Figment Three

by Gerald George

He just kept buying them in
antique stores, the old framed
photoed faces with no names on the
back, so many displaced identities, of
course he felt he had to buy them, and
then of course he had to, well — why
rescue them only to leave them in
oblivion, and so he kept buying and
putting them all over the walls of his
house, wondering, until one day it
came to him — even nameless, they
were,
with eyes, expressions, and such
costumes! — hats, mustaches, uniforms,
parasols — and he went out to more and
more shops and got more and more
photos to put up on more and more
walls of staring unmoving people who no
longer had to be anything more than they
appeared to be.