by R. L. Austin
They were standing in a vast expanse of gray nothingness, interrupted only by the mirror beside them, which did look like a window from this side. Emily could see no floor, no ceiling, and no walls; just a pane of glass suspended in a seemingly endless expanse of perpetual gray. Emily swept the horizon, or the equivalent of a horizon where there wasn’t one, and noticed another mirror. It was distant, but she could see a figure standing next to it. She strained to see if it was a man or a woman, but it was too far away. The next moment the mirror was gone, leaving Emily to wonder if she had seen anything at all.
She had almost convinced herself that she had imagined the other mirror when another one appeared, this time much closer.
“Look!” Tyler pointed to it.
“Yeah, I see it too.” Emily was glad to know she wasn’t seeing things. The mirror appeared to be suspended without wires, like the one next to them. “Wait a minute, you can see?”
Emily tried to step back, which would pull her hand away from Tyler’s, but he held on.
“Wait. Don’t pull away. When I’m touching you, the darkness goes away. I can even hear normally.”
“Really?” Emily wondered if being able to see on this side of the mirror was another one of those powers her uncle had mentioned.
“Yep.” Tyler nodded his head. “And it’s a lot better than being in the dark.”
Emily thought again about having powers. They would make her different, and she wasn’t sure if she liked the idea, especially if it was a weird kind of different. She was still thinking about magical powers when the solid feel of the triad in her grip made her look down. “Maybe it’s because I’m holding this.”
Tyler looked at the black triangle. “Maybe,” he said, but he didn’t sound convinced. “Anyway, this place is wild.”
The second mirror disappeared while they were talking, but a third one appeared. It was so far away that Emily wouldn’t have seen it at all if she hadn’t been looking in that direction. She was quick to point it out. “Right there! Another one.”
“I see it.”
Tyler and Emily watched for the appearance of new mirrors. The two of them never saw more than one at a time, and the mirrors never appeared in the same place twice. Some mirrors were quite near when they materialized, while others were only a dot in the distance. A few of them flickered into view and were gone. Others stayed for a minute or two. One mirror, which was very close, lasted long enough for Emily and Tyler to walk over and look through. It was night time on the other side, but they could still see ornate furniture in front of a large plate glass window.
“Is that…?”
“Yep, I think it is.”
Through the window was the unmistakable profile of the Eiffel Tower, outlined by thousands of lights against the dark sky.
Tyler put his free hand to the glass. “I wonder if we stepped out if we would be there. I’ve always wanted to go to Paris.”
“Me too, and this would be an easy way to get there.”
Emily and Tyler returned to their own mirror after the one they were looking through disappeared.
“Emily, are you still there?” It was Nick’s voice.
Tyler slapped his forehead. “Dad! I can’t believe I forgot him. I’m such an idiot.”
“Don’t get mad at yourself. This crazy place made me forget him too.” Emily glanced around, but she didn’t see Nick, so she looked around the edge of the glass and saw him standing on the other side. He had a vacant stare that reminded her that he couldn’t see. He was tall and handsome, with blue eyes and dark blond hair that resembled Tyler’s. It was easy to see the family resemblance.
“Tyler, give your dad the watch. He should be able to see light coming through the mirror, just like you could.”
“Yeah, good idea.” He scrounged through his pocket and pulled out the watch. Nick gave a start when Tyler slipped it into his hand. “Here, Dad, take this.”
Nick looked around with the wonder of a blind man suddenly given back his vision, but his surprise turned to pure joy when he saw Tyler. Nick grabbed his son in a crushing hug and lifted him off his feet, which pulled Tyler away from Emily. “I can’t believe it’s you. I almost gave up hope of ever seeing you again.”
Tyler held on to his dad even more tightly, and Emily thought he was crying again.
The long embrace ended when Nick let Tyler slide to the ground, but instead of letting him go, Nick grabbed his shoulders and looked him over. “I can’t believe how much you’ve changed. Maybe I’ve gone crazy, but I’d swear you’re taller, and you look older. You seem to be changing by the day.” He gave his son another hug and tousled his hair. “You look great!”
