Looks Like I Have a Mystery on My Hands. Or Do I?

I don't know who these people are, where or when this photo was taken -- or, for that matter, how and why it happened to be inside the book I recently picked up at a Little Free Library not far from my house.

But it's not so much the photo I find intriguing as what's written (verbatim) on its back:

Sorry Vicky tell mom too

I feel so bad and now I

wish I told him I wouldn't

go. I love you. I feel awful

(heart)you

Miranda

(Nota bene: I've changed the names because it seemed like the right thing to do.)

This kind of thing happens all the time in movies, right? Somebody comes across a curious object like, well, a photo, and something about it catches their attention and won't let go, and they obsess until they solve whatever the mystery is -- even though doing so may jeopardize their life. Maybe it's Jimmy Stewart in a '40s Hitchcock film, all Midwestern drawl and sticktoitiveness. Or Dustin Hoffman as an early '70s schlubby counterculture everyman. How about a heroic 1980s Sigourney Weaver or Denzel Washington? Some neurosis on the side with Cate Blanchett or Robert Downey Jr.?

OK, I'm nowhere near that stage where I ponder asking the right questions to the wrong people and, after enduring threats and physical violence, gradually uncover The Truth. But I gotta say, the photo and its message fascinates me.

The most obvious conclusion to draw is that Miranda ran off with some guy she'd been seeing against the wishes of her mother and perhaps also her sister Vicky, but she began having serious regrets about this decision, enough to beg their forgiveness. I'm guessing said guy is the one in the photo wearing the white T-shirt and red shorts, and that Miranda took the picture.

But there are plenty of questions here. Was the photo (at that time) a recent one, or from earlier in the relationship? The Guy looks pretty young, at most maybe early college age. Do we assume Miranda is as old as him? If it was a recent photo, is the location near where they live -- wherever that may be -- or are they traveling somewhere (hence the tent)? Who's the the other guy standing behind the tent?

As for what year this photo was taken, I couldn't hazard much of a guess. The T-shirt and shorts wardrobe on display seems like it could be from anytime in the past two decades at least. There's also the fact that Miranda sent an actual, physical photo -- tucked into an envelope, I guess? -- as opposed to emailing or texting it, which might also suggest the early part of this century. I suppose the tents in the photo might offer some clue, but I don't know enough about styles and makes to pinpoint a timeframe.

The most compelling aspect, of course, is Miranda's message to Vicky -- and, by extension, their mother: "I wish I told him I wouldn't go." It's an all-too-familiar story, right? He promised her -- he swore -- that everything would be wonderful if she left her home and family to be with him. For a while, maybe it was. Going wherever they wanted to go, living by their own rules, staying in cheap, scuzzy motels, but that was OK because they had each other and lying in bed watching TV at 2 in the morning after making love felt like absolute paradise. And this is how it would always be, right?

Sorry. I'm being rather crass and snarky here. One certainly hopes that Miranda wasn't enduring physical or emotional abuse at the hands of The Guy, or that they weren't living in severe poverty. Perhaps she simply realized that, when all was said and done, he wasn't as loving, as nurturing, as interesting, as she thought he was. (It's also possible to infer that she may have discovered she was pregnant, which is a whole other matter.)

But clearly, Miranda had regrets, enough to reach out to Vicky, at least, and maybe set in motion a return and reconciliation. Did that happen? Was all forgiven? Was Miranda able to make a decent life for herself? Did The Guy ever try to win her back? Where are they now, geographically and otherwise?

The last question is, how and why did this photo wind up in the book that I pulled out of the Little Free Library?

Maybe this is what happened: After a number of years had passed and Miranda had long since moved on, become settled into a job and her own place, Vicky gave her the photo -- not to tease or ridicule, but as a means of reminding her how far she had come, and of the strength and resilience she'd summoned to rebuild her life.

Miranda was grateful for the thought, albeit a little embarrassed at the memory. But she wasn't quite sure what to do with the photo: It didn't seem right to put it into an album with other family and personal pictures, but she didn't want to stick it in a random drawer, to be completely forgotten.

In fact, she saw Vicky's point that the photo was a testament to her renewal, and so maybe it could serve as an inspirational totem of sorts. So she used it as a bookmark in the various novels or nonfictional works she read (reading more, she'd decided, was an important part of her self-improvement).

Perhaps, at a certain point, she forgot about her special bookmark. Or maybe she just decided that she no longer needed it. And one day, in the midst of getting rid of stuff as she prepared to move to a new place, she unloaded all the books she'd finished, including the one with the photo.

I suppose if I were (A) enterprising and (B) really obsessed, I could make the rounds of the neighborhood near that Little Free Library, knock on some doors, and see if the photo and its inscription might mean anything to the residents there ("Oh yes, Miranda! She used to live a few blocks over. No, I never knew anything about her past").

But that's not going to happen. I'm not that enterprising, nor am I obsessed. Also, I have enough things to do. And you know, maybe some mysteries aren't meant to be solved. (Cue the music.)

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