Caught On Camera

MODERN LIFE SHORT STORY BY LESLEY-ANNE JOHNSTON

How would George and Catherine feel about this sudden attention?

“The strangest thing just happened to me,” George declared, placing his hat on the kitchen counter.

Cassi raised her head to acknowledge her father, whose arrival into her kitchen had occurred without so much as a friendly hello.

“In what sense?” she asked, stuffing a freshly prepared lunch box into her teenager’s backpack.

“Well,” George began, “everyone I passed by on the way over here stopped to say hello to me.”

It wasn’t unusual for Cassi’s father to over-dramatise situations, but even by his standards this felt extreme.

Cassi’s mum Catherine, who had been enjoying breakfast with her daughter, laughed, spraying crumbs of toast across the table

“I know these modern times can be trying,” she said, taking a drink of tea, “but who knew good manners would become such a problem?”

Cassi smirked, her mother’s knack for sarcasm never failing to entertain.

George sighed, filling his daughter’s kettle and placing it back in its holder.

“This was different,” he explained, “The odd hello from folk I recognise – dog walkers, postmen – I can understand. But teenagers?”

“How is it strange that a couple of teenagers said hello to you?” Cassi asked, finding her father’s confusion comical.

“Not a couple of them,” George explained. “At one point a whole bus load knocked on the window and waved at me.”

George scraped a chair along the kitchen floor, grabbed a slice of buttered toast from his wife’s plate and took a bite.

“Maybe,” Catherine said, swatting his hand away and pulling the plate closer, “they were trying to tell you about the empty crisp packet stuck to your shoe.”

George studied his feet, before removing the offending item he had failed to realise was attached to the sole of his shoe.

“Maybe,” he said sheepishly. “Why couldn’t they just tell me that, then?”

Cassi sighed, knowing all too well the mysteries of the teenage mind.

“Ewan!” she yelled loudly, throwing her teenage son’s school bag into the hallway. “You’re going to be late if you don’t get a move on!”

Ewan slouched into the kitchen, eyes fixed on his phone screen, a low hiss of music emanating from the earphones wedged in his ears.

Mumbling a distracted hello, he grabbed a Pop Tart from the cupboard before slouching back out the door he had entered.

Cassi smiled.

“Teenagers are tricky creatures, Dad. You’ll waste a lot of daylight questioning their motives.”

George sighed.

“I suppose you might be right.”

Cassi smiled, watching her parents bicker over the pile of toast.

She often wondered if they knew how much daft moments like these meant to her and how much she appreciated the closeness they all shared.

Despite living across town, Cassi’s parents were regular visitors, popping over for breakfast or a chat.

She enjoyed the way they fussed over her, while giving her space to make her own decisions.

The situation also worked well for Ewan, who enjoyed watching Sylvester Stallone films with his grandfather, or helping him create wonderful wooden works of art in the hut at the bottom of the garden.

It was a hut George had built himself, despite having plenty of space in his own garden.

Cassi’s father was often found there throughout the day, tinkering away on some new creation.

Ewan’s grandmother’s presence was also much appreciated, as she shared her wealth of DIY knowledge.

At the very least, his grandparents being around helped to distract Ewan from his device – for a little while.

“Would you like to join us for a wander around the shops?” Cassi asked her dad, joining her parents at the table.

George shook his head.

“No, love, you two enjoy yourself,” he said, grabbing the keys to the hut and making his way to the back door.

Later that day, Cassi and her mother were wandering along the tray slide of the supermarket café when it became apparent something odd was going on.

“Am I being paranoid,” Catherine asked, leaning closer to her daughter, “or are we being watched?”

Cassi glanced around the café.

Shoppers were enjoying a light meal, chatting to friends and family, paying no attention to the mother and daughter at the till.

“I don’t think so,” she replied, wondering if her father’s paranoia from earlier had somehow attached itself to her mother now.

“They are!” Catherine hissed, subtly nodding her head in the direction of the large windows overlooking the car park.

Standing outside, a large group of teenage girls had gathered and were staring through the glass, directly at Cassi and her mum.

Cassi frowned.

“They’re probably looking for their pals,” she said, placing a slice of carrot cake on the tray and sliding it along. “This place is full of school kids at lunchtime.”

Despite the logic of her answer, Cassi couldn’t help feeling slightly unnerved by the situation, as teenage eyes followed them from the till into their seats.

Something about the sudden attention did feel highly unusual.

Still, she was sure there must be a simple reason for it.

“They look about Ewan’s age,” Catherine said, craning her neck to look at the crowd and waving cheekily, much to their delight.

