Carol Shelton, photographer. A modern woman with an age-old problem. She can make the artistic choices of light and shadow, which capture a lifetime of human pain or grandeur on film. But like each of us, she has trouble sometimes choosing which road of life to travel. Especially when that road winds deep among the shadows of . . . the Twilight Zone.
An ecstatic Carol Shelton and her unsuspecting fiance, Greg, meet for a movie. He asks her why she's late, and she tells him she's just been offered a plum photographer assignment with a worldwide photo agency, her dream job. Greg is fine with it until he finds out that she wants to put off having children for a few years.
He is upset, to say the least, and leaves before buying the movie tickets, kicking over a trash can in his anger. How can she think about her career, when all he wants is to marry her and have kids.
Carol runs after him, and she promises him that she'll think about his concerns before accepting this assignment, since he has a stake in this, too.
The next day she's at the zoo, waiting for a young boy her agency is sending over. She'll take some pictures of the child by the animals as an audition for a magazine layout.
While framing some random shots, she spies a mother arguing with two children. Carol says, "Pretty rough, eh?" The mother says, "Yeah, but it's worth it." (I've been a mother for 28 years and as God is my witness I would never have thought to say something so hackneyed in response to such a stupid comment from a stranger; this is surely one of the silliest lines in the entire history of television and deserved a "Mad's Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" kind of answer).
As she's looking away from the mother and her kids, she see's a young boy smiling at her. Something about him catches her eye.
He seems to know her, and she assumes that he's from the modeling agency. He's asks her to guess his name, and when she says Kenny, he agrees. She's surprised she got it right on the first guess.
She watches him skateboard off, and walks after him, sure that there is something familiar about him.
They stop by the elephant enclosure...
the giraffe pen...
and in front of the flamingo pool she asks a stranger to take their picture.
While taking a rest, she asks him if his parents will want a copy of the pictures she's taken today.
Kenny gets nervous and skates off, disappearing.
She watches him go, wondering why he left so suddenly.
The pictures are developed and he seems to be a natural subject.
And she's still sure she's seen him somewhere before.
Her agency calls, and says that the child who was supposed to meet her that morning had cancelled, so she now knows the boy she met was a stranger. She thinks he's got a lot of spunk, for talking his way into a modeling job.
Later that day, she's looking at a collection of the photos she's taken over the past 10 years, discussing what she should do with her cat, Ansel. (The second silliest line in this episode; only a TV photographer would name her cat after Ansel Adams).
The next day she goes to break the news to Greg that she's decided to take the job. He, predictably, is only worried about himself and his plans. She says, "I thought you knew what you were getting into," meaning that he knew how devoted she was to her career. He answers, with a most selfish comment, "I did, but I thought I could change your mind." They part on good terms, since he's going to go out and find another fiancee, and this time someone who is only interested in babies and keeping house.
She's saying goodbye, and sees Kenny while looking out the window.
He's leaning against a telephone pole outside Greg's apartment.
After stopping at the store, she's bringing in groceries, and is startled when she turns around.
Kenny is standing there in her apartment.
She asks him what he's doing here, and he answers, "You told him no." She asks how he knows that, but he doesn't answer. He says that if she takes that job she'll be gone all the time and he won't get to see her.
She wants to take him home, and asks about his parents. He says she doesn't understand. She asks him how he knew where she lived.
He doesn't answer, and runs out of the apartment. She follows him around a corner...
...which is a dead end, but he's not there.

Kenny has vanished.
The next morning she's accepted the new photo assignment, putting an effective end to her relationship with Greg.
Carol looks out her window and see Kenny on the sidewalk below.

She runs out, looking for him.
He's in a park across the street, and she runs over to him.
She apologizes for upsetting him yesterday, asking too many questions. Kenny says that she already knew the answers anyway. She doesn't understand, and he says "Yes, you do."
After a minute, she does understand. He says his name would have been anything she wanted it to be, since he is the child she would have had, if she'd chosen family over career. Carol says that she will chose a family someday, just not today. Kenny tells her that she might have a boy someday, and she can call him Kenny, but it won't be him.
She apologizes again, and he says he understands. He begins to fade away.
His last words are, "Goodbye, mom." She's left alone, crying.
Telling her boss, as she's about to leave for her first assignment, that she'll get some great pictures...
Carol Shelton faces her life, knowing it was her own choice.
Kenny was simply a dream she's not going to follow, until she's ready.
The song unsung; the wish unfulfilled. Even with the dream in hand, there is the chill of an eternal loss, fading, fading. For every choice made, wrong or right, a thousand alternatives denied. When tomorrow calls, sometimes the heart must be denied. For Carol Shelton, there will be other tomorrows, other joys, and yet, fading, fading, for one trembling instant, she was given the opportunity to take snapshots of an alternate future. Snapshots foever undeveloped, in the darkness of . . . the Twilight Zone.




Last revised: Monday, May 26, 2003

 

 
 Email the Website Owner: Marta Dawes