The Camera Phones

Short Story Day 152 of 365

When the flash mob began the Hallelujah chorus in the mall food court, the camera phones came out instinctively.

Debra took out her phone and video-phoned her sister.

“Hey listen to this, Sis. A group of people – about 50, 60 – just started the Hallelujah Chorus. Here, take a listen.”

She held her phone to stream the chorus, slowly panning the phone to capture as much of the chorus as possible.

A man hoisted his daughter on his shoulders and it blocked Debra’s view and recording session.

“Sorry about that, Sis,” she whispered into the phone. “This jerk in front of me has his daughter on his shoulders. Let me try to get to a better place.”

Weaving in and out of people and bumping into their cameras, Debra got close to a cluster of the singers and continued to transmit the feed.

Debra provided phrase by phrase commentary about how amazing the chorus was.

The chorus finished to thunderous applause and cheering.

“How’d it sound, Sis?”

“Sounded a bit muffled. Somebody – was that you? – kept talking through the whole thing, saying it was awesome and great. I really couldn’t hear the chorus that well and I think your finger was covering part of the camera. Did you record it, Debra?”

“I think I did.”

“Let me call you back.”

Debra hung up and searched her phone for the video. It didn’t exist. She flipped back to the camera app and the red dot was blinking, which meant, she needed to press the Record button a second time to start recording. The blinking red dot indicated Test mode and displayed what the video would look like if it were being recorded.

“All that work for nothing,” Debra said to herself. She phoned her sister again.

“Sorry, Sis. I didn’t hit record. But you still heard it, right?”

“Yeah I heard it.

“You should have been here. It was awesome!”

“So I heard.”