What's Her Story?

On the shuttle to Artfest, I sat next to Maija Lepore. She told me about her article on altering cabinet cards in the latest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. By a weird coincidence, I’d just bought a number of cabinet cards in Seattle the day before intending to alter them in Photoshop. Well, I finally got around to playing with one of the images today.
In her article, Maija mentions that the first thing she does is to ask herself what the story is behind the photograph. I didn’t do that…mine just sort of evolved. But now I’m thinking that it would be interesting to write a story about this mystery woman as evolution always has a purpose in mind.
The lotus flower suits “Margaret” because she has a contemplative expression. She’s dressed plainly too, so I’m thinking she might have had to earn her own living…hence the border of Pittman shorthand scanned from a Charles Dickens’ novella, The Battle of Life, that Mary gave me a few sheets from. I don’t have a clue what the story is about though. I read the first couple of paragraphs online, and all I can say is – it was obvious old Charles got paid by the word. (You work it, boy!) So now I have the beginning of Margaret’s story. Will it be a mystery? A metaphysical romance? Will I be interested enough to find out who she is and where she’s from?