Love at Lake Asa

Anna sensed the hidden world all around her. Sometimes she heard whispers when she brushed past a bookshelf. Other times, she would feel vibrations when she touched a table. She felt this other realm strongest at her aunt’s antique store. This was one of Anna’s favorite places and she volunteered to work there every chance she had.

Anna enjoyed helping her aunt. She was a fun, loving woman who raised her after she lost her parents as a baby. In the shop, the two of them enjoyed discovering old objects and fabricating stories about their pasts.

The only other place she loved in the same way was faraway, a place that she saw in her dreams. A mystery lake in the mountains—Lake Asa. She yearned to travel there but didn’t understand why. She tried to locate it once, but couldn’t find it on any map.

In the shop, she hoped to find a portal to another realm, like the children in the books she enjoyed reading. She thought maybe, just maybe, she would open an ancient piece of furniture and step into Narnia or stumble into Fillory.

One day, while dusting the antiques in the shop, Anna was musing about hidden objects and dreaming of magical worlds when she noticed an object she hadn’t seen before: an old silver hand mirror. 

Excited to find a new treasure, she examined it. Even tarnished, the scrollwork around the edges was intricate and delicate—beautiful. Roses and butterflies framed the mirror and flowed down into a braided vine handle.

“Auntie, when did this arrive?” Anna asked, holding up the mirror. She searched for her aunt pricing new arrivals at the front of the store.

“Hmm? I have the new things up here, Anna. That must have come in last week.” Her aunt didn’t look up. 

Well, Anna was sure she would have noticed it. She always noted the new arrivals, and she knew she hadn’t seen this one because she hadn’t given it a story yet. 

She gave every object a story and then organized it in the shop by category. For example, she put the formerly-owned-by-royalty pieces to the sides; forbidden-lovers’-gifts she featured in the front; possibly-cursed-by-witches’ objects she hid in the back; and borrowed-fairy-heirlooms later found in attics she scattered throughout in the store. 

Anna peered at her reflection. She would ask her aunt later if she could keep this mirror. Sometimes her aunt let her have things she desired as compensation for her help.

She attempted to tame her dark hair. Her curls had a mind of their own, and especially in the summer heat, they flew off in every direction. As she tried her best to subdue her wild locks, she eyed something on the table behind her. 

Sitting on the table’s edge—bold as could be—was a mouse. She let out a shriek. “Eek!” and whirled around. But the mouse was gone; it must have scampered off.

“What’s wrong Anna?” Her aunt called out from the front of the shop.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I thought I saw a mouse.”

“Oh, bother. Well, Humphrey will get it eventually.” Humphrey was the shop cat. He was big and fat and lazy. He caught the occasional mouse, but mostly napped in the sun all day.

Anna went back to tending to her hair. When she glanced in the mirror again, there it was! The mouse was still sitting on the table. She turned to look behind her, but the mouse was missing. But in the mirror, there he was.

She stared into the mirror, ignoring her hair. The mouse sat on the edge of the table and he waved! It was a shy, tiny mouse wave, but it was definitely a wave.

Anna didn’t know what to do, so she waved back—she didn’t want to be rude. The mouse gestured for her to follow as he ran off, so she did.

Keeping the mouse in sight through the mirror was difficult. She tried not to stumble while holding the mirror and navigating through the shop. She knew these aisles, but everything was reversed. 

It didn’t help that through the mirror, Anna saw things she knew were not there. Display racks at the end of aisles made her swerve wide around tables and baskets of strange inventory made her watch her step. But the mouse kept on and she didn’t want to lose it, so she kept moving.

The mouse guided her to the far back corner where Humphrey was crouched down, his back hair on end and his tail puffed up. He was growling at nothing she could see. But when she held up the mirror, she saw he had indeed cornered another mouse, like her friend, from the table.

She shooed the cat away and sat down, careful not to squash the mice. Anna held up the mirror, and the mice scrambled up to perch on shoulders, one on either side.

