CHAPTER 3

Uhm… What was I saying?
Huh, yeah. I was telling you that my dear friend, Shane, was definitely moving up in the world.
When she first met Carmen, Shane’s job as a freelance photographer wasn’t really getting off the ground.
Basically, in those days she had done only a few photo sessions for some minor studios in Los Angeles, New York and Seattle.
But she was talented.
Oh, she really was.
And the big bosses around there were starting to notice it.
Shane has always had this inborn ability to read people, to understand people. And every one who bumped into Shane, seemed to want to be lectured.
Being as smart as she is, Shane started to use this same ability in a photographic way.
Every time she took a picture, the soul of her model was captured.
Literally.
And it didn’t matter if the subject was a person or a thing.
Shane made everything – and everyone – alive through the glossy paper of her photographs.
She captured colors, tones, atmospheres, souls, moods even, in a simple 13×18 framework.

Her relationship with Carmen seemed to improve her skills, and Shane started to work as crazy to affirm herself into the sharky world of Arts.
Did I say sharky world?
Uhm.
Yes I did.
It’s a neologism. I just conied a new word, me.
And you know what? I like it.
Sharky sharky sharky, sha –
Excuse me?
What are you saying? It’s funny that a bloodthirsty lawyer is talking about something sharky?
Ah ah.
You’re so humorous.
Should I start the clock? I remind you, my fee is 250 bucks an hour.
So stop it right now.
I like to be funny, I really do, but I don’t like it when somebody scoffs at me.
So stop it. It’s for the best.
Okay. Good.
What was I saying?
Uh, right. Shane.
Shane was working like mad and, a couple of years after marrying Carmen, she was starting to hit it big.
A very important studio in Seattle had finally hired her, and the salary was much more than decent. In fact, it was yummy.
So yummy that Shane and Carmen had moved into another – and bigger – apartment.
One spring night, Shane decided to have the senior partners over for dinner.
She had her eyes on the future.
So did I…