Chapter Three The Spell is Cast

chapter three of The Mirror

                                                                               Chapter 3

                                                                         The Spell is Cast

The next morning Tom could not wait to get out of bed and shave, using his new mirror. To his surprise it was six a.m. and Anna was already up before him. As he headed down stairs, he was even more surprised to hear Anna singing. When he entered the kitchen she said “your breakfast is ready” adding it to her song. 

  “My, you look lovely this morning” was his reply as he thought to himself “how strange that she’s done her hair and put on her make�"up so early.” 

  Now, Anna never worried about Tom telling her little white lies when it came to her appearances or any of the other things she did. All the time she has known him he has never told her one little lie. More times than not it was to her benefit, and she knew he prided himself about this attribute.  That’s the reason she never made a very big deal out of it. This morning, lies or not, she not only felt beautiful, but she felt gorgeous! Why did she think it had something to do with that “mirror”? 

  “Okay, I’m going to shave.”   

“But Tom your breakfast will get cold.” She said as she was thinking of a way to keep him here until she could get to the mirror before him. 

  “That’s alright I don’t mind eating it that way.” Tom said as he started to whistle his own tune, making his way back upstairs. He was going to have his time in front of the mirror and nothing was going to stop him. 

   This odd routine went on for several more weeks. Tom and Anna both having taken early retirements had no jobs to go or any outside activities whatsoever, making it easy for them to find any reason to stand in front of the mirror. Until one Saturday morning when things started changing. 

   “This can’t be.” Tom had to take a closer look at himself in the mirror. 

   “My hair it’s turning gray, but that’s impossible. Yesterday I didn’t have one gray hair on my head.” 

  “Anna?” he involuntarily called. 

  “What is it?” he heard from around the doorway. Where she stood hoping he didn’t notice her waiting for her turn in front of the mirror. 

  “Come here please” he said with a small trace of concern in his voice. 

     Anna peaked into the bathroom door “Oh, my goodness, what did you do to your hair?” 

    “That’s just it I didn’t do anything.” 

   

Anna could’ve chided herself for not a little being more tactful. Especially, since she did not want Tom to observe any of the wrinkles she newly discovered on her face and hands. They were somewhat unnoticeable from a distant, but still of concern to her. Tom and her were barely out of their thirties and cared for themselves quite well. They were relatively too young to be showing this kind of aging. Then Anna pushed Tom out of the way, so she could once again admire herself in the antique mirror. 

 “What are you doing?” 

  “Why I’m admiring my feminine qualities! What does it look like I’m doing?” she said with a little snootiness’. 

   Anna was shocked. She had never spoken to him in that tone before today. “Tom, I’m so sorry.” 

  “That’s okay.” Then he shoved her out of the way so he could gaze upon his handsomeness. 

   “Look at the both of us acting like vain celebrities.” “Don’t you see, it’s the mirror?”, now she remembered that little shock she had received the day the mirror was brought into the house. 

  “Listen to yourself. You sound absolutely crazy! How could this piece of inanimate furniture be the cause of our behavior?” 

  Now, it was his turn to express a little remorse for the way he responded to his wife. 

    I wonder, is she right? This certainly wasn’t the way I normally spoke to her, but how could a mirror cause two grown adults to snap at each other. The idea was ridiculous, however that day at the flea market I couldn’t shake the feeling something was reaching out to my mind. That’s when I became so enamored by the mirror. I rationalized it was crazy and I put it out of my mind. 

  The next day their compulsion escalated. This time they both scooted chairs in front of the mirror and sat down gazing at it. 

  “Tom we have to do something, we can barely break away from this stupid mirror for more than a few minutes at a time.” 

  “I know, I know, that’s not the worst of it. Look at our faces. Every minute we spend in front of this mirror we seem to age faster.” 

  They looked at themselves again. Their faces were beginning to sag, revealing mild aging blemishes. The skin once young and smooth now was appearing rough with wrinkles in its place. Fear began lingering within them as at the same time the mirror kept them in state of some kind of hypnotism. This also was making it impossible for each one of them to break away from the very presence of the mirror.