“Thanks, Dad.” Tyler used his sleeve to wipe away a tear, but he was also beaming with happiness. “I guess I have changed since you disappeared last year.”
“Last year? What are you talking about?” Nick looked confused.
“When you disappeared. You know, last year.”
Nick’s eyebrows went up. “I haven’t been gone for a year. Maybe a few weeks, a month at most.”
It was Tyler’s turn to look confused before he said, “Dad, you disappeared last summer. It’s been a whole year.”
Nick looked stunned before he grabbed Tyler for another long hug. When he loosened his grip, he shook his head. “I had no idea. How’s your mother? She must think I’m dead.”
“She’s fine, Dad, but she misses you, a lot.”
Another embrace ensued as father and son struggled to overcome the emotion of their year-long separation. It was heartwarming for Emily to watch, and it made her think about how painful it would be to have her father disappear. Tyler released his dad and motioned for her to join them.
Emily stepped up and gave Nick a polite smile, but it became a wide, silly grin when Tyler wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her tight. “Dad, this is Emily. Without her, I never would have found you.”
“So you’re Emily.” Nick gave her a warm smile and extended his hand. Emily thought he was going to give her a friendly handshake, but he pulled her forward and wrapped her in a bear hug. Emily tensed at the unexpected embrace, but relaxed when she heard Nick babbling over her shoulder. “Thank you, thank you so much. I can’t even begin to express my appreciation for what you’ve done.” His grip was powerful, yet surprisingly comforting.
Emily waited until he let go to collect herself enough to reply. “Uh, you’re welcome. I’m glad I could help.” She was turning back to Tyler when Nick grabbed her again, this time by the shoulders.
“This is incredible.” His eyes looked startled, bordering on wild. “When I hold the watch, I can see light coming through this window, but when I touch you, the darkness completely goes away. How do you do that?” He looked around the open expanse around them before he looked toward the mirror. She knew he was looking at the dining room on the other side.
“I don’t know,” Emily confessed. “It just happens.”
“I’ve been in here for…” Nick glanced at Tyler. “Apparently for longer than I thought, and I had no clue where I was. I still don’t understand, but it’s obvious we aren’t outside and were not in a building. Where are we?”
“We’re in a mirror,” Tyler blurted as he put his arm around Emily.
Having Tyler so close felt great, but Emily reminded herself that he was holding her because it allowed him to see. Still, it was hard to ignore the way he rubbed against her every time one of them moved. It didn’t shock her the way it had when he touched her bare skin, but it made Emily wonder if Tyler was enjoying it as much as she was. At least she hoped so.
Nick looked around again and shook his head. “That’s not possible.”
“It’s true,” Emily added in support. “My uncle put you in here with this.” She held up the triad and Nick’s expression turned to recognition.
“The triad? I don’t believe it. I mean, I do believe it. But it all happened so quickly. I wasn’t sure what happened to me.”
&nbs
p; “Did someone push you into a mirror? That’s what happened to me.” Tyler was bouncing with excitement, which amplified the way his hip rubbed against Emily. He didn’t seem to notice, but Emily could feel a warm glow coming over her.
“Yes, I was shoved toward a mirror. It happened so fast, though, I didn’t have time to think or react. I tripped and fell, and everything went dark.” Nick didn’t seem ready to admit that he was inside a mirror, and Emily couldn’t blame him. “Emily, did you say that Gérard is your uncle?”
“Gérard? No. My uncle’s name is Mansel, Mansel Thorne.”
“I’ve never heard of Mansel Thorne. The man I went to see was named Gérard. He’s a colleague of mine, and he works at the Exploratorium,” Nick explained. “He was very excited when I told him what I’d found, and he claimed to know something about the two items. He also insisted that I bring them to him in person. That’s why I took the triad and the watch to him, hoping for more information.”
