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It all started as a regular Saturday morning. Kristoph had been in the kitchen, sipping on some Darjeeling tea as he read the news on his computer, when Klavier showed up, holding something behind his back.
“Hey, Kristoph, have you started thinking about what we’re going to gift our parents for their anniversary this year?”
Kristoph set his cup on the table. Right, their parents’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary was coming up in just a few months. How could he have forgotten?
“I must admit it had completely slipped my mind,” he admitted. “By the tone of your question, am I right to assume you have something to suggest?”
“Ja.” With a grin, Klavier placed the old picture album he had been hiding behind his back on the kitchen table. “I was thinking we could try to recreate some of our old photos and make an album for our parents. What do you think?”
“Well, it doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Which pictures do you want to recreate?”
“Let’s see...”
Klavier took the album and started leafing through it in silence. Then, with a soft ‘a-ha!’, he took one of the pictures from the middle of the album and slid it across the table so Kristoph could take a better look at it.
It was a picture of the two of them, sitting by a Christmas tree in what seemed to be the living room of their old home in Germany. The two of them were wearing similar red and white Christmas sweaters, and judging by their appearances, Kristoph imagined it was taken when he was around his mid-teens — indeed, when he turned the picture around, the date written on the back was Christmas Day from the year 2009.
Kristoph frowned. “So you want us to sit in front of a Christmas tree wearing some tacky holiday sweaters,” he said, matter-of-factly.
“Ja.”
“In the middle of May.”
“W-Well, the tree and the Christmas sweaters spend the whole year in the closet, collecting dust. Giving them a bit of a spotlight from time to time doesn’t sound like such a bad idea, right?”
Kristoph pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. It was not exactly his favorite picture of them, but he supposed it wouldn't hurt to reenact it. “Very well. But we will probably need a few more photographs. Are there any other pictures we could recreate?”
Klavier started searching through the album again, scanning the photos one by one.
“This one, maybe?”
This time, Klavier had chosen a picture — again taken in their old house, but taken during the spring or summer instead — with Klavier sitting on a swing in the garden as Kristoph stood behind him.
“Hm. We might no longer live in that house, but perhaps we could use a different swingset from a park nearby.”
“Ja, that’s what I was thinking.”
Kristoph took the album and continued leafing through it to see for himself which other pictures could be recreated. Pictures taken during family vacations were almost immediately rejected, considering most of them had recognizable monuments in the background that they couldn’t recreate easily in their pictures. The same went for photos where their parents were present — the gift was supposed to be a surprise for them, after all.
“Oh, how about this one?” Kristoph said, taking one of the pictures from his university graduation.
“Do you still have the robe?”
Kristoph shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Hm. That could pose a problem for recreating this one.”
“Eh, we could try asking at my school; maybe they have some similar robes for graduations.”
“Perhaps. Let’s see what else is there…”
The two went over the whole album twice, selecting all kinds of photos taken at many different places and times until they had around twenty pictures to reenact.
“Alright!” Klavier said. “Time to get to work!”
They decided to start with the Christmas picture.
Once they had taken out the boxes with the holiday decorations from the attic, the two of them spent what felt like an eternity trying to untangle the fairy lights and garlands. After a while, Klavier decided the strings were at least usable, even if still a bit tangled in some spots, and decided to get to work putting them on the tree while Kristoph added the rest of the ornaments, trying his best to keep the tangled sections on the back so they wouldn’t show up in the picture.
“There! It’s done!”
They stood in front of the tree, resting for a moment as they admired the results of their effort for the past hours. Then, they put on the sweaters on top of their clothes — with a few whiny comments from Klavier about it being too hot to wear those sweaters, even though it had been his idea in the first place — and soon, they were ready to start taking the pictures.
Kristoph fiddled with the camera settings until he found the timer, made sure the camera was pointing in the proper direction, and then pressed the button. Once the countdown started, he ran to the empty spot on the couch beside Klavier to make it before the ten seconds were up, tripping on the coffee table in front of it and nearly knocking the tree down before he could sit down.
“A-Ah, sorry…!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine!” Klavier said, turning around for a few seconds to stabilize the tree a bit before resuming his previous pose. “The ten seconds are not up yet! Drei… zwei—”
Just when Klavier was about to finish counting down, one of the ornaments from the tree — the star, to be more precise — fell down, hitting him straight on the head.
