I was planning to visit my parents for the holidays. They live in the village where I grew up. There were some long holidays around the beginning of May — the 1st of May is Labor Day, and the 29th and 30th of April were moved from other holidays and weekends. My relatives were discussing the possibility of making a trip to the air balloon festival in another town.

Me, being the crybaby that I am, bitched to my friend, "I wish I had a camera lens like yours!" He had bought a new camera the week before with a 75-300mm lens, which allowed you to take photos with a much higher zoom than my 18-55mm lens. He just replied, "Wanna borrow it?" I love him. We had to make some arrangements, though. We had very little time to meet up so I could get the camera from him. I had to return the camera in a few days — he was planning to use it. But he was going to be out of town at the time, and we wouldn't be able to meet up, so he gave me the keys to his apartment. But the end result of all that was that I had a very cool camera in my hands. I was so excited!

I visit my parents quite often, but I rarely walk around town in the winter. Out of the car and straight to the house. And my appearance had changed since the last time I took a walk around town. I had shaved my head first, then I had to grow a beard — I didn't want to look like an egg! And I got glasses. People still recognized me — even those who hadn't seen me for a while. Humans' ability to recognize faces is amazing! Comic books about Superman were clearly lying — you can't just put on a pair of glasses and pretend to be someone else. But I was curious to see how some people would react to my new look.

When I got to my childhood home, disappointing news awaited me: my relatives had decided not to go to the festival. But my friend's camera! And the hoops I had to jump through to get it! He trusted me with his keys! I had to make the best of a bad situation, so I grabbed the camera and went outside. I thought about shooting a bird or something. But the most interesting objects to take photos of were actually cats. There were a lot of them roaming around. One ginger cat was hunting mice in the fields and it looked like a little tiger — so cute!

As I was walking around with the camera, an elderly lady with a concerned face approached me. I had known her since I was a kid. In fact, my older brother and her son were best childhood friends many years ago.

"Hello!" I said.

"Hello!" she replied with a look of worry. "Why are you taking photos of the school?"

Why would I take photos of the school? I had spent a big chunk of my life there. Five years in daycare, nine years as a student. Then I occasionally helped my parents when they were working there. I even worked there myself as a night guard for a few months because my mother couldn't find a replacement for a guard who went on vacation. You'd think I'd seen enough of this school to not want any pictures of it!

"I'm actually taking photos of cats," I replied. "Don't you recognize me? I'm N!"

Her face brightened up. "Oh! How was I supposed to recognize you? Everybody has beards nowadays!"

I laughed out loud.

I was glad my disguise finally worked on someone. And I was also glad that I didn't get beaten up by vigilante neighbors.