obscure

the other night i found my great-uncle's camera, it looked much like an ordinary camera; black and scuffed around the edges, but for a couple of odd features; in places it was inlaid with mother of pearl plates, which were engraved with arabic writing, it also could take pictures of the past.
As the shutter clicked you would get a glimpse of a scene that occured in the same place maybe ten years ago, perhaps forty. Strange figures would appear in the lens, furniture would be moved or replaced with something older. There was no way to tell which slice of the past the camera would pull into sight.