She opened the door a crack again. “It’s too late. Come back tomorrow.”
When there was no answer, she opened the door wider and peered into the darkness. No one was there. She slammed the door tight and then checked the window, peeking in from the side of the curtain. What game was he playing? She didn’t like it one bit.
Billie grabbed the lantern and a shovel before marching out of the house. She held the light high and swung it around the desolate mountainside.
“Either come out and talk to me or go away. It’s rude to look into people’s houses.” Her anger at Winn fueled her boldness. People should treat each other better.
Cicadas chirped as if nothing was wrong. Chirp wasn’t the right word. The high-pitched hissing noise was more like the thrumming of tinnitus in her ear than a cricket sound.
Billie tread carefully around the corner, ready to throw the lantern in the man’s face and run for it. Her light illuminated the scrub brush and caught the fluffy white tail of a rabbit bounding away.
No one could be fast enough to hide when she came out and then be standing at the window again when she looked. Was it a ghost? She didn’t believe in ghosts.
She went back inside and threw open the curtains. She pressed her nose close to the glass trying to see out. As she did so, the image became clearer and her fear subsided, replaced with irritation.
“It’s you.” Billie said, finally recognizing the faint image of Winn. That boy was exasperating. “Quit playing around. You don’t scare me.”
Indeed, her heart stopped racing. She was so glad she didn’t wake Lou.
First Winn tells her to leave, and then he shows up at Lou’s acting all spooky to scare her away. He was too much. She stormed outside to give him a piece of her mind, but he wasn’t there.
She called out into the dark hills. “No use hiding, Winn. I’ve already seen you.”
I can’t believe he’s doing this. Now she was truly irritated.
“You’re being immature,” she said.
Back in the shack, she went to close the curtains, thinking Winn must have run off for good, but he still appeared faintly in the window. Her reflection merged with his, only his face was devoid of emotion. Not gloating like he had pulled a prank on her. Not frowning like he was trying to make her leave. Vacant like he was frozen in place.
She waved her hand in front of his face, and he didn’t move. Not even a blink.
No.
No. No. No.
She took a step back and examined the oval window. Her reflection. Not in a mirror, but in a window.
Billie placed her palm on the surface, and her fingertips tingled. It couldn’t be. All this time it was right here in the wall of Lou’s shack. Not hidden away in the depths of her mine behind two locked doors. No wonder they missed it. It wasn’t at all what they were expecting.
The magic mirror.
Billie felt sick to her stomach. Not Winn. He wouldn’t do this to her.
With dry lips, she quoted:
“Mirror, mirror
on the wall.
Who’s the fairest
of them all?”
Her palm burned, and she snatched it away, taking two steps back. The glass rippled around the outer edge like it was melting. Soon the entire surface swirled, twisting her reflection. A white mist spread around a silhouette, and when the mist dissipated Winn was there waiting for her.
He grimaced, looking like a schoolboy caught smoking behind the outhouse.
She stared.
He opened his mouth, then went back to his grimace.
“Who are you, really?” Her voice was cold, her breath shaking.
Nothing had prepared her for this. Even though Winn, himself, had been telling her for days to get out of town. Insisting that his problem was so great no one could help him.
He had been warning her to stay away from Lou’s because he didn’t want her to find him in the mirror. He didn’t want her to discover his true identity.
Unless this was a reflection made to look like Winn. Get her to let her guard down. A trick.
“Who are you?” she repeated. “Tell me, or I’ll—” she looked around for something heavy. She grabbed the kettle off the stove. “I’ll break the glass.”
“You know who I am.” His voice was resigned.
“No. I know who you are pretending to be.” She choked back a sob. Not Winn. Please not her Winn.
“Show me what you really look like.” She held the kettle higher in warning. She was expecting a glowing green face or an old wrinkly witch in a black hat to be staring back at her from the magic mirror. Not the cute boy she’d been flirting with since she came to town.
“If breaking the glass would have broken the spell, I would have been out of here months ago,” he said. “It’s unbreakable.”
Billie faltered, but maintained her aggressive stance. “Prove to me that you’re really him.”
He smiled sadly. “The first time I saw you was outside the assayer’s office. You looked spittin’ mad—kind of how you look now—and you caught me staring. The second time was in the restaurant, and the third, you chased me through town until you had me cornered.” He took a deep breath. “And yesterday, I held your hand, tight, so you wouldn’t let go.” He lifted his palm to the glass. “I’m real.”
Billie slowly lowered the kettle. It was him. “So, you lied to me in town, on the mountainside? What are you?”
He waved his hands in protest. “No, no. I’m just like you. Was just like you. I got myself trapped in here a few months ago.”
This was too much to process. Winn was trapped in the magic mirror, which really wasn’t a mirror at all.
“But I’ve seen you. Touched you. How can you also be in there?” She pointed to the window-mirror.
“I’m not always trapped in here. During the day I can leave and live my life as something close to normal. You’ve seen that. But at night? I’m locked away.”
Billie shook her head. “This makes no sense.” No story of Snow White had ever said the mirror was, in fact, a window. It was always a mirror.