“I don’t think that was my uncle.” Emily didn’t disbelieve Nick, but something wasn’t adding up. “Uncle Mansel doesn’t work at the Exploratorium. In fact, I don’t think he’s ever worked. He lived with my grandmother until she—until he got his inheritance.”
Tyler waited until Emily was finished to ask, “Was Gérard the one who put you in the mirror, Dad?”
“Yes, it was.” Nick’s expression looked more sad than angry. “I thought Gérard was my friend, but he had me completely fooled. The moment he got his hands on the triad and watch, he became a different person. He laughed like a mad man and yelled, ‘At last! At last they’ve been found.’ When I asked what they were, he said they were magic. I didn’t believe him, of course, and that’s when he asked me to stand in front of a mirror so he could show me how they worked. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but as soon as I got close to the mirror he pushed me. I fell backwards, and everything went black. I’ve been lost in that awful darkness ever since.”
“I don’t know this Gérard person,” Emily said, “but my uncle had the triad when he confronted Tyler, and I saw it a few days before that.” The memory of that day came back to her. “Wait a minute. I heard my uncle fighting with somebody behind a closed door before I saw him with the triad. Maybe he took it from Gérard.”
Nick stroked his chin. “I suppose that’s possible. Gérard was a pretty frail old man.”
Emily remembered something else. “My uncle didn’t have the watch; at least I don’t think he did, until he stole it from Tyler.”
Nick took a moment to absorb the new information before he turned to his son. “You had the watch? How?”
“I bought it. That’s how.” Tyler seemed eager to relate his story. “There was a guy near Chestnut Street selling watches, and I bought it from him. It cost every penny I had, and I even had to give him my phone.”
“You did good,” Nick assured him. “But what did the guy look like?”
Tyler’s eyes pinched together as he struggled to remember. “He was really old, at least forty, and he had great big white eyebrows.”
Emily almost laughed when she saw Nick bite his lip. “That old, huh?”
“Yeah, that old.”
Emily could see that Tyler was oblivious to the insult he had unwittingly given his father, and she had no intention of pointing it out.
Nick rubbed his chin as if it was bruised, but he managed a feeble smile. “Well, that doesn’t sound like Gérard, either. Did the man say where he got the watch?”
“Yeah, but only because I asked,” Tyler proudly announced. “He said he found it on the ground outside the Exploratorium.”
“That makes no sense. I met Gérard in his office, not outside.”
Tyler tensed, and Emily noticed his free hand clench into a fist before he spoke. “That liar! The police told us that no one saw you inside the Exploratorium.”
“Gérard obviously lied to them,” Nick said, “but I’m not surprised.” He paused to look at Tyler’s arm around Emily’s waist, and the slightest hint of a smile crossed his face before he continued. “He would’ve been afraid to tell the police the truth. Not that they would have believed him even if he had.” He looked at Emily. “Well, now that we know where we are, sort of, and you have the triad, what do you plan to do?”
The question caught her by surprise, but luckily, she had been thinking about that very thing while Nick and Tyler were talking. “First, I want to get both of you out of the mirror and away from my uncle.”
“And then?”
It was obvious that Nick wanted to hear more of her plan, but Emily didn’t have one.
Before she admitted her lack of a plan, however, Nick asked, “And what about you? I suspect your uncle isn’t going be happy that you took the triad.”
“He already knows,” Tyler jumped in. “And he’s trying to get it back. It only works for him and for Emily. It doesn’t work for me; I already tried.”
Nick rubbed his chin again. “That’s interesting.” He also looked Emily over from head to toe, as if summing her up. “Since the triad works only for you, I think that puts you in charge of this rescue. Is there anything I can do to help?”
Emily was shocked. She hadn’t expected to be put in charge. She also surprised herself by not being frightened to be the leader. “Um…nothing right now, but I’m pretty sure my uncle knows I’m in here. He’ll probably be waiting for me to come out.” The thought had been worrying her since he had approached the mirror. “I’d like to get to another mirror, if I can.” She scanned the emptiness around them for any indication of another mirror, but she didn’t see one.
