The Grainy Picture

A teenager's bedroom in Milwaukee on a February night, a bedside lamp, the cool glow of a small television on a dresser, a hand holding toward it a boxy grey plastic camera with a large loop handle underneath, a black lens with a ridged ring and a round microphone grille at the front, a black rubber eyecup at the back, a black stripe with two thin pale blue lines along its side, plain and unmarked, a small red button on top of the handle, on the quilt a loose pile of audio cassettes in clear cases with blank white inserts, on the television screen a grainy black-and-white image of the lamp.