The Silver Mirror

Chapter 3: The Mirror

Aira and her mom drove to several places and stopped at some of them.

One of them was an antique shop that sold several little trinkets and ancient pottery and other random little knickknacks.

Mrs. Hoying went off immediately inside the store to browse and select glass pieces.

“Don’t you think this is a stunning deer collection?” she asked Aira a couple minutes later. A family of glass deer was frozen in place on a slab of glass. In the middle of it was a watercolor painted pond, with miniature glass ducks and plants on it. The deer were grazing in a glassy meadow that had watercolored flowers and trees. (NOTE: D.o deer graze?) Overall, it truly was an exquisite set.

“Yes,” she replied, reaching out a hand to touch a doe.

Her mother pulled it baek. “Remember what happened last time?”

“Right,” Aira said. Slightly embarrassed to be told off, and realizing that the woman who ran the shop had seen the exchange, she looked around for something to conveniently take her attention.

She found the aisle where her mother had just left, and proceeded to stroll down it, forgetting quickly how easily those objects could break.

As she sped past the glass figurines, she turned and ended up in the baek of the shop. It was darker here, with some dust piled up from lackadaisical care. Moth-eaten curtains patched up one area.

Aira brushed away what was left of the curtains, holding baek a sneeze as she did so. Beyond the cloth was a mirror, lying propped up against the corner of the wall.

It wasn’t just any old mirror, Aira realized. It was large, with an elaborate silver border tracing its edges. The reflection glass was lustrous and looked as if it was just polished. She leaned forward, to get a better look at it. Just as she was about to catch a glimpse of herself and her bedhead, a hand grasped her shoulder.

Aira gasped and whirled around, heart pounding.

It was only the shop owner.

Aira felt like she had done something wrong, sure that she would lecture her and drag her baek to her mother in the process. Instead, the storekeeper spoke.

“It’s a pretty thing, isn’t it?” The woman asked, in a strange lilted tone.

“Uh yes,” Aira said uncertainly.

“Would you like to take it home with you? You’ll still have to pay for it though,” The woman added. She brushed her drab beige-colored hair out of her face. Her tone and manner suggested that she was middle aged.

“Sure,” Aira said. She still hadn’t recovered from the shock of the woman sneaking up on her.

“The last person who had this…..Wait, I’m not sure if anyone gave this to me. I think I’ve had it for a while, but don’t remember receiving it. That’s funny...” she trailed off.

Not wanting to be left in a dark, dank corner with the woman as she tried to recall her memory along, Aira hefted up the mirror and said, “Well I’ll go get my mom so we can go.”

It turned out that Mrs. Hoying had bought about half the store. It took half an hour to lug it all baek from the old antique shop to their car, also with the mirror in tow. Aira found herself absentmindedly stroking it as they went home. Shaking her head, she mentally righted herself.

When they got home, Aira went straight to her room without stopping to help her mother unpack. She carefully steered it through her room, though it wasn’t as big as she thought it was. And then she stopped. Where was she going to put it? She looked around her room, and noticed a spare space on the top of her bureau.

It took several tries, but she finally got it on top of her dresser. Perched on top of it, it overlooked her entire room. Every angle of it was reflected in its glossy glass. Aira felt extremely satisfied with herself. She couldn’t have found a better place to put it.

“Dinner, Aira!” Andras shouted from below.

“Coming!” She yelled back. She went charging down the stairs to see what her mother and father had cooked. As she went down, she banged into Choco who was barking madly. “What is it, boy? Is something wrong?” She asked in a sugary sweet voice, scratching his long lush fur. Choco continued to bark at her, and then streaked past her and into the hall where her room was. Aira followed, forgetting about the whole family waiting for her to eat with them. Choco loped into her room, scratching insistently at her dresser, where the mirror was located on top of it.

“No, Choco, be a good boy. Don’t let that -”

Choco swung his legs at the dresser, and the mirror came crashing down.

“No!” Aira exclaimed. She darted forward and caught it just in time.

“What’s your problem, dog?” She shrieked, all sweetness forgotten. Choco had seemed so pleased at knocking it over, and when he saw that it was safe, began barking angrily again.

“Aira!” Her mother stepped into the room. “What’s the matter?” She had her hands on her hips, which was what she had a tendency to do when she was angry.

“Oh, mother, that stupid dog knocked over my mirror!”

Her mother sighed. “That’s still no excuse for making a huge racket.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Aira said absentmindedly. She glared at Choco.

Mrs. Hoying pursed her lips but did not say anything else. “Come on, child. Let’s go eat.”

They left Aira’s room with Choco, and promptly sent him outside with a bowl of his favorite dog food and water.

After dinner, Aira went straight back to her room. Finally she could have a good look at the mirror.

She leaned against one of her dresser drawers and her blonde straggly hair fell over her face. The sleek surface seemed to ripple for the briefest moment before becoming clear again. Aira blinked, and the glass was still. Must’ve been a trick of the light, she thought, just a tad bit uneasily.

In the mirror, her face looked anxious but soon relaxed. It seemed to smooth away the imperfections in her face, giving her a surreal, plastic look. It was almost like looking at yourself into the windows of a car, except that her image wasn’t blurry. It was clear and sharp. It made her eyes look more vulnerable and attractive. The frizziness of her hair wasn’t so much as emphasized, and her eyebrows arched gracefully. She was…beautiful. Well, prettier than she looked in real life though.

 Aira stood there for another five minutes, drinking in her reflection. All her life, she had never been attractive. Never ugly, but just passable. The mirror had changed almost everything about her face in the glass. Her nose was the same, small and pointy. That was probably her best feature.

A noise from her brother’s room quickly brought her back to earth.

She went to her bathroom and brushed up, avoiding the bathroom image of herself. She didn’t want to spoil that image of perfection she had now burned into her brain.

As she was falling asleep, she thought the same question over and over again.

Do I really look like that in real life? Or is that mirror some sort of a hoax?