my father's most beautiful photograph

photo: jackie theriot

Monique and Nicole are playing a new board game in their bedroom after Nicole's second birthday party. 

Nicole, in close up, stares back at the camera, washed in a seventies beige, her hair no longer in pigtails, having blown out the candles on her cake. Monique is a ghost in the background. 

It's all so unrehearsed: the crooked golden blouse, the bare shoulder, the light through an open window lending a sparkle to Nicole's right eye. She has no idea what a pose is.