Snow White's Mirror

by Shonna Slayton

Billie stopped walking so she could focus on her breathing. Stay calm.

  “Hello?” She called in all directions, but her voice died out on her lips. There was no one out there. No one to help her.

  She was trapped in the mirror.

  Chapter 38

  Billie felt a pulling sensation, leading her to turn to the right, face forward. As she walked, the mist began swirling in earnest, clearing a path for her and showing her the way. The motion felt purposeful, like someone was guiding her.

  She walked for ages it seemed before she came to the mirror frame, suspended in the air. There was no wall, just the frame floating as if of its own accord. It was a very old, gilt frame with a verdigris patina, possibly caused by the heavy mist surrounding it. Intricate carvings of fairies and flowers wound all around the frame, and at the bottom was a pomegranate with two little fairies on either side leaning on the fruit with impish grins.

  Her mouth went dry. It was true. She really was in the mirror. A fairy mirror.

  “Winn?” she called. “Are you here?”

  Her heart beat, beat, beat.

  Silence.

  “Winn!” She stood close to the frame and tried to peer out, imagining the inside of Lou’s shack. “Winn!” The mirror was dark. Did that mean she couldn’t see out, or that the cabin was dark? She touched the surface and then jerked her hand back. It was so cold it burned.

  If she was in the mirror, that meant Winn was out. He would know something had happened and would come to the mirror to find out what. She had to remain calm and wait for him to recover and then call her.

  She’d never been so alone before. Not a sound. Not a soul. Not a hope.

  No. There was always hope. She stood firm in front of the mirror and said:

  Mirror, mirror

  on the wall,

  Help me escape;

  Outside let me fall.

  Not a bad rhyme for making it up on the spot. She waited, but nothing happened. Maybe the person inside the mirror couldn’t ask for something. Or couldn’t ask for their freedom. She tried again.

  Mirror, mirror

  On the wall,

  Medicine for mother?

  My request is small.

  She clasped her hands and waited. Still nothing.

  Billie paced in the small space in front of the mirror, the red shoes glittering brightly against the white mist. Red on white. Blood on snow. A memory sparked.

  The shoes.

  Her father’s voice came to her: “The evil queen couldn’t stay away. When she learned where the wedding was to be held she came to see for herself how beautiful Snow White had become. But before she could enter the chapel and ruin the ceremony for everyone, the townspeople stopped her. They’d had enough. Their fear had finally been overcome by courage. They forced her to put on red-hot shoes of iron. The shoes were so painful she danced and danced until she fell to her death.”

  Billie had always thought that was a strange thing for the villagers to do. They should have just taken away her mirror and put her in jail. Who came up with the idea that shoes would be the death of her?

  She fell to her death. That’s what Dad had said. Red-hot shoes. Fell to her death.

  Billie gasped. The evil queen fell into her mirror. Billie was sure of it. The tale had lost some of its telling over the years. The queen probably danced her way back to the mirror to try to save herself but fell into it instead and became trapped.

  And if that was the case, what if Matron’s red shoes were those same shoes? Matron’s final play for Billie’s vanity which pulled her into the mirror.

  Billie’s head pounded with the possibilities. What happened to that queen? Did she ever escape? It was entirely possible that Matron was the evil queen from the Snow White story.

  The more she thought about it, the more sense it made. The mirror was real. The queen was still alive, and the red shoes were now on Billie’s feet.

  Realization crashed into her, and she pressed her hand to her chest.

  Matron did it.

  The evil queen was free, while she and Winn were trapped.

  She felt sick. If only she could go back five minutes and make a different decision. Matron had left out the shoes to tempt her. Winn warned her Matron would use her greatest weakness against her, and she did. Her vanity.

  Billie reached down to take the shoes off, hoping they were the key to getting out of the mirror. They were hard, like iron. She tugged and pulled, but they wouldn’t come off. Matron must have added the red crystals to the shoes to mask their true nature as iron shoes and make them look pretty instead.

  Billie would have cried if she weren’t already beyond tears.

  Ironic. She’d discovered Matron’s secret, but by doing so, fell into her trap. Now Billie was condemned to a life tied to the mirror. Since it was night, she must have switched positions with Winn. Unless she was the only one inhabiting the mirror now. She choked out a sound. She might have freed Winn only to take his place forever.

  He had never said how oppressive the atmosphere was behind the mirror. She could barely breathe. She collapsed in front of the frame and stared at the ground while she tried to catch her breath. How would she survive this?

  She would not give in to despair. She would not. She forced herself to look up.

  A light flickered in the mirror. Billie pushed herself off the ground and feeling grit, looked at her hands. Traces of dirt, like she was outside. She brushed it off and stared into the mirror. The window to her world.

  The surface was no longer black, but it was still dark. She leaned in, watching the dim scene unfold before her. The flickering light was a match, followed by the flair of a lantern. Winn’s face, angled away from her was illuminated by the lantern he held. He turned to look into the mirror and his expression was wary. That meant he couldn’t see her. She could see him, but he was probably viewing his own reflection.

  Oh, Winn. It’s me. Call to me.

  “Mirror, mirror on the wall,” he started.

  The mist around her became alive again. It swirled and twirled, attacking the glass itself while Winn recited the poem. Small ice fragments stung her skin as the whiteness rushed past her. Tiny prisms that swirled colors onto the mirror’s surface.

  When the mist spun away and the air cleared there was nothing separating her and Winn.

  Except everything separated them.

  His eyes widened. He’d seen her.

  They just stared at each other, adjusting to the reversal of fortunes. Letting the truth seep in.