“Well, that’s what it will be then,” Cassi replied. “They probably know Ewan and recognise us as his family. It’s nothing.”

Although it sounded sensible, she had to admit the attention didn’t feel like nothing.

In fact, a portion of the girls arrived in the café and began discreetly snapping selfies of themselves with Cassi and her mother from a safe distance.

For a moment she imagined this was how movie stars felt, persistently hounded by the paparazzi.

It felt odd.

Thankfully, her mum hadn’t noticed this new level of attention, her eyes remaining focused on the gaggle of girls staring through the window.

“You’re probably right,” Catherine concluded, pouring milk into her mug of tea.

“Imagine if we actually were famous, though. Wouldn’t that be a thrill?”

Cassi mumbled in agreement, watching in bewilderment as the teenage paparazzi skipped away happily, their attention on the pictures they were now uploading to their devices.

Something strange was going on, that much was certain, and there was only one person Cassi knew who could help make sense of it.

“All right, Mum?” Ewan grunted, dumping his school bag on the floor and opening the fridge. “What’s for dinner?”

“I’ll get to that,” Cassi replied, closing the fridge door and directing her son to the table. “I need your advice about something.”

Ewan studied his mum carefully, searching his memory for a reason why he might be in trouble.

He decided the best policy was to stay silent until presented with an accusation.

“Is your school encouraging you to pay more attention to your elders?”

She’d wondered if perhaps the attention her parents had received today was linked to a school project.

It felt like a logical reason.

“Not particularly,” Ewan answered. “Why?”

Cassi frowned, wondering if she was being ridiculous.

After explaining herself to Ewan, it became apparent by the look on his face that there may actually be more to this situation after all.

“What is it?” she asked, sensing her son’s hesitation,

“Promise you won’t get mad?” he said, placing his phone on the table.

Cassi didn’t like the sound of this.

“I just thought it would be fun to show my pals how cool they were, you know?” he said. “They make great content!”

Cassi frowned, unsure what her son was insinuating.

“Content?” she asked. “Do you mean . . .?”

Ewan nodded, unlocking the phone and bringing the social media video app he was obsessed with to life.

Cassi gasped, realising what her son had done.

“No!” she exclaimed.

Ewan looked sheepish.

“Yes. Gran and Gramps have gone viral.”

Grabbing the phone from Ewan’s hand and scrolling through the multiple short videos on the screen, Cassi was shocked to learn her son had created a regular show of her parents.

Clips of her father crafting a toy boat were interspersed with ones of her mother teaching Ewan DIY skills.

Every video had clearly been filmed without their knowledge and uploaded without their permission.

Most worryingly of all, they appeared to be gaining a lot of attention, with likes and comments reaching into the thousands from all corners of the globe.

Cassi was speechless.

Her son had turned his grandparents into social media personalities.

“You need to take it all down….” she began, as her parents entered the kitchen from the back door.

“Take what down?” George asked, sensing that he and his wife had walked into a situation.

An awkward silence hung in the air as Cassi and Ewan stared at their hands, waiting for the other person to take the lead with an explanation.

In the end, Ewan was the one to speak up and explain the reason behind his grandparents’ new-found popularity.

“So all these videos are being watched by all these people?” Catherine asked, scrolling through Ewan’s phone.

Ewan nodded, failing to make eye contact with his grandparents.

“And folk like this stuff?” George asked, watching a clip of himself buying tools at the local home improvements shop. “It’s just me buying wood.”

Cassi sighed, rubbing her head.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve told him that it’s not OK to take or post videos of people without their knowledge –”

“You know,” Catherine cut in. “You haven’t got a video of me showing you how to defrost a freezer. That’s a handy life skill.”

“Yes,” George continued. “And you could film me fixing up that ottoman in the hut.”

Cassi stared at her parents, stunned.

“You’re not angry?” she asked.

“Not at all,” George replied. “I’m practically the new Jay Blades here.

“The BBC will be asking me to host ‘The Repair Shop’ now.”

Cassi was amazed as she watched her parents being drawn into the world of social media celebrity.

“They might ask me to be on the celebrity ‘Bake-off’ now!” Catherine exclaimed, excited by the prospect of an imagined moment in the tent of all tents.

Cassi groaned, picturing her mother cosying up to Paul and Prue in her head.

Her parents’ ability to embrace their new-found fame was entertaining.

Ewan had no idea what he was letting himself in for, which in some ways felt like punishment enough.

And if her parents were willing to embrace their celebrity status, then so could she.

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