She could hear them then, whispering in her ears. Although, she thought, maybe they were shouting. Mice were small and their shouts might be whispers to her.

One mouse said, “I’m Lem. Thank you so much, kind human!”

The other one said, “I’m Mel. Thank you for saving me!”

“You’re welcome,” she said. “I’m Anna. It’s nice to meet you. But why can’t I see you without this mirror and how can Humphrey?”

Lem said, “We’re from another world, Oretak. The mirror lets you see more clearly into ours. Our world is in danger, as is yours. We’ve been searching for someone like yourself; someone who might save us. When we found you, we sent you the mirror.”

Mel added, “Oh, and that beast? Cats are special; they exist naturally in both realms. But they won’t help us—selfish animals—we’ve tried to appeal to them but they don’t care.”

Anna chuckled. That sounded like Humphrey. She said, “Someone like me?”

“You are someone who is close to both. You see, our worlds are like soap bubbles and right now our bubbles are touching. They keep getting closer and closer. But if they get too close, press too hard, they might pop.” For emphasis, the mouse pressed his little hands together and then pushed them apart in a bursting motion.

Horrified, she said, “But what can I do? How do I stop it? I’m just a girl who works at an antique store.”

Mel said, “You have the power to feel the soft places between our worlds. This power you have, we are counting on it, on you, to help us determine where the source of the collision is and stop it.”

“Soft places?”

“This shop is a soft spot. You’re attracted to it and like spending time here. Is there anywhere else you’re attracted to, drawn to?”

Anna thought about the lake and said, “There’s another place. I feel drawn to it and have dreamed of it, but I don’t know where it is. I think it’s called Lake Asa, but there is no place on Katero with that name.”

The mice nodded their heads, excited. Lem said, “It must be in Oretak, in our world! You could go there. We can tell you how.”

She said, “Please forgive me if this is rude, but if you found me, how could you not have found the lake?”

“We’re under a curse. You see, we aren’t really mice, but men. A wizard has cursed our entire kingdom to be animals. 

“We cannot move swiftly and the searching has been slow. Sadly, it took us many years to find you and your shop and time is running out. Luckily, you already know of the place, and now with the mirror, you can move swiftly.”

“I see. And how do I get there?”

Together they said, “Go through the mirror.”

Anna thought about it. This was the adventure she had been waiting for, but she hesitated. She thought about stories she had read and how the girls who went to other worlds always had a bad time of it—Alice, for example, and Dorothy. But they always got home in the end, didn’t they?

“Okay, how do I go through the mirror?”

“Put your nose to the mirror and speak the name of your destination.”

And so, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and with her nose on the mirror said, “Lake Asa”. At first, she thought nothing happened because she didn’t feel anything happening. She expected some whirl of magic or a dramatic gust of wind—but nothing like that occurred. Disappointed, she lowered the mirror.

When she opened her eyes, she was astonished to see that she was no longer in her aunt’s antique shop. 

#

Lake Asa was breathtaking. A crystal smooth lake in a wide mountain valley, the surface so calm that it perfectly reflected the bright blue sky and puffy white clouds overhead. It looked just like it had in her dreams. Snow-capped mountains surrounded it, and tall evergreen trees and scrubby bushes encircled it. Anna wished she could capture the scene forever in a painting so she could show her aunt when she returned.

The feeling here was similar—but much, much stronger—than what she perceived in the antique shop. That other-worldliness permeated everything. The trees, the grass, the rocks—everything vibrated with echoes of Katero, her home. She sensed the worlds pressing on each other. Elements of Oretak and Katero collided, threatening to destroy each other.

Anna walked toward the lake, Lem and Mel secure on her shoulders. By the shore, she saw a woman sitting on a large, flat rock.

“Lo there!” She called.

The woman did not stir. She wondered if she didn’t hear her, so she called out again.

“Hello!” But again, the woman did not reply. 