Mirror, mirror.
“You think it doesn’t make sense?” Winn said. “I’m the one stuck in here.”
“How do we get you back out?” she said, looking for a way to open the window.
“We don’t. I’m sorry. I tried to scare you off. I should have tried harder, but you didn’t make it easy.”
A loud snore broke the silence. Any other time it would have gotten a laugh, but Billie and Winn just stared at each other.
Billie pulled up the rocking chair. “You better start talking, and don’t leave anything out.”
Chapter 24
Before answering, Winn looked around the room. “Lou isn’t awake, is she?”
“Sleeping, a bit fitfully, but she’s out.”
He lowered his voice. “I figured, otherwise this conversation would not be happening.”
Winn strained to look over Billie’s shoulder. “She’s going to kill me now that you know, but it’s not as if I told you. I tried to be as still as possible, despite how hard you were making it for me.”
Well, that answered one thing. Lou wasn’t the innocent cousin. She pretended the value in her claim was the turquoise, but really, it was the mirror.
He cracked a smile. “It was quite charming how you were going after the intruder. Exactly how were you going to use that shovel?”
Heat rose up her neck as she realized the implications. “You’ve been watching me.”
“Hey. I wasn’t trying to. You’re the one who likes to open the curtains.”
Billie covered her mouth with her hands. This wasn’t happening. She shook her head. “I don’t believe this. That really is the magic mirror? The one from Snow White?”
He shrugged. “Apparently. I had no idea the thing was real. Instead of reading mysteries, turns out I should have been reading fairy tales.”
Billie cocked her head. “Is that your book over there?”
She pointed to the library book of Sherlock Holmes.
“Yeah, did you like the story?”
“That’s beside the point.” She waved her hands to indicate the mirror. “So, you aren’t the original…”
“The original chump? No. I suspect he got out of here a long time ago. Back in the Snow White days, I bet. No, I’m the latest fool to stumble into here.” He patted around the edges of the frame as if looking for a way out.
Billie stood and touched the glass again. “You’re in there for real? Not a trick like what I saw at the theater? Because I’ve seen you outside.”
“Yes. I’m telling you the truth. I’ve no clue how this all works. That’s my problem. From roughly sundown to sunrise I inhabit this space. Otherwise, I’m free to roam about the country, as far as my invisible tether lets me. Go too far, and well, you’ve seen what happens. As soon as the last hint of sun crosses the horizon I’m sucked back to my nightly prison. At dawn I land on my backside inside the shack. Lou usually keeps the bed below the mirror so it’s a softer landing.”
Accusingly, Billie put her hands on her hips. “Why haven’t I seen you fall out?”
He chuckled. “I presume you’ve been in the outhouse when it happens.”
“I just. I can’t.” Billie held her hands out. She and her uncle wanted to find the mirror so they could find a way to cure her mom. Some medicine or concoction the mirror could give them. “I had all these expectations about what the mirror was or could be. But…it’s you.”
Winn frowned. “Hey, now. I’m not such a poor find, am I?”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” She was having a hard time keeping her voice quiet. She could hear her own panic as she tried to adjust her expectations. Her hopes. Her disappointment. “Are you magical?” she asked.
He laughed. “If I were, do you think I’d be stuck in here? No, I was a normal guy, still am, except for the obvious.”
“So, what is the point of this magic mirror?” Seemed it had no good use at all.
“Shh. Don’t wake Lou. She won’t like us talking, and she’ll close the curtains again. It gets pretty boring in here.”
Billie refused to be shushed now. “That morning when Lou kicked me out before sunrise. I thought you were following me, but you had just come out of the mirror?”
“Yeah, and your cousin threatened me within an inch of my life to stay away from you. I tried to stay away. Really, I did. But you were so cute and helpless.” He cleared his throat. “Wonder what she’s going to do now.”
“You thought I was helpless?” And cute. He also said cute.
He raised his eyebrows. “You’re not going to tell me that you’ve had everything under control since you walked into town, are you? Remember, I’ve been watching.”
Billie closed her lips tight. Had she done anything embarrassing in this room? When you think you are alone, you can do some unguarded things. Oh, no. That first night with Boston on her mind, she had pretended to be at the fall formal with Branson asking her to dance.
“Yeah. I saw that.” He was grinning. Grinning so wide his face looked like it would burst.
He couldn’t have known what she was thinking, but he’d seen enough unguarded moments it didn’t matter which unguarded moment he was referring to.
“You’re horrible! I can’t believe you would watch a girl unawares like that. I should have you arrested.” Billie forgot to keep her voice down.
Lou startled and rolled over.
They watched, waiting to see if she would wake.
He held up his hands. “Look. It’s not like I purposely crept up to your window and spied on you.”
He had a point. And she did close the curtain whenever she needed privacy, so he hadn’t seen too much of her. But how did he end up in the mirror?
Lou took a deep breath.
“Did she trap you inside?” Billie asked, glancing at Lou.
Winn shook his head. “No. Lou put the mirror in the wall, not realizing what it was, and then she discovered me accidentally, much like you did. When she saw me, she knew exactly what the mirror was. Apparently, your family has stories?”