“Ach, what the heck—!”
Click.
“Well, that was unfortunate. I suppose one could say you were…” Kristoph adjusted his glasses, trying his best to refrain from laughing before saying the punchline. “…star-struck.”
Klavier didn’t even blink in response, much less laugh. “That joke sucked, even by your standards.”
“What do you mean, ‘by my standards’?!”
Instead of replying, Klavier sighed and went to check out the picture. Kristoph peeked over his brother’s shoulder with a frown — as expected, the photo had turned out slightly blurry, considering Klavier had been hit on the head by the star just a second before it was taken.
Kristoph chuckled. He had to admit the picture was kind of funny. “Shall we keep this one?”
“No!”
“And you’re the one who always says I have no festive spirit.”
“Let’s just try again, ja?” Klavier went back to his spot again, glaring at the tree with mistrust. “And make sure to not knock down the tree a second time.”
Kristoph was about to protest and say he would never do such a thing, but then he figured he had not originally planned to trip on the table the first time either, so he decided to stay silent. He had embarrassed himself enough already.
“Very well, here we go!”
This time, Kristoph made his way back to the couch with poise and sat down beside Klavier with no further incidents, doing his best to recreate the same pose he had in the original picture.
Click.
Kristoph brought the camera to the couch so Klavier could see the picture too. “Hm… I believe this one looks good.”
Klavier nodded. “Ja, much better than the other one.”
“Very well. That makes the first picture, then. Let’s put everything away before we continue with the rest of the pictures.”
Klavier stared at the fully-decorated tree in silence, then at the garlands and fairy lights taped to the wall, then at Kristoph.
“…Do we really have to take all the decorations down again?” He pouted.
“Are you planning to celebrate Christmas in spring this year?”
“Nein.”
“There you have your answer, then. Now, help me take the ornaments off. We don’t have all day.”
Next was the swingset picture. They both got dressed into the most similar clothes to the ones they wore in the original picture they could find in their wardrobes — a plain purple T-shirt and cargo pants for Klavier, and a white polo shirt and jeans for Kristoph — and made their way to the nearest park in search of a swingset. Fortunately for them, the park was almost empty at that hour, the skies were clear, and a pleasant breeze lowered the temperature enough for it to not be too hot, so they could take their time with the pictures without worrying about the weather or the possibility of any children wanting to play on the swings interrupting them.
Klavier finished setting up the tripod and adjusting it so the camera was pointing towards the swings.
“Very well, now let’s start the—”
Before he could finish the sentence, a young woman with spiky brown hair wearing a yellow and blue parka approached them.
“Hello!” the woman said, speaking into a microphone. “I see y’all are settin’ up a camera, what are you plannin’ to do with it?”
The stranger shoved the microphone in front of Klavier’s face, and Klavier had to take a step back to be able to properly breathe again.
“Uh, we are in the middle of a photoshoot,” Klavier told her.
“Ooh, that sounds interesting! What are y’all shooting?”
Kristoph sighed. At this rate, they wouldn’t get anything done.
“Hm… excuse me, may I ask for your name first?” Kristoph asked her.
“Oh, right, sorry ‘bout that, Goldilocks.” She flashed them a smile as Kristoph grimaced a bit at the improvised nickname — Goldilocks?! “Tabby Lloyd, reporter!”
He adjusted his glasses with a frown. “...A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Lloyd.”
“The pleasure is mine! Now, what was that about a photoshoot?”
Truly a one-track mind, that woman.
“Oh, it’s nothing too sophisticated,” Kristoph said. “We are simply recreating some old pictures.”
“Sounds fun! My thing’s technically audio, but I can take a few pictures for y’all if you want!”
Klavier turned around to look at Kristoph, as if to ask him whether he was okay with the idea, and Kristoph nodded.
“That’d be more convenient for us, ja. At least we won’t have to worry about the timer.”
“Indeed. We appreciate the kind offer, Ms. Lloyd.”
“Nah, don’t worry, Goldilocks, it’s nothin’!”
