One Shot Story – The Showdown

The local train to Keelung was a slow, 40-minute crawl. I hadn’t stepped out of Taipei for about 3 months now seeing as there is so much going on in the capital city. I’d heard about Keelung from a few of my students and some of my office coworkers. They piqued my interest and I wanted a reason to get on a train. I arrived in the early afternoon and immediately exited the station to find the harbor. Once I arrived at the harbor, I was greeted with eagles enjoying the afternoon sun by riding the warm drafts coming off the port. They danced and swirled in a performance which was enthralling a small group of onlookers, myself included. I put my camera away for a few moments to enjoy the sight of floating golden birds playing in the light. They slowly flew off behind some of the nearby buildings which left me with nothing but a sense of wonder I so often search for. But that did not last too long and the city pulled me back in.

I bumbled about for an hour before stumbling onto a set of backstreets which climbed up the hills behind the city. The street wound up the hills with tiny little staircases. The landings at the top of each set of steps led to a strip of doorways for the small apartments which were embedded into the hill. Each landing provided a small balcony which overlooked the city from a new vantage point. I kept stopping at each landing , getting progressively more of the city into view as I went up in elevation. For most of the climb, I was the only visitor to these hidden steps off the main road. That was until I looked up from the steps and saw a midnight black cat staring into my soul a few steps from me. The little guy looked away from me for a short second into an open door nearby where I could hear the sound of a tv spilling out into the public. The chatter was not decipherable and the cat, seeing an easy escape route I guess, relaxed and continued to drill their eyes into me. I had Fomo 100 loaded into my Olympus Pen D and fired off two shots. I walked closer and the cat continued to silently stare at me, unmoving. I walked up to it and its eyes never blinked. I thanked him for letting me take his portrait and I was met with nothing more than two green eyes burning holes into mine. I continued up the hillside and turned to find that my feline subject had vanished as if never having been there in the first place. 

I’ve recently rejoined  Instagram to share new photos, take a gander if you have a moment, and if you are in the Taipei area feel free to reach out.

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