Mirror Mirror

Chapter 3

Sarah started down towards the door wondering who it could be.  She hoped that it wasn’t Mickey, but after looking through the tiny peephole, she saw that it was.  Mickey was short for Michaela.  Michaela Thompson and short she was.  Short of height, short of breath and often, Sarah thought, short of brain cells.  Mickey had the tendency of ending up in the places she was least expected to.

She was what most people would call, dim-witted and Sarah had nastily told her many times before, a bit too dim.

She closed her eyes, preparing herself for an onslaught of words and swung back the door, opening it with a plastic smile, and that was what she got.  With a quick glance over her shoulder, Mickey started firing at her; “I heard you went down to the auction earlier.  It has everyone talking ... something about a looking glass or ...” her voice trailed off as she caught sight of Stephen coming down the stairs.

Ah . . . Stephen.  Mickey had the biggest crush on him, and one of the longest, which had lasted through their entire schooling career till now.  Dressed in a shocking pink floral top teamed with neon green tights and stilettos, although perfect for the weather, she looked every bit, lost in the eighties.

 ‘Rich and brainless,’ Sarah thought wickedly, ‘Can’t have it all!’  And turning to Stephen, she rolled her eyes and battered her eyelashes, mischievously.

He ignored Sarah keeping his hands in his pockets as he greeted her. 

“Hey, Mickey.”  He said, silently hoping she wouldn’t start with her sad attempts at flirting.  She did.

Twirling strands of hair between her fingers, she began,

“Oh! Hi, Stephen, you’re looking yum as always.  I just came by to see Sarah here.  Heard she paid a steep price for some silly old mirror.  Hell, I could have gotten her plenty nicer ones from the old man Jacobs down town.  Oops! I said hell! Oops! I did it again!”

Sarah cut her short before she went on.

“Enough! Mickey, who did you hear it from?”

Mickey was also known as the town tabloid.  She spread gossip faster than a veld fire.  Two pairs of curious eyes turned towards her.

Mickey quickly turned a shade of purple. She gasped again for breath and, after her previous tirade of words she needed one, so she took another deep breath and started.  “Well, Terry’s sister Pam was there, and she told Terry who told the Jeffery twins - that you almost knocked an old woman off her seat to get some old mirror, and then Sally and I heard it from Mrs. Possom my next door neighbour.  There! Now they all wanna come over and see it, and I didn’t wanna be left out.”  She smiled, pleased with herself and still breathing quite heavily.

Sarah looked at Stephen in disbelief, shaking her head slowly while trying to take it all in. ‘Knocked some old woman off her seat! That sure spread fast.’ Sarah thought miserably.  She had wanted to keep her mirror a secret for a while, until she could discover more about it.

Actually, she had wanted to flaunt it, but only after she could verify the authencity of it.  She didn’t want to explain or show it to anyone now, and it somehow looked too new to be so old.

Stephen turned to Mickey.  “You didn’t leave anything out, did you? You picked up all of this . . . in just a few short hours?” He waved his hands for emphasis.

She was shaking her head, “Well, I didn’t mean to spoil it for her with my timing but . . . you know, Mrs. Possom mentioned something about an old. . .” The word stuck in her throat.  She swallowed hard almost squeaking on the word, “Curse.”  Then quickly added, “I only wanted to see it.”