Again with the nickname. Frankly, Kristoph was starting to regret agreeing to her suggestion, but he didn’t want to seem rude after she had offered to help them, so he bit the inside of his cheek in silence, praying that they would get this over with soon.
Ms. Lloyd took the camera and pointed it towards the two brothers, motioning at Klavier to move a bit. “Alright, y’all, smile for the camera!”
Kristoph did as instructed, keeping his smile for a few seconds, until he heard the camera clicking a few times.
“There! Done!” she said, handing them the camera. Fortunately for them, it seemed like this time they had managed to recreate the picture on the first try.
“Thank you again for your help, Ms. Lloyd. Now, if you excuse us...”
“Oh, no, no, no, y’all aren’t goin’ anywhere! Not without givin’ me the scoop!”
“The… scoop?”
“Yeah, the scoop!” She shoved the microphone in front of Kristoph’s face. “You were doin’ a photoshoot, right? What are y’all plannin’ to use those pics for?”
“I’m afraid there has been a misunderstanding here. We are not celebrities—”
“Yet,” Klavier interrupted him.
Kristoph decided to not delve any further on the topic of Klavier’s band — if Ms. Lloyd somehow got hold of that information, the resulting interview wouldn’t let them leave the park for at least the next two hours, he was sure of it. “This ‘photoshoot’ was merely for the purpose of making a gift for our parents’ upcoming anniversary.”
“Oh… I see.” The look on her face could only be described as ‘dejected’. She let out a long sigh. “And here I was thinkin’ I would be finding a scoop here...”
“I’m afraid not, Ms. Lloyd. Though I wish you the best in your endeavors.”
She sighed again and turned off her recorder. Thank goodness, it seemed like they were done there. Now, their next destination was—
“Well, if what you want is an exclusive…” Klavier chimed in, “I’m part of a band, and we will be releasing our first single next month! How’s that for a scoop, Fräulein?”
Kristoph put a hand on Klavier’s shoulder, trying to steer him away from the conversation. “Ah, Klavier, we should be—”
“Hush, Goldilocks, I’m tryin’ to get the scoop here!” She frantically pressed a few buttons on the cassette to start recording before directing the microphone towards Klavier once more. “Now we’re talkin’! Tell me more about this band of yours!”
“Great, just what we needed…” Kristoph muttered, feeling his eye twitching a bit as he adjusted his glasses. It was going to be a long, long afternoon…
With the Christmas and the swingset pictures taken (and the impromptu interview finished), the two brothers decided to recreate Kristoph’s graduation picture next. After changing into more formal clothes, they got into Kristoph’s car and soon, the two of them were at Themis Legal Academy, Klavier’s current school, in hopes that they would have some spare robes to lend them for the photoshoot.
“While we’re here, I should make sure to ask your professors how you have been doing,” Kristoph joked as they got out of the car.
“Ach, come on! I’m doing well!”
“We’ll see that soon.”
The two of them walked slowly among the few students that were taking a stroll around the campus. Klavier greeted a small group of them that he later explained were just some classmates, but otherwise, they walked in silence until they saw a woman with long brown hair dressed in a green tracksuit some distance from them.
“Ah, there she is!”
“Who—?”
“Professor Courte! Professor Courte!”
Klavier ran in her direction, leaving Kristoph behind, so Kristoph had to take off running to catch up with him. “Klavier, it’s not that urgent, wait!”
“Oh, good afternoon, Klavier,” the woman said once they were within earshot. “Do you need help with your homework?”
“Nein, nein.” He put both hands on his knees, stopping to catch his breath. “It has nothing to do with class.”
“Well, what is it that I can help you with?” It was then that she noticed Kristoph was also there. “Oh, you are…?”
“Good afternoon…” Kristoph panted slightly — he hated to admit it, but it looked like he was getting out of shape. Maybe it would be beneficial to exercise a bit more often… “It is… a pleasure to meet you, ma’am...” He steadied himself and straightened his suit jacket again as he cleared his throat. He could not make a bad first impression in front of Klavier’s teachers. “I’m Kristoph Gavin, attorney at law. I’m Klavier’s brother.”
“I see!” Professor Courte said. “The pleasure is all mine. I’m Constance Courte, professor at Themis.”
“Are you a prosecutor?”
