* * *
That same afternoon, Penny had taken her son to the local doctor’s surgery. All appointments for the day were full, but she insisted on waiting. Finally, she was called in to see Doctor Hardy after a cancellation.
Roy had found his wife’s sudden fervour a bit confusing. It wasn’t as though Luke was screaming in pain – so why the urgency in getting him seen by Doc Hardy? While he agreed the nightmares were of some concern, he didn’t consider it life threatening.
After a week of tests at their local hospital, this attitude changed completely.
After the operation, young Luke never suffered from nightmares again. He slept soundly – and so did his parents.
The day that Roy and Penny brought their son home from the hospital, not one but two strange things happened...
Their neighbours greeted them. Nothing odd in and of itself, but the fact remained that this similarly-aged couple had never even said hello to them before.
“We’re the Robertsons,” said the husband, shaking Roy’s and then Penny’s hand. “I’m Andy and this is my wife, Cheryl. We couldn’t help but noticed that you took the mirror we threw out a couple of days ago.”
“Oh...” said Penny, totally unprepared. “Yes, I’m afraid we did. It looked so nice and, well-”
“You were throwing it away...” Roy pointed out.
Mr Robertson laughed, albeit nervously. “Yes, of course!” he said. “And we have absolutely no problem with you taking it. We were just wondering if...you had any weird experiences with the mirror...”
Penny blanched.
“Weird?” echoed Roy. “No, not particularly. My wife thought she saw someone in the mirror, someone who wasn’t there. But that’s about it.”
“I saw someone,” said Cheryl Robertson. “And I spoke to her.”
Penny gulped. What had happened to her had happened to her neighbour. She had obviously seen a future version of herself – a future Cheryl. “Was she an old woman?”
“No,” said Cheryl. “She looked and sounded exactly like me.”
“I would call that a reflection,” quipped Roy.
Penny elbowed him softly in the ribs.
“And what did the woman say to you?” Penny asked.
“She said that she had some very important news for me,” Cheryl told her. “News about me. About my life.”
“And ... what was it?”
“That was when I put the mirror outside to be taken away. It’s cursed. I don’t want anything to do with it.”
Penny’s eyes widened. Putting a hand gently but firmly on to Cheryl’s shoulder, she walked her briskly inside, leaving the two men standing there in a cloud of confusion.
* * *
“I want to tell you something,” Penny said with urgency as she brought Cheryl in to her apartment. “Something very important.”
“It’s something about the mirror, isn’t it?” was Cheryl’s apprehensive response.
“Yes. Come in to the living room.”
Cheryl halted in her tracks. “Listen – I don’t want anything to do with that thing. It’s haunted. I know about the paranormal. That wasn’t me in the mirror – it was something else, something evil.”
“Evil? Like what?”
“I don’t know! A doppelganger. A spirit. Something bad. It used the mirror to get to me. I never should have taken it.”
“Taken it?”
“We found it on a rubbish tip near to where Andy’s parents live. It was in perfect condition so we took it.”
“Just like we did...” Penny’s mind was racing. “And the person in the mirror was trying to tell you something...”
“Yes, but I didn’t want to hear.”
Taking hold of her neighbour’s shoulders with both hands, Penny exclaimed, “But you must listen to her! I saw my own future self in the mirror, and she told me that I had to get my son to the doctor. We’ve just come back from the hospital. We saved his life. Don’t you see? If the person you saw looked just like you then that means that something is going to happen to you any time now!”
“Dear Lord...”
“You’ve got to look in to that mirror again.”
With that, Penny took Cheryl by the hand and pulled her in to the living room.
As she was doing this, Penny remembered back to what her own future self had said: “Just do everything I told you, and if all goes well ... I won’t exist.”
Both women entered the living room. Penny halted, bringing Cheryl to an abrupt stop as well.
The mirror was gone.
END
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