Dreams, Secrets, and Transformations: Beyond the Enchanted Looking Glass

Ch 4 Family

Gerald unbuttoned the top button of the slightly wrinkled, untucked dress shirt he was wearing and loosened his tie as he stepped into the hallway.

"Hey Champ! You done with your homework?"

He listened for any sound as he headed for the kitchen.

"Brad? Answer me. You alright?"

Again, he was met with silence.

He stopped in the doorway between the kitchen and dining room and listened for a moment,  then walked briskly back to Brad's room. He called his name again as he reached the door and looked around. He was confused by the scene. A very large,closed packing box in the middle of the floor, and clothes on the bed as though Brad had decided to change.

Where was he?

Gerald turned and looked into his own bedroom and called out again.

"Brad, if you are hiding, you had better come out now. This isn't
funny!"

He returned to the living room and checked again to find Brad still wasn't there. He wasn't in the kitchen either.

Gerald was stumped. As he went back through the hallway he began to wonder if maybe Brad had left the house. Passing by the extra bedroom, Gerald realized he didn't shut and lock the door behind himself when he exited moments earlier.

He reached to pull the door closed and stopped, noticing a glass of water sitting on the dresser.

"No," Gerald gasped, "No, no, no, he couldn't have." Gerald walked over to the mirror and stood there considering his options for a moment. "There's no way," he told himself,  but it was the only logical explanation, so he knew what he was going to have to do.

He turned, opened the closet door and noted that everything seemed to be in place. He also thought about how everything seemed to be that way when he hung up a dress before exiting the room earlier. It didn't appear Brad had been in this closet and found his stash of clothes hanging on a hidden second rail in the back.

So how? He wondered.

Gerald moved some clothes aside giving him access to that deeper part of the closet. He quickly selected a dress and pulled it from inside. He thenreached back in and retrieved a box from the floor.

"Maybe I didn't have to hide all this away from Brad after all?" Gerald mused as he selected a bra, panty, shoes and wig. He hurriedly changed, quickly applied a little make-up, then stepped to the mirror to check his look.

The sleeveless dress was a favorite of his. An above the knee-length, form fitting, red and black colored dress, with a wide belt that made his waist appear smaller. It did little to help here, but once through the mirror he knew he looked great in it.

Once he had the dress on and had slipped his bare feet in a pair of slingbacks, he took a step forward, back through the mirror, and into the small house he had just left less than an hour ago.

Gerald paused for a moment until he had regained the memories of Miranda's life. He loved knowing what it was like having grown up as a little girl and all the memories of her life, while still in the background, holding on to the knowledge of his life as Gerald on the other side of the mirror and how to return to it.

Gerald-now-Miranda immediately realized the memories were a little different this time. There were new ones and some were altered. Miranda now had a daughter she had raised alone since her husband died six years ago and she knew it would soon be time to pick her up from cheer practice at school.

She certainly hoped her daughter had attended school today, otherwise would she be able to find her?

While she waited for time to leave, Miranda whipped up a tuna salad to make sandwiches for supper, something that wouldn't require reheating when they returned, then headed to the bedroom where she took her time applying makeup.