The mirror
A fantasy tale I wrote for magazine Nexiok (in Spanish), managed by
.I still don't know how to tell what happened, because I'm sure whoever reads it, will think I'm missing my mind completely or near. This is the first time I'm telling this story, after I made a blood-curdling discovery in the attic of my grandparents' house. I don't even know if it's safe to speak about it or not, but I have to make a decision and you can certainly help me. I really need to get my thoughts in order.
The truth is, I'm getting married in just a month and a half, and frankly, I don't know what to say to my fiancé, and even more so to my sisters. Ever since I've known him, he's always seemed like a good man, although he does have one flaw: he doesn't like me reading novels, because he thinks imagination is highly overrated. For him, anything out of the ordinary shouldn't be considered. Perhaps his profession as an industrial engineer, who successfully designs engines for tanks and army planes is the reason why everything out of the ordinary is considered fairy tales to him. Or so I thought.
So, I don't know how to tell the story of the family mirror. It's one of those giant mirrors that require especially large walls and specially constructed reinforcements to prevent them from falling or breaking. Well, the mirror in question still occupies the north wall of my grandparents' living room today and stretches from the ceiling (more than 2 meters 30 centimeters high) to where the sofa, or three-seater sofa, as my grandmother calls it, begins. It's immense: we could all fit in front of it, as if we were going to have our picture taken, even now that the family has grown.
Foto de Mikita Yo.
At that moment, all of us, the grandchildren, were trying to enter that completely forbidden area of the house to look at ourselves in it. Grandma, very observant, was always on the lookout to prevent us from doing so, claiming that the rugs were very good and that we, with our pranks and games, could end up ruining them.
And then, that day arrived. The grandparents hurriedly got ready and left quickly because something serious had happened to some very elderly neighbours, whom they helped with the ambulance and then the hospital. No matter how hard I try, I can't remember what happened to them, and I don't dare ask Grandma now: Grandpa died last year. I am sure that the moment I ask her anything about it, she is going to realise something is up… Being so observant, she's sure to read me like an open book.
At the time, I, Alicia, was 6 years old, my older sister, Jimena, was 9, and my younger sister, Adriana, was 3. Our parents had died two years earlier in a car accident on their way back from a friend's wedding, when a drunk driver hit them. Although, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if that's also related to everything that happened that day.
Well, while Jimena didn't want to go into the living room, I was desperate to investigate that mirror, and Adriana did what I said. Or so she said, because other times, she'd cross her arms and tell me I was bossy, even though I never actually told her what to do, but that way she'd blame me if someone told us off later. That time, when Jimena said she wasn't going into the living room, we sang her that rhyme we'd learned in school:
"You coward, chicken! / Hide behind the curtain!"
In the end, she agreed, although she did it more to protect us than because she cared much about what was in the mirror, as we later learned. It seems she did have an idea of how it worked and knew that not all consequences were necessarily good.
It was around noon when the three of us, hand in hand, stood in front of the mirror, and while Jimena stared at it with her arms crossed, Adriana and I busily struck up little poses: legs crossed, eyes rolled back, etc. We even managed to dance some totally stupid steps we'd seen at a family party. We were laughing so hard that even Jimena ended up laughing out loud.
Suddenly, the mirror slid to one side, as if a door had opened, and a short, fat, red-faced being smoking a pipe emerged from the opening. He looked at us and, smiling with amusement, said:
"Dear girls, how wonderful to meet you! Do you want to see Lollipop Land?"
Adriana and I squealed and jumped with joy, but Jimena didn't seem to be very interested in the idea, so she replied:
"There's nothing behind the mirror that could convince us to go in."
"Speak for yourself," I said irritably. How could she be so stupid not to want to go to a place where everything had to be lollipops? Without the grandparents around, anyway. We were going to be able to eat whatever we liked…
"I agree," Adriana said with her childish language.
We saw Jimena's expression, somewhere between anger and boredom, and heard the creature say to her with a satisfied smile:
"You don't have to go in, dear child: if you don't want to go in, you won't have to."
So, in the end, the three of us went in. The world beyond the mirror was… magical. As we crossed the threshold and the mirror returned to its place, we saw a small square in a lush garden. In the middle of that square, there was a stone fountain dripping with chocolate, and to one side, there was a tray of various cheeses and another of fruit pieces, like a wonderful fondue, which you could eat hot, warm, or cold. All around, there were trees offering all kinds of sweets and goodies: from delicious chocolates filled with the richest almonds and liqueurs to cotton candy, fair apples, and delicious mini cake slices, as well as lollipops in every flavor, candies in never-before-seen colors, and filled cookies. All of it was free! Or at least, that's what it seemed to us…
Foto de Brooke Lark en Unsplash
Jimena, however, looked around and then expressed doubts about whether we should pick up and try all those delicacies. "It's very strange that all this is left unguarded, and we don't know if it's allowed in this world to pick it up."
The being who came with us, whom we can easily call a dwarf, looked at her and said:
"A very perceptive girl. That's right, we have to be very careful. The Black Wizard is constantly on the lookout: he sees everything, or at least tries to. He doesn't like anyone taking any of this stuff unless they have his permission."