Anna approached the woman. She was lovely. She wore a gown of sparkling green that mimicked glittering scales, her golden hair cascaded over her shoulders, and a spray of freckles dotted her cheeks. But her grey eyes were rimmed with tears. She wouldn’t look at Anna, only stared down into the still water.

Anna followed her gaze. There it surprised her to see not the reflection of the woman, but a handsome man looking back up through the water. His expression matched hers, sorrowful and full of longing.

“Excuse me, ma’am?” Anna said.

Without looking away, the woman said, “Hello, child.”

“What are you doing here? Who are you? And who is that man?”

The woman gave a forlorn sigh and said, “I am Syl, and that is Lys. He’s my partner, my lover. An evil wizard cursed and separated us. Lys is my heart and my life. We cannot bear to be away from each other. 

“When we were first torn apart, l broke—I lost myself. I can’t express the crushing torture my heart endured, the anguish as my innermost self suffered alone. My life drained away, and it devastated me. He was and is everything to me, and I to him. And then I found him here, in this lake. So we stay this way. Together, but so far away.”

Anna understood then. These two people, cursed to live apart, one in Oretak and one in Katero. Their love was magnetic, a love with the strength to attract each other with a passion so formidable that their worlds were now colliding.

“I’m sorry, Syl. I’m sorry for what’s happened to you.”

A tear ran down Syl’s cheek. 

“Is there no way to break the curse?”

Syl shook her head.

“Syl, what’s happening—what you’re doing—it’s breaking the world. Two worlds. If you continue, both will collapse.”

“Then this can end, and I can be with Lys once again.”

“You would destroy two worlds for your love?”

Syl was silent as another tear fell. Then she whispered, “I would.”

Anna thought she needed to try something other than reason with Syl, because love was unreasonable and illogical. She couldn’t ask her to give up on love. Surely there was some way to break the curse, uniting them without breaking both worlds. 

This was a soft spot. Maybe there was a way to pass objects through a soft spot. The only method she knew was the mirror, which she still had. However, that was her only way home. If she gave Syl the mirror, she wouldn’t be able to get back herself. 

Was she willing to stay here forever, in Oretak? Staying would mean she would never see her aunt again. It would mean she could never go back to her school, to the antique shop, and she would give up her life and her home. But as she looked at Syl, her heart broke for their love. And she knew deep in her core that she would do it.

She didn’t know the heartache Syl had experienced, but it must be tremendous to be pulling worlds towards destruction, to annihilate two realms. She didn’t want to imagine a pain so deep, a loss so strong—and she didn’t want to cause such a wound.

“Syl, what if I had a way for you to go to Lys? A portal that would take you to his world.”

Lem and Mel whispered to each other on her shoulder, but didn’t object. She couldn’t hear what they were saying. Maybe they were talking in a mouse language that she didn’t understand.

A light brightened Syl’s eyes, and she said, “You have such magic and would do this for me?”

“I do, yes.”

Before she could change her mind, Anna held out the mirror to her. "Hold your nose to this mirror and speak the name of the place you wish to go to."

Syl took the mirror.

For the first time in what could have been years, Syl took her eyes away from Lys. Anna felt a tremble roll through the land. Distantly, she wondered if her aunt and the people in Katero felt it too.

Syl raised the mirror and put her nose on the surface. She spoke quietly but clearly, “Katero.” Syl and the mirror disappeared. 

Anna sat on the rock where Syl had been and looked down at the water. For a brief moment, she could see two figures, a man and a woman, embracing, and then they were gone.

The rumbling continued. It got deeper and more intense.

“Mel, Lem, what’s happening?”

Into her ear, Mel whispered something she didn’t quite catch. Then the two mice jumped off her shoulder. 

The ground shook so violently that she could feel it in her bones. A sudden jolt threw her from the rock and she tumbled into the frigid lake.

#

Anna woke in the antique store. She must have fallen asleep. Next to her was a beautiful silver hand mirror. She hadn’t seen this piece before and wondered if it had just come in.