Tyler was quick to catch on to her plan, “Yeah, that’s a great idea, but we don’t know where we’ll come out. We need to get to one we know, like the one in the hallway.” In explanation to his father, he added, “That’s where I was trapped until she saved me. And now she’s going to save both of us. Just wait and see.”
Tyler’s faith in her ability gave Emily’s self-confidence a much-needed boost. She was tired of the uncertainty and awkwardness she had experienced since arriving in San Francisco, and this new sense of self-assurance felt much better.
I can do this! She told herself. And Tyler will be there to help because he’s my friend. A friend that’s a boy, but not a boyfriend. At least not yet. Her inner discussion was interrupted by Tyler’s arm squeezing her waist, something she couldn’t ignore, not that she wanted to, and she decided to give in to the growing temptation to simply relax and enjoy it. After all, he was cute, funny, and he trusted her without hesitation. He also made her feel good about herself. Not bad for her first friend in San Francisco, and even better that he was a potential boyfriend.
When Emily finally refocused, she noticed that Nick and Tyler were waiting for her to say something. She had to come up with something, and fast.
“I’m thinking,” she muttered, and they both nodded.
Emily decided the first priority was to get to another mirror, but she wasn’t sure how she was going to accomplish such a feat. I won’t screw this up, she insisted to herself. She desperately wanted to make a good first impression on Nick, and to do so, she needed to succeed. Besides, rescuing people was something important; something a superhero would do. If I do have powers, could I be a superhero? Emily almost giggled at the idea before she said, “I like Tyler’s idea of using the hallway mirror. It would be better than this one, but I don’t know how to get us there. Or if we can.”
Nick looked down at the pocket watch he had been holding, “I wonder if this could help. It seems to have some effect here.”
“It might.” Emily had almost forgotten about the watch. “But I’ve never tried to use it.”
“It ticks, but the hands don’t move,” Tyler offered.
Nick studied the watch. “Did it do anything while you had it?”
“Nah, but I kept this part of it.” Tyler proudly displayed the small metal stem used to wind the watch. “This little piece let me see out of the mirror, and t
hat’s how I found Emily.”
Emily looked at the two pieces of the watch and got an idea. “If that small piece of the watch allowed you to see through the mirror, maybe putting them back together will do even more.”
“Good idea! Let’s give it a try.” Tyler removed his arm from Emily’s waist, but grabbed her hand and intertwined his fingers with hers before he handed the stem to his father.
Nick stepped close to the mirror, where the light was better, to insert the stem back into the watch. When finished, he listened to it. “Yep, it’s ticking.” He also peered closely at the watch face. “When I found the watch, the hands were set to 11:00. Now they’re at 11:05. Did you move them, Tyler?”
“No, they were already on 11:05 when I bought it. I tried to reset the time, but the hands wouldn’t budge.”
“Well, either way, it’s not doing anything for me.” He handed the watch to Emily. “Maybe you’ll have better luck.”
Emily shifted Tyler’s hand to her shoulder and reached for the timepiece, but her hand paused in mid-air. Holding the triad had triggered some powers, so she wondered if holding the triad and the watch at the same time would trigger even more. If they did, it would prove she had magical powers, and if that happened, what then? Tyler would probably be okay with it, but how about Nick? Would he try to stop Tyler from seeing her if he thought she was different? The possibility made her a bit uneasy, but she pushed the thought aside. If she was different, everyone was simply going to have to get used it. She also couldn’t deny a growing attraction to the idea of having magical powers.
Emily accepted the watch and noticed a tingling in her fingers, just like the triad was now tingling in her other hand. When she looked up, her mouth gaped open in surprise.
The three of them were no longer standing in a wide open expanse. They had somehow shifted to a hallway of mirrors, or at least it appeared to be a hallway. The mirrors were lined up in two rows with a wide space between them. Dozens of mirrors stretched into the distance in both directions, as if they were hanging on the walls of a giant hallway, except there were no walls.