Reflections

The mirror reflected a young girl, about the age of 14, on horseback, peering out over the ocean as her mare padded along the beach, kicking up sand and saltwater as waves gently settled around its hooves.

With the touch of a finger to the mirror, the scene changed to reflect a young boy, about the same age as the girl on horseback. The boy was seated on the ground, hunched over and weeping. Fire and roaring flames licked at the dark sky in the background. He held the bloodied head of a young girl in his lap as he sat there and cried out in horror and disbelief.

Not able to bear this scene for long, another touch of the mirror shifted the reflection to a grand hall with children seated in ordered rows. Bright daylight flooding in from the ceiling of the hall and sculptures of great figures lining the entire perimeter. The focus of this scene was another young boy of about the same age. His skin a bright yellow hue. His eyes were rolled back in his head, as with all the other children’s behind him, and they were all wearing thin metalic discs on their heads.

The mirror gazer leaned closer to study these children, being so far from her understanding of what people look like. Though over the course of the last few days she has seen all manner of foreign landscapes and species in the mirror, that she could have never imagined existing. She found the mirror in the basement of her grandparents home, tucked away behind a bookshelf, forgotten and abandoned. Initially what attracted her to the mirror was the detailed bas-relief that adorned the frame. The mirror appeared to be just an ordinary mirror. But when she pulled it out and sat directly in front of it, she was not looking at her self any longer but a different teenage girl. This didn’t startle her, as it would startle most young girls, for she immediately understood the meaning of the mirror’s reflection.

Leaning closer to study the yellow boy a bit further she thought how truly odd it was that we all can look so different depending on our place of origin. At this precise moment, the yellow boy’s eyes rolled forward and seemed to be staring right into hers.

Startled by this, she quickly touched the mirror to change the scene again, but only blackness resulted. Panicking now she repeatedly poked at the glass to only get the result of a matte blackness that was as deep and dark as black can be. She was terrified now and in her dismay, shook the mirror with all her might in hopes the scene would change again. She began to cry as she struggled with the dark reflection. She was afraid now and this fear was not unfounded, for she knew the purpose of the mirror. She understood the mirror was only capable of reflecting the person that gazed into it.