Jimena smiled and looked at him:
"I knew it, that's why your grandparents wouldn't let us in."
The dwarf stared at us:
"Your grandparents didn't let you go into the mirror?"
She nodded:
"Or even get close to it…"
The dwarf scratched his ear and then his nose, while saying, very worried:
"Well, the truth is, I don't understand how they can know anything about this place…"
Jimena looked at him and, with that… lordly attitude of hers, said, while moving her hand as if she wanted to spur us on:
"Come on, let's get to safety and then we'll talk."
The little man looked at my older sister, not seeming very willing to take orders from a child, but then he saw her expression and decided it was a good opportunity to make an exception. My sister already knew how to put on that expression my grandmother still puts on, which automatically forces you to obey, even if you don't want to.
Very carefully, we continued walking through that small square and into the large park, covered in something we at first thought was snow. However, I was convinced it smelled very familiar, so as we passed a bush, I touched it and put my finger to my mouth… The whole thing was powdered sugar!!! The park was a huge cake. The little man looked at me worried at first, but then, seeing my expression, he laughed softly, while Jimena, who didn't know what had happened, looked at us with an inquisitive look, as if just by looking she could read our minds and know what had happened.
We left the park and walked through a field that was more loosely arranged, but stretched as far as the eye could see. We walked a little further, and in an area with a series of trees and what appeared to be a vegetable garden, we saw a small house. It had small windows and a tiny door, so small that I thought we wouldn't be able to get in. From outside, lights were on and there was a lot of commotion, although if you saw her from afar or just glanced at her, you'd probably think it was abandoned.
The little man told us to stand around him, and when we did, he snapped his fingers, and we found ourselves in what appeared to be on the lower floor's main room. To our amazement, there were many people inside, but all just like our companion. Some were dancing to catchy music played by others: we could see and hear a harp, several lutes, and a kind of small piano smaller than a normal one and built on a kind of small table. There were also strange drums on one side, which had a peculiar sound, somewhat like a conventional drum but with a metallic sound as if they were also a triangle. Another was also playing a guitar, and two others were playing castanets.
The joy they displayed was immense: the dancers kept the rhythm of the music well, making the music even more catch. Even we ended up dancing or, at least, moving our feet to its beat ,even though we had never listening to that music before. We'd gotten so caught up in the music that we'd forgotten where we were, not realising the Black Witch's guards had arrived and surrounded the little house. Their figures, shaped like wasps but the size of a person, could be seen through the glass.
- "Open up in the name of the Black Witch! We know that there are intruders that the Black Witch wants to see!"
I admit that, at that moment, we didn't laugh, but, while the contours were threatening, the way they spoke to us was… ridiculous? Stupid? Absolutely grotesque? Silence fell inside the room, and those present looked at each other in fear. Jimena then stepped forward and said:
- "I didn't want to come, but now we have to face up to it. These people wouldn't have received this visit if we hadn't thought of coming here today."
Then she calmly walked to the door and went out, confronting those creatures. At first, they didn't do anything to her, but then they put her in shackles and took her away.
Everyone in the room was ashamed. In the end, we decided to go to that sorcerer's gloomy aborde, so we took carts pulled by various forest animals (from deers to birds) there. We tried to get in in various ways, until finally, we succeeded: in one of the exterior walls, hidden by several trees, there was an unrepaired hole, through which we were able to pass without difficulty.
Now came the tricky part: getting into his house, protected by animals even worse than the wasps that had detained Jimena. But those little men had a few tricks up their sleeves, so we made it unseen to the anteroom where the sorcerer was interrogating her. There, we heard her say that we had accidentally entered that unknown world, simply through a mirror. But he didn't believe her and began to question her over and over again, and finally, he told her she was lying and that he would get her to talk. Tired of not getting the answer that he wanted, he left the room.
Foto de Luis Villasmil en Unsplash
It was then that we were able to get her out of there and return to the place where the grandparents' mirror was and to our house, before they returned from helping the neighbours. As we left the room, Jimena managed to grab a piece of cloth from a dusty corner of the sorcerer's house. When we got home, she simply carried it up to the attic. Adriana, who was very young at the time, learned a few things and for a while had nightmares about what had happened. We didn't say anything about the adventure then and have remained in silense about what happened till this day.
Years passed and we'd forgotten about the fabric until now: as am I getting married, I decided to go up to the attic to look for some things I wanted to take to my new house. I started opening drawers, closets, and boxes there, some of them covered in dust from not having been opened in years. I was happy, singing along with my headphones "Still Loving You" by Scorpions, when I opened the drawer and there was the fabric Jimena had taken from the Black Wizard's Tower.
I opened it and there was a painting, from which the subject, dressed all in black and looking down at me, spoke:
"I am coming for you, Alicia," and smiled.
I looked at it and fainted. My grandmother revived me and came with me to the hospital, when I was still barely conscious. My sisters arrived, and only then did I realize: my fiancé had the same face as the Black Wizard from Lollipop Land. Now I just need to figure out how to tell him, although judging by the way my grandmother looks at me, I think she suspects something…
Originally published in Wordpress.
Buy me a coffee. ☕️
Very nice!
That was interesting. I loved it.