Mirrors

Kathrine Lynn Summers watched as dark the menacing storm clouds slowly blotted out the sun, the birds went silent, and her phone went flying, smashing into a dozen pieces as it collided with the wall. Still in an emotional spiral Katie barely registered the shattering of its plastic instead she stood staring blankly out the foyer window. Storm clouds threatened to make the already miserable day even worse.

“The phone,” she said to nobody in particular. “He didn’t even have the nerve to drive the fifteen minutes to see me. Dirty rat bastard!”

"Katie, what did he say?" Thunder cracked and lightening lite up the sky outside as a wall of water let loose around Katies house.

Katie turned to see that Cheri was still standing there. She had been there the whole time, but Katie had forgotten about her the second Jacob said he was sorry. The first words out of his mouth were "I'm sorry." She had been in the middle of planning the perfect romantic dinner and even bought him a little coffee cup that said 'World's Best Daddy' as a way of telling him that she was pregnant. But not what was she going to do? Would she even tell him? Could she be a single mother?

"Katie, you're white as a ghost. Let's go sit down and you can tell me what he said." Cheri fruitlessly attempted to guide Katie into the living room so she could sit down and rest.

"He said it's over. He's choosing his family over me. That's how he put it," tears easily flowed from Katies dark green eyes as her hand protectively covered her belly.

"Men are all scum! I bet she threatened to cut him off. Money hungry bastard!"

"No, he's not like that. Jacob already knew his mother would cut him out of her will when he told her he was going to marry me. It has to be something bigger. Not that the why matters at all. He chose to dump me, it's over."

"He might change his mind if you told him you, you're carrying his baby." Katie knew Cheri was grasping at straws in an attempt to help her, but it wouldn't work. At this very moment all Katie wanted to wo melt into obscurity.

"NO!" Katie didn't mean to scream but it just came out. She wouldn't use this baby as a way of keeping him. "If he doesn't want to be with me for me then I don't want him."

"The doctor confirmed you're only six weeks along, if you wanted to end the pregnancy it would be a simple outpatient procedure. If you decide to keep it, I'll support you in any way you need." Cheri knew that was a choice she would never make she just needed Katie to snap out of the feelings and into the solution.

"I'm not sure what I'm gonna do. I really can't think about that now. You should just go home. I'll call you tomorrow." Katie picked an errant lint from her black slacks in order to avoid making eye contact with her best friend.

"I don't think you should be alone right now."

"I need to be alone." Katie stared at the large six-foot-long ornate mirror that Jacob had helped her haul out of the basement last November.

"Ok, but if you change your mind just send a text. I'll be here quicker than a fox can catch its tail." Cheri gathered her things and headed for the door. "I love you, Katie."

Katie just stared out into the void until she heard the click of the closing door, then the tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

The football landed at her feet with a thud, starling her out of the book she had immersed herself in. The Unfinished Nation, while not exactly a riveting piece of fine writing it was a necessary read if she wanted to pass her final exam. Picking up the ball she tried to recall everything she knew about the game, which was pretty much nothing. Her family hadn't exactly been avid sports enthusiasts.

“Sorry for the interruption,” he said flashing an incredible smile. “I guess I just don’t know my own strength some days.”

Damn he’s a beautiful man, Katie thought to herself as she watched a storm of apple blossoms swirl around him. The tiny white flowers landed softly in his thick dark hair, and she fell in love.

That was five years, six months, and twelve days ago. Love at first sight. But Katie didn't have the guts to do anything about it.

Katie felt all the blood had drained from her face and her stomach begin to turn. “Please don’t get sick again,” she whispered to herself as she surveyed the foyer. It wasn’t her favorite room by far. It just felt old with the dusty ancient umbrella stand, crystal chandelier, and plastic covered sitting chair in the corner. However, it was where the mirror was. A little half smile found its way on her pale lips as she slowly turned towards the mirror. Funny thing is that before now she rarely paid any real attention to mirrors. They were there because it’s expected to have them and that’s it. Apparently, a home without mirrors gave off a cold and closed off feeling, or so she had been told.

Not that this musty old place had any warmth or love to begin with. Any warmth this place may have had disappeared when she was six years old, and her father left. So much of her childhood was a blur in her memory, but that night was as vivid as if it had happened yesterday. That night he read her two bedtime stories instead of the just one he usually insisted on. And after the stories he held her tight. He had held her so tight that the six-year-old girl who didn’t have any clue what was going on wiggled to free herself from his embrace. “I love you, pumpkin, never forget that,” was the last thing he ever said to her. He was just the first of many men to abandon her, to disappoint her, to prove that she wasn’t worth the time and effort. And now Jacob confirmed all her fears.

Jacob was supposed to be different. He made her feel safe and loved, like she could do anything. Even though she had instantly fell for him Katie Kept the wall up for a long time. Jacob had been patient and caring when they were dating. Katie had convinced herself and tried to convince him that what was building between them was nothing more than a friends with benefits deal. But he turned out to be worse than them all because he made her believe that things could be different that she was worth loving.

Katie, unlike most people who spent their teenage years worrying over every little pimple, gave very little thought to her looks as a teenager. Her mother was forever telling her to go brush her hair or put on some make up, or just plain make herself “presentable.” Katie just failed to live up to anyone’s expectations. Cheri was the one exception to that rule. From the first day of third grade Cheri had made a bee line to Katie declaring them now to be best friends. From that day on they did everything together and never went a full day without talking or texting. Every good moment in her life Katie remembered Cheri had been a part of.

These days she had to force herself to look at her own reflection, but since finding this one, this mirror, there times when she became narcissistic about her appearance and obsessed over thoughts about changes in her hairstyle or make up, or even the need for plastic surgery. This change had not gone unnoticed by most of her family and friends, Jacob however stayed unaware of anything other than his own base need to be with her. Men are like that usually. the little changes in a woman will go unnoticed until some big drastic change accrued. Whether that was a good thing or bad she didn't know.

Until now, until this one, until she had begun to experience changes and sees the possibilities of the future. Until now she had never given much credence to the need for mirrors. They were just tools of the self-absorbed and another surface to be cleaned. She hated cleaning. However, this surface was different. This one proved that the urban legends, so commonly laughed at and considered to be superstitions, sometimes carried a seed of truth and there are so many urban legends involving mirrors. For instance, the one about a soul which becomes imprisoned within a mirror’s frames, that is the one she knew was more than true. The real question is what to do with that mirror, that soul, after the fact. And how much control over the real world can a trapped soul have? She had the proof of its existence but could not do anything about it.