1The mirror was so beautiful. She knew she must have it from the first time she saw it. How
ornate it was. She smiled at it's very presence which now dominated the room
in every way, no matter where she stood it demanded her attention.
LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME, LOOK INTO ME.
Surely there had never been anything look into that mirror that could outweigh it's beauty.
How sad that the items we surround ourselves with nowadays have so little value. So easily
disposed of and replaced. So simple and bland in design. No heart, no soul, no creativity, no
love of the artist put into it. Like each object projects death instead of life.
As she stood in front of it, everything reflected looked different. Not distorted. Not warped as
one would expect from such an old looking glass. The colors were more vibrant. Outlines more
defined. That which was not, appeared three dimensional.
Sarah blinked her eyes. Gone. The illusion within the ornate frame was gone. Leaving her to
believe she was overtired, over imaginative.
She dressed for bed, occasionally glancing at the mirror sitting in the corner of the off her
bedside lamp, she slid beneath the covers, and rolling over to put her back to the mirror, she
drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
As she slept, Annie, Sarah's feline companion, padded into the room. She slowly, cautiously
crept her way closer to the mirror. Something new. Curious. Smells funny. Smells awful.
Smells wrong. The fur on Annie's tail and back begins to bristle, and she lets out a loud hiss
before backing away into opposite corner of the room.
Sarah, hearing Annie's protest, awoke with a start to see the little cat cowering in the corner
opposite the new mirror, her eyes fixed upon it...she hissed again. Thinking that her furry four
legged friend was only responding to her own reflection, Sarah giggled.
"Silly kitty, Annie, It's just you!" She climbed out of bed and walked over to Annie hoping to
calm her down. It was then that she saw what Annie was afraid of.
In the mirror...
Like a ripple on a pond...
Or a shadow in the fog...
Both at the same time, and yet neither.
A chill ran up Sarah's spine. The reflection in the mirror, should be her bedroom, but was not.
The image of a garden appeared in the glass. A beautiful garden in full summer bloom. Bushes
and flowers. Birds and butterflies. Trees heavily laden with fruit.
A garden like a fairy tale.
"What in the world?" Sarah looked behind her impulsively, expecting to find where the image
could stem from.
"Absurd!" she said to herself. "Of course there is no garden there!"
It was then that she noticed as she slowly approached the mirror, that she herself was not
reflected in the glass either. It had become more like a window. Sarah could feel her heart
pounding. Her hands were shaking. Annie hissed again before darting out of the room was
tempted to follow her. Very tempted.
But curiosity got the better of her, and she walked up to the mirror, standing directly in front of
it.
The light of the sun warmed her face. A gentle breeze blew her hair. The smell of flowers of a
dozen varieties filled her nose. She could hear the calls of birds and perhaps the gentle sound
of a small stream. As beautiful as a dream.
"Yes, this is a dream...A wonderful dream."she whispered under her breath and proceeded to
walk into the mirror, into the peaceful garden.
The instant she felt the cool grass and damp earth on her bare feet she knew this was real. So
very real. All around her the most vivid colors, so full of life.
She stepped back. Once. Twice. Again.
She turned looking for the mirror behind her.
Nothing but an endless display of trees, bushes and flowers.
She walked and walked the stone path throughout the garden. Never reaching it's borders, and
never finding the mirror. Never seeing the sign of another soul. Sarah sat down on a stone bench
and began to cry. Never had she felt so horribly alone. Not knowing what to do, or where to go,
she sat there for a long time.
The garden never changed from day to day. As if unseen hands were tending to it's perfection.
The flowers were always blooming. The fruit trees always in abundance.
Days . Months turned into years. Sarah kept track of every day by marking lines in the trees.
10 years.
10 years since she had walked into the mirror.
She had not aged a day according to her reflection in the stream, and walking in the garden naked
held no consequence when one is alone. She had long since shed her clothing that quickly turned
to rags.
It was in the early morning, as she bathed in the stream, that she heard a sound. Distant, yet familiar.
"Hello! Anyone there?"
Tears of joy ran down her face as she ran towards the sound of the voice.
From her hiding place in the bushes, she saw him. A man, about her age. He was fully clothed and
looking distraught and confused.
Sarah, looking down at her nakedness, realized she could not be seen this way. She quickly fashioned
a covering out of some large leaves and wrapped it around her waist. Using her hands to cover her
breasts, she stepped out into the open, and he saw her for the first time.
He gasped at the sight of her. "Um...hello there. My name is Michael. I know this is going to sound really
crazy, but I just walked into a mirror..."