Watching Her

Chapter 4

With both her bedtime and morning routine over the next week, it drove her mad they all followed the same pattern as before. Lucy would sit there with growing confusion and anticipation of her Reflection calmly sitting in front of her smoking. The smoke dancing out of her lips and nose, her face muscles clearly showed how much she enjoyed the cigarette whilst Lucy busily got herself ready for bed and then again in the morning putting the make up on getting ready for work.

Sleeping at night was hard, as all she could think of was her Reflection and of the smoke drifting out her mouth, every time she rolled over. She could see a waterfall of smoke pouring out of her own lips. She was petrified. She knew that she did not smoke.

Lucy was surprised how much older her face looked in the mirror, she had double checked in both the mirror in her bathroom and the mirror in the toilets at work, she definitely hasn't aged ten years in the week since she moved in. She may have felt knackered carrying the furniture around, but it was not real. She pondered if it was something like a circus mirror.

Talking of mirrors, she couldn't think of anything else, other than her new annoying mirror. On the following Wednesday she was sitting outside on the bricked wall surrounding some poorly looking plants in the courtyard at work as she was enjoying a brief dose of sun on her face at lunch before heading back inside. Her long-term friend and colleague Tammy clicked her fingers and brough Lucy out of her mirror-filled daydream.

"Hey you, hello?" She giggled as she annoyingly waved her hand in front of Lucy's face. "You look possessed!" she grinned.

"Oh, don't you start" she grinned and then chewed on her sandwich. Tammy raised an inquisitive eyebrow and then took a gulp from her bottle of Iced Tea.

"Go on?"

"You know my new house?"

"Yeah, you have spoken of little else for the last six months, yeah?"

"Well...actually it's...it's my...." she looked around and then nervously bit her cheek...actually...I am just thinking about my boiler. Boring hey?" She replied as the words 'my mirror is possessed' sounded ridiculous in her head.

"How difficult is the boiler?"

"Err, my Dad says it's old, and I need to rip it out and replace it soon with a modern Combi boiler. Apparently!" she rolled her eyes.

"Oh...I see."

"Yeah, tell me about it. I think the manual was written in Chinese and then translated in German and then into English. I just can't understand how to get hot water."

Tammy with her eyebrow still raised shook her head in disbelief "So when are we going to get to see the house?" Changing the topic away from things beyond both their knowledge and then taking a gulp of her can of Lipton Iced Tea.

Lucy bit her bottom lip "Oh not for a couple of weeks, it's really not fit for a housewarming party yet."

"Oh, okay, I was looking forward to having a nosy around!" Tammy replied.

"Yeah, I got lots of work to do, painting and stuff!"

"Oh right" she glanced at her silver watch on her wrist. "We better get back in, or we will start to smell of Liam and Simons, ciggies if we are not careful!" she said glancing across at the two of them sitting on the other matching brick planter inhaling on their cigarettes, the smoke was drifting their way.

"Yeah..." Lucy said as she shuffled off the wall and turned her head and paused for a couple of fascinating seconds and watched as her two male colleagues both hurriedly pulled on their cigarettes.

She hovered by the wall as she dug in her handbag, flipped open her compact and reapplied her lipstick and then followed Tammy in.

***

Lucy slowly drove home in her now quasi-permanent induced daydream. She tried to shake herself out of it as she knew she had to wake up soon when she started driving home in the wrong direction, her old routine had kicked in. She was on autopilot heading towards her parents' house. That made the commute home even more irritable than normal, especially as there was a yellow campervan tailgating her most of the way. She eventually got to drive past the corner shop where there was a convenient and drive-in parking spot, she quickly made the decision to stop.

She was proud of herself as she managed to reverse park and as she put the handbrake on, she turned the rear-view mirror and intensively studied her face, her makeup was fine, she lifted her lips clear of the teeth and they were free of lipstick. She was only going into the corner shop to buy a bottle of wine for the evening. But still appearance was everything. She thought after a successful day, she deserved the wine.

Lucy mooched down the aisles of the small supermarket keeping an eye out for yellow sticker offers, living on her own again she got the feeling it was like being at university, that where she could, she must cut costs at every opportunity. Soon her little basket was loaded with rice, peppers, chicken, a bottle of white wine and a large chocolate bar.

As she made her way to the checkout she stopped. She looked at the tobacconist and lottery counter to the side. All she could think about was the goldy-yellow pack of Benson and Hedges on the reflected dressing table in the mirror, that wasn't actually there. She just couldn't get the picture out of her head. She twisted to the left and right on her heels as to which checkout to head to. The image implanted on the back of her brain jumped to that of the mysterious smoke enticingly pouring out of her mouth and nose that was pulling at her, she flipped her toes to the left and headed to the tobacco counter.

The shop assistant zapped her goods and dropped them in a bag, "Anything else for you?"

"Err," she looked around her and saw a bright yellow advert beside her for the latest Bee themed scratch card "Two lucky dips on tonight?" Lucy asked, trying to delay the inevitable.

"Sorry love, there is a draw on tomorrow?"

Lucy shook her head "Oh, yes that will be fine, not that I will win!" She frowned and then nervously smiled as she shifted her weight from foot to foot.

"Anything else for you today?"

Lucy knocked her toes together in her shoe as she actively thought of an answer "Err, a pack of... B&H" she asked nervously, doubting if that was what she was meant to say.

"Gold's love?"

"Err, yeah of course, sorry!" She admonished herself and tapped her hand on her forehead.

With an audible gulp at the additional cost, Lucy paid up and made her way back to the car. She dumped the bag on the passenger side seat and then breathing deeply struggled to get the key in the ignition as she stared at it in the plain white box with a dark awful picture of lung with a cancerous cell looking back at her. Contrasting to the juicy healthy yellow pepper it was leaning against. She bit her lip 'The one in the reflection was golden yellow, shite!' She contemplated that it would be wrong.

***

Lucy got home, bent down, and picked up the post addressed to the previous occupant off the thick horsehair matt. Kicked her heels off and pottered into the kitchen to put the food in the fridge, and then poured herself a glass of wine. She held the pack of cigarettes firmly in her hand as she headed up stairs and attempted to get herself sorted. She sat at the dressing table, with the now half full glass of wine in her hand and stared at the mirror, and her normal reflection stared back. She had spent what felt like ten minutes after moving the tampon box to the bathroom trying to guess where the cigarette pack had been previously in the reflection. The mirror now was just being a mirror, whatever she moved, the reflection was normal. She turned off the lamp and with a shake of the head and defiant snort Lucy got up, unbuttoned her blouse, dropped it on the bed and picked up the large grey t-shirt and as she put it on, she headed back downstairs to continue getting her stir fry ready for dinner leaving everything in place on the dressing table.