UPON REFLECTION

                             Upon Reflection.

Every morning was the same routine. Bella rose at 7 am without fail, got dressed for work, had her cup of hot tea and one slice of thickly buttered toast, washed up then headed for the front door. Adjacent to the door was a rather large, antique mirror that didn’t really go with the décor, but she really loved it. She’d found it stuffed away in the dusty corner of the old second hand furniture shop down the road. As soon as she saw it, she felt drawn to it, and had to buy it. There was nothing special about it, apart from the intricate carvings of tiny roses in each corner of the old wood frame. The mirror had obviously been neglected for years, and badly needed a facelift. The mirror itself had a few scratches on it from careless handling she suspected, but that didn’t seem to bother her. The proprietor wasn’t interested in making any money from it because of its appearance, so she negotiated a price suitable to both of them. It was quite heavy she remembered as she picked it up, but managed to carry it home without much trouble, and in one piece.

    Bella had never restored anything before, but how hard could it be? After doing a little research, she bought the materials needed, and set about cleaning and sanding the frame before resurfacing it with fresh varnish. She was quite pleased with it as she stood back to admire her handiwork. The scratches had faded a little too on the mirror after she’d given it a good polish. The only thing left now was to decide where to hang it. After walking around her apartment a few times, trying to imagine it hanging in different rooms, she finally decided it needed to go next to the door, so she could check her appearance before leaving each time. Knowing nothing about hanging mirrors, she quickly found a handyman willing to come and hang it for her. He was quite impressed with it and even offered to buy it from her. Immediately her curiosity was peaked as to why he’d want to buy it.

 “It is quite beautiful now that I’ve restored it, but I really don’t want to sell it, I’m sorry” she told him, but the handyman persisted.

  “I’ll give you a good price for it, more than you paid for it.”

Bella shook her head, again refusing his offer, a little suspicious now of his intense interest in her mirror. “Why do you want to buy it? It’s just an old mirror I found at the second hand shop.” She watched his expression closely as he answered. She could usually tell when someone was being dishonest, or lying. Their body language spoke volumes when you knew what to look for.

He hesitated for a moment before answering her. “It’s just unusual is all. My-my wife would love it for our wedding anniversary, I reckon. Would you take $100 seeing as you spent money fixing it up?”

Bella immediately picked up on his stutter, and he wouldn’t look at her as he answered either, which told her what she wanted to know. Apparently he saw something about the mirror that she’d missed, and he was being very coy about it, but she was smart too. She handed him the agreed amount of cash for his services and politely opened the front door.

 “Thank you for coming so quickly and hanging my mirror, but I’m really not interested in selling it,” she said adamantly, as he stood facing her on the doorstep, his eyes evading hers.

There was an awkward silence for a moment, as he tried to think of another tactic, but finally gave up, and just lamely nodded instead, before striding out through the gate. She watched him drive away out of sight before closing her door again. Bella had an uneasy feeling about him, and didn’t really trust him. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore.

    As the days passed uneventfully, the incongruous mirror gradually began to blend in with the rest of the furniture, without Bella realizing it. Her routine never changed, but she began to notice something different about the mirror as she inspected her appearance. The frame seemed a little more faded then it should be, and there seemed to be a distinct, but faint marking in her reflection. She couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it was very annoying, and no matter where she looked in the mirror, the mark seemed to follow her every move.

 “Hmmm…that’s really strange….” she pondered as she tried to clean it off with a soft cloth. Maybe the coating on the surface was beginning to deteriorate, because after all, it was a very old mirror, probably antique too.

 “Antique! That’s why he was so interested in buying you!” she exclaimed softly, as she continued to polish the mirror. “You’re antique aren’t you, and he knew it! Probably worth a small fortune….but I’m not interested in selling you, I like you too much.”

    As the days grew into weeks, the reflections in the mirror began to change too. Even though her furniture was modern, the images behind Bella’s reflection depicted slightly older style furniture, like her mother used to have. When she looked away, all she saw was the same furniture she’d always had. Every day was the same, but the furniture in the reflections seemed to change until they resembled the antique pieces her grandmother had.

 “Hmmm….how weird is that?” she murmured, as she gazed back at her reflection again. It was all very strange, and she didn’t really understand what was going on, but she was intrigued by it.