“No, I teach the judge course. I just happen to supervise the extracurricular activities for the art departments, so I know Klavier personally.” She smiled. “But I have only heard good things about him from the other professors, I can assure you.”
Kristoph turned around to look at Klavier, only to see him mouthing a ‘See? I told you’.
“So what is it that you needed help with, Klavier?” Professor Courte wondered.
“My brother and I are recreating some old pictures to make a gift for our parents’ anniversary, and we need one of those robes and caps used in graduations. Do you think we could borrow one for a second?”
“Of course!” She flashed a gentle smile at them. “Follow me, I think we should have a few robes from a play we did last year.”
The three of them made their way through the halls until they reached a room at the end of the hallway on the second floor; then, Professor Courte took a keyring from her pocket and opened the door to what seemed to be some sort of storage room. In a matter of seconds, she opened a box that was near the door and handed Kristoph a few of the items they needed for their photoshoot.
“Here you have a tie and the graduation cap. There’s a handheld mirror there, in case you need it. Now, where did I put those robes…?”
Professor Courte started looking through some boxes in the back of the room, so in the meantime, Kristoph decided to put on the tie to speed up the process.
He took the original picture they were trying to recreate and stared at it from up close. “Hm, is that a Windsor or a Grantchester knot...?”
“Do I look like I know enough about ties to answer that question?” Klavier sighed. “Besides, why does it matter? It’s such a small detail that they won’t even pay attention to it!”
“Some of us actually care about formal dressing, Klavier. Now hold up this mirror for me so I can see what I’m doing, alright?”
Klavier rolled his eyes, but went along with it.
Kristoph decided to start with the Windsor knot. After all, if he got it wrong, he could always try the other one. For a Windsor knot, first, the wide end of the tie was placed across the front of the narrow end, then the wide end was put through the back of the loop upwards—
“Ach, come on, it’s just a tie! Just pick one style and let’s help Professor Courte search for the robes so we can get the shoot started already!”
Soon, Kristoph was finished tying his necktie and adjusting it. Fortunately, he had gotten it correctly on the first try — it seemed like all those years of his father teaching him the different kinds of knots in his teenage years had been useful.
“Here they are!” he heard Professor Courte saying behind them.
When he turned around, she was taking a robe from a box full of clothes. She dusted off the robe a bit, lifting a cloud of dust particles, and Kristoph grimaced. He had to put that on...?
Professor Courte seemed to notice his discomfort, because she added, “I’m sorry, we usually wash the clothes shortly before a play, but this robe has been unused for a while and it might not be the cleanest right now.”
“Oh, I can tell it has been unused for a while, yes,” he said, forcing himself to accept the robe with a polite smile to not seem discourteous. “Let’s just take the picture so I can take this off post-haste, shall we?”
He put on the robe, wrinkling his nose at the smell of dust, and the trio made their way back to the campus entrance to find a sunny spot to take the picture.
“Alright!” Professor Courte helped him adjust the graduation cap as Kristoph finished brushing his hair with his fingers. Once she was seemingly satisfied with the result, she took a few steps back and pointed the camera at the two brothers. “Say cheese, you two!”
The two of them reenacted the same pose from the original picture and smiled at the camera. And then, just when Ms. Courte was going to take the picture, Kristoph sneezed.
Click.
“My apologies.” Kristoph sniffed. “That was some awful timing. Could you please—?” Another sneeze. “Agh, all the dust on the robe is triggering my allergies!”
“Oh, dear…” She ran her hand over Kristoph’s shoulders to hopefully remove some of the dust, sending even more dust flying around and causing Kristoph to sneeze yet another time as Klavier stifled a laugh. “Sorry.”
“I…” Kristoph sniffed again, breathing in slowly in hopes that it wouldn’t trigger another sneeze. “I... think I am fine now. Let’s take the picture before that changes again, shall we?”
Kristoph and Klavier posed for the camera again. Beside him, Kristoph could see Klavier trying his best not to laugh as his teacher took the pictures, and Kristoph had to restrain himself from scowling at him instead of smiling at the camera.
“There! I took a few different pictures just in case,” Professor Courte said after a while. “I think a few of them turned out blurry because of all the sneezing, but there should be at least a few good ones.”
“Danke.”
