The Stranger in the Family Photo

Nadia loved watching old photographs.

Her grandmother have dumped many of old photos in a wooden box under her bed space. Some of the photos carries memory of birthdays, wedding celebration and the family picnics in town. Others were so old that the people in them looked like strangers from another world.

One Saturday afternoon when Nadia was helping the grandmother to clean the house she discovered the wooden box.

“Grandma, can I look through these?” she asked.

Her grandmother smiled. “yes my daughter, but be careful not to damage anyone.”

Nadia quickly sat down on the floor, while watching the photos she laughed at her mother's picture when she was still a little girl.

Then she found one that made her stop.

It was a photograph which they took in front of the family house, the photo is black and white. Her grandmother stood in the middle, much younger than Nadia had ever known her to be. Beside her were two women and a little boy.

But there was someone else.

A tall man wearing a black suit standing straight in the photograph

Nadia frowned.
“Grandma, who is this man?”
Her grandmother looked at the photograph.

The smile disappeared from her face.
“Where did you find that?”
“In the box. Who is he?”

Her grandmother immediately collected the photograph from Nadia and said to her
“No one.”

Nadia laughed. “That can't be true. He's standing right there.”

“I said he's no one. Put the photographs away.”

Throughout that night, Nadia keep on thinking about the stranger which she saw earlier that day on the photo.

Source

The next morning Nadia rushed to the wooden box and saw another photo which was taken during the family wedding, right in the photo, that the same was standing there.

She found another photograph from a picnic.
He was there too.
Another from her grandmother's birthday.
There he stood again.

What baffle Nadia was the photograph was taken many years apart, but the man always look young in all the photos.

Nadia decided to ask her mother.
“Mom, do you know who this is?”
Her mother carefully looked at the photo for some seconds.

Her mother asked “Where did you get that?”
Nadia replied “Grandma's box.”

Her mother sighed.
“I don't know who he is.”
“You're lying.”

Her mother looked away.

The her mother whispered to her ear "his name is Samuel"
“Who is Samuel?” Nadia asked

“My grandmother's younger brother.”
Nadia's eyes widened. “Why has nobody ever told me about him?”

“Because Samuel disappeared.”
“Mom what do you mean?”
“one evening Samuel left the house and he never came back.”
“Was he murdered?”
“No one knows.”

Nadia looked at the photograph again.
“But why is he in pictures taken after he disappeared?”

But her mother don't know the answer to give to her daughter

That afternoon, Nadia returned to her grandmother's room.
Nadia said to her grandmother “Tell me about Samuel.”

Her grandmother remained silent.
Finally, her grandmother spoke.

“Samuel was different. He believed that photographs could capture more than a person's image. He thought they could capture moments that were not supposed to exist.”
Nadia frowned.
“One day, he told me he had discovered something. He said that whenever he took a photograph, he sometimes saw people who weren't there when the picture was taken.”
“What happened?”
“He took a photograph of himself.”
Her grandmother's hands began to tremble.
“When the picture was developed, there was another Samuel standing behind him.”
Nadia felt a chill run through her.
“What did he do?”
“He became obsessed. He took photographs everywhere, searching for the stranger. Then one night, he disappeared.”
“And the photographs?”
Her grandmother pointed toward the wooden box.
“Those are the photographs he left behind.”
Nadia opened the box again.
At the very bottom, she found a small envelope with her name written on it.
Her heart began beating faster.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed Nadia standing in her bedroom.
She had never seen the photograph before.
She looked at the date written on the back.
It was tomorrow's date.
Nadia stared at the image in horror.
She was standing exactly where she was standing now.
And behind her, reflected in the bedroom mirror, was Samuel.
He was smiling.
Then Nadia heard a slow creaking sound behind her.
She turned toward the mirror.
For a moment, there was nothing.
Then a tall figure appeared behind her reflection.
Nadia froze.
The man in the photograph was standing in the room.
Samuel raised one finger to his lips.
“Don't take another picture,” he whispered.
The lights suddenly went out.
When they came back on, Nadia was gone.
Only the photograph remained on the floor.
And in the newest photograph inside the box, Samuel was no longer standing alone.
Nadia was beside him.