Billie nodded. Did they ever. Minus some important details.
“Then Lou made curtains. Said she didn’t like the way I stared.”
“Are you awake in the mirror? You did have a vacant stare until I said the poem.”
“I’m aware of things, but I can’t interact until you say the stupid rhyme. I’m probably supposed to answer the question.”
Billie couldn’t help herself. She quirked a smile. “So, who is the fairest in the land?” she crossed her arms, arching her eyebrows in a challenge. She was partly teasing, but also serious.
“I don’t know who’s the fairest of them all. Besides the fact I think it’s a bad trick for a mirror to have, I think that part is broken—the original spell maybe, because it doesn’t tell me anything. Besides, what do I know about ultimate beauty? I like what I like, that’s all I know.”
Was that a blush creeping up his neck? Did that mean he did know and didn’t want to tell her? Or was he awkward about girls? She’d circle back to the question later. There were too many other things to learn right now.
“But if you really want my opinion,” he said, “fairest isn’t about looks, it’s about character. Who is fair, and who’s in it for themselves.”
Billie was taken aback hearing this from the boy she thought was a con artist Faro dealer. He didn’t know how close he’d come to touching a nerve with her when he mentioned fairness. She’d been struggling over what she and uncle were planning. Was it fair to take the mirror?
Maybe the mirror wasn’t broken after all.
She’d let it go for now. Instead, she took to examining the glass. It appeared to be a normal window pane except for its unusual oval shape. Looking at it with this new perspective, it was obviously mirror-shaped. It could have remained hidden from her and Uncle for months.
“Why isn’t this an actual mirror? You know, ‘mirror, mirror’?”
“Not entirely sure about that either. It acts like a mirror at night when you can see your reflection. During the day, it’s a window.” He looked around the frame and reached up to touch something. His hands came away with what looked like crumbling pieces of wood. “The thing is falling apart inside. It’s really old. I suspect it will eventually crumble into nothing, and if it happens while I’m in here, I’m trapped. Or dead. If it happens when I’m on the outside, maybe I’ll get to live a normal life?” He shrugged. “There’s no instruction book for this.”
Billie squinted, trying to see past Winn. “What is in there?” All she could see was swirling mist behind him.
“Nothing. I can understand why my predecessor wanted out.” He looked over his shoulder. Sometimes there’s a light. And sometimes I can hear music.”
“Odd. Is it a room? Do you hit a wall?
“I’ve never found a wall. I’ve walked for hours in one direction and it’s all been the same.”
“So, you have a floor.”
He nodded. “Dirt. And a window.” He chuckled.
Billie smiled back. At least he wasn’t completely bitter about his circumstances. “Can you ask it for things? Like a cure for my mom?” She felt callous for asking, but if he could help her mother, they’d get something good out of a bad situation.
“I wish.” He looked all around the frame. “No, I’m powerless, trapped in this strange prison.”
“Can’t you get out the way the original person did?”
“I suspect I’ll need to find my own chump to trick into the mirror. Know of anyone?”
Billie took a step back, senses alert. “You’re not thinking of me, are you?”
His eyes grew wide, “No. I would never. At least not yet.”
“What do you mean, not yet?”
He held up his hands in a stop motion. “If I get desperate enough there is no telling what I will do. That’s why your cousin wanted me to stay away from you. D
esperation makes people do things they normally wouldn’t.”
“But if I know about you and the mirror, how can you trick me?”
“That’s why it would be a trick, now isn’t it? But no, I’m hoping that staying on my best behavior can be my ticket out of here. You know, time off for good behavior.”
“You’re not making sense.”
He took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “This is like a prison. I thought if I changed my ways, I would be released. But nothing I’ve tried has freed me from this place. Apparently, I can’t pay for my own sins.”
“What do you mean?”
“Before you met me I was a thief. I stole things from all over this town. But with my wages from the Apple, I’ve paid back everything I ever stole and a little more. My last payment was the day you came into town. That’s when I noticed you. I’d just come from the store and heard you and your uncle talking. I followed you and pieced together why you were here.”
Billie didn’t know what to think. She’d seen how angry he’d gotten with those children when he caught them gambling. But she was also having a hard time reconciling the fact that he was a Faro dealer. She couldn’t only consider the things about Winn she liked. She had to see all of him.
“Lou wants me to stay away from you for many reasons, not just the mirror. She knew me before I was trapped. I stole from her.”
“You certainly did,” Lou said.
Billie jumped. She was so focused on Winn she’d forgotten her sleeping cousin.
Chapter 25
“I see neither of you heeded my warnings. Winn, didn’t I tell you to stay away from Wilhelmina?” Lou struggled to stand. “And Wilhelmina, the same about Winn?”
“You stay off that foot.” Billie rushed to Lou’s side. “Here, I’ll help you sit back.”
Winn looked sheepish. “I didn’t tell her. She figured it out on her own. You know I can’t hide myself in here.” He pressed around the edges of the mirror as if to prove his point. “When someone says the rhyme, I get pulled front and center to the frame. We’ve experimented.”
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