“Thank you for your help, Ms. Courte,” Kristoph said, handing her the dusty robe as he removed the tie with his other hand.
“Oh, also,” she added, “I think the lighting in the picture could be fixed a bit. I could edit the photos for you if you’d like.”
“That’d be great, danke!”
“Alright then, leave them to me for now. I’ll send the fixed version to you later.” She glanced at Kristoph with a sheepish look of pity. “I think your brother should go home as soon as possible and take a shower to get all the dust off of him.”
“Ja, I think you’re right.” Klavier patted his brother on the shoulder with a chuckle. “What do you say, Kristoph?”
The only reply Kristoph could give him was yet another sneeze, followed by a loud groan.
“Alright, I think those are enough pictures,” Klavier said, scattering the freshly-printed photos over the table.
During the previous three days, the two brothers had recreated all sorts of pictures, ranging from ones taken during birthday parties — of course, Klavier insisted they had to buy a cake for the occasion, ‘just for the sake of accuracy’ —, to pictures of the two of them taken during Christmas or Thanksgiving family dinners, to even a few candid pictures they found interesting enough to recreate. All in all, Kristoph could count at least twenty different pictures on the table — more than enough to make a small album out of them.
“If I ever feel dejected, I’m sure that seeing the star from the Christmas tree falling on your head again will cheer me up,” Kristoph joked, picking up the failed picture that he had insisted on printing despite Klavier’s protests.
“Ach, come on! Can I at least get a copy of one of those pictures of you sneezing in compensation?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Hmph. I guess I’ll just have to ask Professor Courte for a copy. She probably still has the originals.”
“You wouldn’t dare—!”
“Oh ho ho, that’s where you’re wrong, Kristoph. That’s where you’re wrong.” He grinned. “Or should I say Herr Goldilocks?”
Kristoph looked at Klavier with the most intimidating glare he could manage. Klavier returned his stare, pressing his lips into a thin line as he tried his best not to laugh, until it became too much for him to handle and he burst out laughing, and soon, Kristoph was laughing with him too.
“You know,” Kristoph said once they had both calmed down, leafing through the old picture album and comparing the photographs to the ones they had just finished printing, “we have spent the past few days recreating old pictures… but I am only just now realizing that we haven’t taken any new pictures together in a long time.”
A long silence settled between them as they stared at the scattered pictures on the table.
“Shall we take one last photo as a bonus for the album, then?” Klavier asked.
Even without saying a word, they both knew the answer to that question.
Klavier set up the tripod in record time — all those pictures taken in the previous days had made them both experts in photography at that point — and placed the camera on it, pointing towards the couch.
“Alright, here it goes!”
After sitting down beside him, Klavier put an arm around Kristoph’s shoulder. While Kristoph had originally intended to simply smile for the camera, he decided to reciprocate his brother’s gesture and wrapped his arm around Klavier’s shoulder too.
“…Ähm, Kristoph, can you loosen your grip a bit?” Klavier said, still smiling for the camera. “You’re… kind of hurting my shoulder.”
Keeping his picture-perfect smile, Kristoph replied, “Only if you stop pulling at my hair first.”
“Ah. Tut mir leid.” Klavier adjusted his arm until he was no longer accidentally yanking at Kristoph’s hair. “Is this better?”
“Thank you.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Kristoph could see Klavier slightly leaning his head towards him, so just before the countdown ended, he mirrored the gesture until they were both leaning against each other.
Click.
Klavier got up from the couch to see the picture.
“Did it turn out well?”
“Ja, looks good to me.” He gave Kristoph the camera and asked, “What do you think? Do you like it, or should we take another one?”
Kristoph examined the photo in detail. Compared to the other pictures, he had to admit there was something different to this new one, and not just the fact that this one was not a recreation. Perhaps it was because the other pictures were staged and this one had been completely spontaneous, but whatever it was, this time, their smiles seemed… brighter. More genuine.
“It’s... perfect. I like it,” he said, a smile escaping his lips for a moment.
Kristoph had never considered himself a sentimental person, but after seeing all the pictures on the table, he had to admit his new office still felt a bit empty. Maybe after all this, he could make space in his desk for a picture or two, if only to have something around to bring him a smile whenever he was struggling with a case.