origins of the portrait but that won't stop me from making something up. It is as follows:

"It had been two years since Billy Tamlin took a job at Potter's Mill doing simple construction when he was handed his Notice of Deployment. Tamlin, having no family of his own, gathered up what little belongings he had and made arrangements with Arthur Potter, the owner of Potter's Mill, to store his wares until he returned. His possessions included one pair of leather work boots, three sets of work clothes, a suit of less than mediocre quality, and two copies of Scribner's Monthly. 'It's a sad lot to leave behind,' Arthur commented, as he watched Billy board the train to Philadelphia, 'but maybe a sadder lot to come back to.' Everyone, in town, prayed for the best while simultaneously expecting the worst. Billy was already an orphan. His loss would be mourned, but it would be an easier loss for the town of Carlisle to accept. 

       No one knew of Francis' love for Billy. In the still of the morning, mere hours before Billy boarded the train--possibly never to return, she went to him and poured out her heart. 'We can leave right now,' she said. 'No one, besides me, is going to miss one soldier. I cannot be without you!' Tamlin thought long and hard by these words. He had a duty as United States citizen but also a duty to the woman he loved. Fearing that someone would see them together, Billy kissed Francis goodbye and calmed her with the promise that they would always be together--no matter what he had to do, they would find a way to be together. Francis was dew-eyed when she'd left but touched by his promise. 

     It wasn't until the very next morning that Mrs. Metcalf found the note by her bed. "I'm sorry, Mrs," it began, "but I must do this. I've taken the remainder of my own money out of the safe, and I've boarded a train bound for Philadelphia. Please tell the other girls that I'm sorry, and I shall miss them." At the end of the letter, Mrs. Metcalf reached into the envelope and removed a gray portrait holder from it's contents. 'Sincerely, Francis' it said at the base of the picture. 

     Mrs. Metcalf, frazzled but quick witted, stuffed the picture into a book titled The Vaux-De-Vire and quietly went about the rest of her day."

Is it great? Probably not. I wrote it all rather quickly. And it should also be noted that I had no mention of alien abductions or the like. Why is that worth mentioning? Billy gets a notice of deployment--then he gets abducted! Billy boards the train--right before the whole train is abducted! Francis leaves Billy in the wee hours of the morning--and is then ABDUCTED! Plenty of opportunities to write that in. 

But whatever the reason for the sincerity, I think it's a great photograph and an exceptionally great find in a book... 

...about Abductions.