The Mirror

Mira’s wedding day was the happiest day of her life, until the day her daughter was born a year later. Holding her newborn in her arms, marveling at her full head of black curly hair, she told her husband, Doug, she could never love anyone as much as she loved baby Selene.

She expected Doug to say he felt the same way, but he was oddly silent. Mira was too caught up in the awe of new motherhood to really notice, but looking back later, that was when it all started to change.

By the time she found the mirror at a garage sale, her happily ever after with Doug had turned into something of a nightmare. Her once-doting husband had become a detached and disinterested father. Whoever would have thought a grown man could be jealous of a baby? But he was, and nothing was the same after that. Mira was grateful he at least didn’t put his hands on Selene; she just wished she could say the same for herself.

The mirror was propped against a box labelled “free” at a garage sale down the street from their house. She was walking Selene around the cul-de-sac in her stroller and hadn’t planned to buy anything, but it caught her eye and “free” was the perfect price. She thought it would fit nicely in that one odd spot in the living room where nothing ever looked right, so she brought it home.

Mira caught herself glancing at the mirror whenever she passed through the room. She wasn’t in the habit of gazing at her own reflection, especially not lately, so it wasn’t vanity that drew her to it. It was something else, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

That is, until the day she paused at the mirror to get a closer look at the fresh bruise near her eye. It throbbed painfully, so she expected it to be quite large, but the face that looked back at her was blemish free.

Mira frowned as she pressed a tentative finger to the bruise. The pain made her wince, but her reflection’s finger was pressed to smooth skin. And then, her reflection did something truly unexpected; it smiled at her.

Mira gasped and stepped backwards, and her reflection did the same. What was happening here? Were her eyes playing tricks on her? But then, her reflection beckoned her to come back to the mirror, looking past her stealthily, as if making sure that Doug was not in the room.

Feeling wildly disoriented, Mira couldn’t help but do what her reflection wanted. She stepped closer, then put her ear to the glass as her reflection leaned towards it, hands cupped around her mouth as if ready to share a secret.

Doug was never able to track down where Mira and Selene had disappeared to, and neither could the police. They let him know the husband is usually the most likely suspect and they’d be keeping an eye on him.

Doug couldn’t even escape the feeling of being surveilled in his own home. For the rest of his life he swore whenever he passed through his living room, especially in that one weird corner with the mirror, he got the feeling he was being watched.

Many years later, when Doug passed away, a woman none of the neighbors recognized, with striking dark curly hair, came to deal with the contents of the house. She put everything out on the curb with a sign marked “free.” The only thing she took with her was an old mirror that she said had sentimental value to her mother.