One Golden Summer

“A great photograph makes you think you know the subject, even if you’ve never met. A great photo reaches out and pulls you inside the moment, so you can feel, smell, and taste it. And this, by all accounts, is a great photo. I stare at it, and just like that, I’m seventeen.”

When Alice Everly revisits her old photograph “One Golden Summer,” she rediscovers her innate passion for photography. The photo depicts a joyful scene from Alice’s adolescence, capturing what she believes all good photography should: purity, honesty, and truth. Studying this photo catalyzes Alice’s journey to Barry’s Bay and towards personal growth.

“Work is what’s kept me together these past six months. Or at least I thought so. But as soon as Willa leaves, exhaustion slams in. I sit on the floor of my studio, rubbing my fingertips against my temples. I’ve taken on so many assignments to keep busy, but I took this one for me. And it backfired.”

Alice’s body language after her Swish photo shoot conveys her professional stress. She has to sit down to collect herself and pushes her fingers into her temples—gestures that reflect the emotional strain the job is causing her. Further, she experiences her professional exhaustion as a “slamming” force—figurative language that shows the weight Alice is experiencing as a result of her compromising assignment in physical terms.

“The cottage is perched just above the water, and the entire front of the space is glass. I stand there, shaking my head at how beautiful it is. And just like that, I’m seventeen again, dressed in a terry cloth bathing suit cover-up with a camera strapped around my neck. I’m free from Trevor, from suggestions of cellulite, from the sense that I haven’t taken a photo that feels like me in months.”

As soon as Alice returns to John’s cottage in Barry’s Bay, she begins to discover The Transformative Power of Place. She spent a summer at the cottage when she was a teenager. Returning to this physical environment thus reawakens her adolescent memories. She’s able to channel the freedom and inhibition of her youth, while shedding the stress and heartbreak of her adult life in Toronto. This scene foreshadows how Alice’s summer in Barry’s Bay will gradually remake her into a more assured, grounded version of herself.