    As the reflections of her furniture slowly changed every day in the mirror, Bella didn’t seem to mind the mystery, and the mark was stubbornly still there too. “This is like living in two worlds, how good is that?” she remarked as she studied the reflections more closely. She was intrigued by what she would see every morning when she got up. It was like looking through a window into the past, and she wondered what else would crop up to add to the mystery. She didn’t have to wait long though……

    On checking her appearance in the mirror before going to work one morning, Bella noticed a faint outline surrounding her reflection now. As she slowly moved her head from side to side, the faint image seemed to mimic her.”Now that is intriguing….” she murmured under her breath as she repeated her movements. Again the image followed her every move. She glanced around the room curiously, half expecting to see something, but there was nothing unusual to warrant the strange image. “Hmmm, well I’ll be interested to see what happens in the morning…” she reflected before closing the front door behind her.

    It had rained all through the night, but now the sun was just peeping over the horizon as Bella awoke from a restless sleep, to greet the fresh new day. It was the weekend and she’d planned to sleep in, but it was not to be, so she got dressed and went out to the kitchen to make some breakfast. With her cup of tea in her hand, she wandered down to the mirror to see if anything had changed overnight. Standing just to the side of it, she leaned forward in anticipation, to have a quick, but cautious look. What would she find today? Nothing…. She stood up again and thought for a moment, then suddenly stepped in front of the mirror. To her surprise there was an image of a tall, slim woman, but it wasn’t her! She was dressed in a fine, white silk gown that flowed around her seemingly by itself. A pearl necklace hugged her neck, and there were drop earrings to match adorning her tiny, delicate ears. Her dark hair was pulled back into a loose bun. She was certainly very striking! “Oh…my…God….that’s-that’s not me!” she exclaimed softly. Bella squinted her eyes then slowly raised her hand and waved. The woman waved back, a small, almost cheeky smile curling her lips. “Wow….this is so….weird….cool….weird…” Again she waved and once again the reflection waved back. Every movement she made, the reflection imitated her. It wasn’t her image staring back at her alright, but wondered who this could possibly be, and….how this could possibly be… The reflection in the mirror was now complete, with ornate period furniture filling the room around her, and this woman smiling back at her. Bella thought for a moment then wondered whether she could talk. She felt a little silly asking, but did anyway. “Hello? Can you talk? Who are you and what are you doing in my mirror?” she asked awkwardly, but the woman just mouthed everything she said. Bella raised her hands in a questioning gesture. The reflection did the same. “Well this is not getting us anywhere…” she murmured. “I’ll have to do some research and see if this sort of thing has ever happened before.” She waved hesitantly, and then walked back to the kitchen to turn on her computer.

    Bella sat for an hour scrolling through various websites, but could find nothing even coming close to her situation. “Well I guess there’s a first time for everything” she remarked as she closed down her computer. She sat tapping her fingers absentmindedly on the table as different thoughts started popping into her head.”Hmmmm, well I’m not going to stress over it, and besides, there’s nothing to worry about really. I guess I’ll just have to live with the ‘other woman,’” she giggled to herself. “Here’s a thought though…” she pondered. “I wonder if anyone else can see her.” Grabbing her phone, she called her girlfriend and invited her over for coffee.

    The doorbell rang as Bella was just finishing setting the table for coffee. The moment of truth had finally arrived! Anxious to find out, she hurried to open the door. “Hi Iona, glad you could make it,” she said giving her a hug and a peck on the cheek. “Come on in.”

Iona responded warmly to her embrace then walked into the tiny foyer. “We haven’t seen each other for a while Bella. In fact I was going to call you today, but you beat me to it,” she explained as she hung her bag on the hook behind the door. As she turned again she suddenly noticed the mirror. “Oh! What’s this? This is new. Where did you get it? I love the look of it.” She inspected it more closely, admiring the tiny rose carvings in the corners of the frame. Bella held her breath and waited to see if she could see anything in the mirror that shouldn’t be there. “It’s really lovely Bella, but not really your taste, but it does grow on you,” she admitted.

Bella watched her closely for any obvious signs, and then asked curiously, “so what about the mirror itself? Do you see anything different about it?”

Iona inspected it more closely, and then said, “well yes…”

Bella held her breath again…

 “I can see a few small scratches on the surface, but you can’t really notice them unless you look closely, why? Is there something else I’m missing?

Bella could see her lady in the mirror, but Iona couldn’t, which told her the obvious. Only she could see her! ”No, no…just the scratches, but I’ve learned to live with them,” she said with a knowing smile. “Come on, I have our coffee ready,” she said as she ushered her girlfriend past her. Glancing back at the mirror, Bella gave her a wink, then followed Iona into the kitchen

                                                                     The End.