Photo Finished

It was quite understandable that when Mark walked in and saw what had been done, his head nearly exploded.
"Why, why, why, why? I hate you, I hate you, you horrible creature, I hate you! Why......".
It wasn't me he was screaming at. It was cute, innocent, little Sasha, and Mark had good reason to lose his composure. Sitting in a pile on the dining room table were the shredded faces and bodies of  Mark's family.

Fourteen years ago Mark's landlord illegally evicted him tossing all his belongings, including family photos, into the garbage while Mark was away. Ever since, Mark has been trying to recover as much of his family's photo history as possible. Recently when he attended a family funeral in the Bronx his cousins presented him with a package of old photos. They ranged from Mark's teenage years, to old pictures of his grandparents and parents. When Mark returned home he was so happy. We sat down that evening and each photo was shown and explained, "That's my grandpa, and my dad. This one is of me in high school."  Every time somebody would visit the photos would come out, and Mark would again reminisce. Unfortunately, the last time he showed them, he left them near the edge of the table. I'm not sure how they ended up on the floor, but our little shredder Sasha found them. We've known since we first got her that Sasha likes to tear up paper, so we have been careful not to leave important things within her reach. Things like old family photos. Apparently, Mark didn't learn that lesson well enough.

When Mark came home that evening and his temper flared at the sight of the carnage, I let him go at it. He could scream at me as much as he wanted, and as long as he didn't try to punish Sasha I figured it would do him good. Besides, the whole time he was bouncing around and screaming, I knew it would all be okay. I had scanned every one of those photos into my computer the week before.

Mark on the left