Nazo had spent many hours gazing at the photo on his screen. He had looked at it sober. He had looked at it drunk. He had tried to picture the moment in his mind with his eyes closed. Somehow, he always came to the same surprising conclusion, which is that the photo is not as he remembered the moment.
His next reaction was to assume that he was remembering wrong for some reason. Certainly, his memory must be failing him, and filling in the blanks with nonsense. But still, it felt so authentic and real when he remembered the moment. It felt like he was right there again.
He wondered if it was a conspiracy. Or if someone was playing a prank on him. He wondered about a variety of circumstances that could cause such confusion in a man. But he exhausted them all. There was nothing left to claim.
After many months of trying to solve the riddle, Nazo concluded that this was not something he could readily understand, and was, quite possibly, a characteristic of the world... of the universe. He came to accept that it simply happened because it did, and that it happened because it needed to happen.
In his dreams, he would frequently have episodes related either to the moment of the photograph, or episodes related to his confusion or understanding of the discrepancies. On one occasion, in his dream, he had an epiphany that seemed to explain away all his questions and provide a clear explanation. During the dream, he understood it as clear as a summer sky. It was a fairly lucid dream as well... at one point he had recognized it as a dream, and as what he felt was a vehicle for some kind of divine inspiration. As he felt he naturally understood what happened with the photo, he decided to push deeper. In his dream, he stared at the photo, and then was inside the moment, at that time and place with Biyu.
Nazo felt a rush of emotion with Biyu next to him. In a part of his mind he knew she was dead, yet here she was next to him. He looked at her like he hadn't seen her in years, like a long-lost friend. His heart was full. His eyes glossed with tears. He took her hand and asked where she had been. She didn't say anything. He grabbed her and hugged her. She returned the gesture but still didn't say anything. "Where have you been, my love?"
Biyu looked at him, confused. In the dream, she wore the hat he had bought for her the day before. This detail confused him. He could see the random person who took the photo for them walking by. In Nazo's mind, the original photo was missing the hat. This seems like a minor detail, but it was important to Nazo. He had purchased the hat the day before, while the couple were in Venice, on a vacation. They found a small shop next to the canal just before they boarded a gondola ride. She had been enamored by one particular lavender colored hat. As Biyu exited the shop, Nazo quickly returned to purchase the hat and surprised Biyu by placing it on her head as they stepped onto the gondola. Biyu was not just surprised, but impressed by his stealthiness, and his attention. She loved the hat and wore it immediately.
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The gondola ride lasted about an hour. Somewhere about halfway through, a strong wind blew through the canal and stole Biyu's lavender fedora. It flew several yards from the boat, and was almost immediately soaked by the canal water. Biyu made a loud sound, and pointed to the hat. Their Italian captain seemed dismayed by this turn. He tried to turn the gondola and retrieve the hat, but he was too late. By the time they arrived at the spot, it was underwater and he could not discover it below the surface. Nazo was terribly disappointed and upset. They did, however, set their attention toward the rest of the gondola cruise. When they departed the boat, they were both in a positive, though sober mood, having lost the artifact of Nazo's loving gesture.
Nazo could not resolve how Biyu could have lost the hat to the canal, but also still be wearing it? Did she purchase another when he wasn't aware? But it wasn't in the photo? Were there two photos? One with, and another without the hat? In his dream state, he accepted that there were two realities, one where she lost the hat and the photo was hatless, and another where she didn't lose the hat, and it remained in the photo. This made sense to his sleepy psyche.
When he awoke, Nazo was a bit disturbed by his dream. His conscious, logical mind tried to reign in some kind of understanding. But it only left him more confused, and created a deeper struggle to understand. His tablet was on his nightstand, and he immediately pulled up the photo, and he gazed at it in his sleepy stupor. He tried to make a leap between his conscious mind and his dream awareness, but couldn't.
Nazo recalled that their Italian holiday was just weeks before the Piano Solo coup attempt in Italy. He remembers them getting their film developed, and when they picked up the photos, the clerk commented about how they just missed the coup attempt. Nazo had read in the paper about the attempt, and felt lucky that they missed the whole event. Now, he felt this was an important detail. He tried to look up the Piano Solo coup online, and found... nothing. No mention of it. He remembered Piano Solo because it sounded like some kind of music. But he could only find solo piano music, and when he searched Italian and Italy, he could only find musical pieces by Vivaldi, Respighi, Puccini, Frescobaldi, and others.
Nazo's mind became erratic again. He could not process or reconcile the difference between his memory and the research he was doing. None of it added up. Instead of confirming his memory, it seemed to unravel more questions. What were his memories, he thought? Were they real? Or imagined? Was he remembering things from dreams long past?