  “Are you free?” she finally asked. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

  He gasped. “Wilhelmina, what have you done?”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” she said, giving him a half smile. “One minute I was in Matron’s office, the next in the mirror.”

  “You pushed me out.” He looked pained. “Why did you do that?”

  “I didn’t mean to. It just happened.”

  The reality of her situation sank into her bones. She blinked rapidly. She couldn’t fall apart now, not when she’d helped Winn.

  She examined her surroundings again. The mist remained, but it had stepped back as if it couldn’t get too close to the opening, yet still had to stand guard against her.

  “I felt that way myself—that it happened without warning. One minute I was pocketing Fremont’s watch, the next I was falling into the mirror. I hadn’t a clue what was going on. For a time, I wondered if I was dead and what it meant that I was in this place all alone. Then Matron called me to the mirror and explained.” He laughed, a dull sound. “She thanked me.”

  “Are you free?” Her voice came out hard this time. She had to know if her unwitting sacrifice did anything. Right now, nothing else mattered.

  Winn took a step forward. “I’m not going to thank you. I wish you wouldn’t have done it.”

  “Winn, tell me. Are you free? Can you tell if you’ll get pulled in again?”

  His face was in shadows since he stepped away
from the light. She couldn’t see his eyes clearly.

  “I don’t know if the mirror will call me back in or not, but I’m not free if you aren’t. I could never leave you alone in there, Billie. Never.”

  Despite her fear of being trapped in the mirror her heart sang. Winn truly cared for her. “Thank you,” she managed to choke out.

  Winn nodded, but his shoulders closed in, like he had already given up.

  The front door opened, and Lou hobbled in. She dropped her cane when she saw Winn out of the mirror and Billie inside.

  “Wilhelmina.” Lou shook her head. “A fine kettle of fish you’ve gotten yourself into.” Winn picked up Lou’s cane and helped her over to the bed.

  Billie could only imagine what she looked like to Lou, hanging on her otherwise bare walls. Her black crepe gown standing out in stark contrast to the white mist and her despondent face staring out at them. A pitiful sight, for sure. They needed to know what she’d found out.

  “I think I know who Matron really is,” Billie said. “She has the red shoes.”

  Winn looked at her like she’d spoken in German, but Lou cocked her head, her eyes narrowing as if the information struck a chord.

  “She danced in red-hot shoes,” Lou said, recalling the story.

  “One of you please tell me what you’re talking about.” Winn said, exasperated.

  “In the Snow White fairy tale, the evil queen was forced to wear burning-hot shoes that made her dance to her death,” Billie explained to Winn. “But now I know it wasn’t her death she danced to. She danced into the mirror. Being trapped in the mirror was her punishment, a living death.”

  “And you think that person is Matron?” he said. “How long ago was that?”

  “It has to be centuries.” Billie looked to Lou. “The stories are old, but not recorded in the history books. They weren’t supposed to be real.”

  “And she lives on,” Lou said, “Trapped in the mirror she used to try to destroy Snow White. There’s justice for you.” She smiled as if pleased at the punishment.

  “How can we use this information to get her back in the mirror for good?” Winn said.

  “Wish I knew.” Lou hobbled into the kitchen and put the kettle on. “Fremont is the one to ask, but he’s missing.”

  “What changed do you think?” Billie touched the glass separating her and Winn. Her fingers burned and froze at the same time. She snatched her hand back. “Why is the mirror acting differently after all these years? Is it the mirror itself, or did Matron learn how to get out?”

  Winn took another step closer to the mirror, filling the frame with his earnest look. “All I want to know is if Billie has taken Matron’s place.”

  “Because if it’s Matron’s place I’ve taken,” Billie said, staring into Winn’s kind eyes. “Then she is free, and one of us will always be in the mirror.” She swallowed, thinking of the poem she read in the newspaper. Fate. “We’ll never be together again.”

  Chapter 39

  All night Billie was afraid to leave the frame which was her view into the world she had left. If an opportunity for escape presented itself, she had to be ready.

  Winn and Lou kept vigil with her, taking turns pacing and trying to come up with something to talk about that didn’t lead back to the mirror. No one wanted to hint at anything that might upset Billie any further.

  For Billie, it was an eerie business. She could only see a limited portion of the shack, watch them walk in and out of her field of vision, blurred around the edges like a vignette photo.

  To be present, but not. A part, but not.

  She couldn’t imagine living like this for any length of time.

  Alive, but not.

  No one would miss her. The folks in California had said their goodbyes, not expecting to ever see her again. Her friends in Boston didn’t know she was on her way home. She never did get around to sending Jane or Suzanne or Holly a telegram. Only Uncle and her mother, Lou and Winn would notice her absence.

  Billie Bergmann had never felt so unseen in all her life. Growing up as Chester Bergmann’s daughter, she was always aware of who she was, and that people were watching. Now who was she to be? A fairy tale that no one would ever read?

  She was just beginning to figure out her life in preparation for her return to Boston, and now she might never return. She’d have to tell Uncle Dale she’d found the mirror, and why they could never leave Bisbee. How would that conversation go?

  At some point in the early hours of the morning, Billie was thrust from the mirror with a force akin to a steam train. She tumbled onto the bed that Lou had graciously placed under the mirror in the hopes that Billie wouldn’t be stuck forever.

  As soon as she regained her senses, she looked for Winn. Where was he? Where was he? She couldn’t see him. “Lou? Where is he?” She didn’t want to look in the mirror.

  But then strong hands lifted her up from behind, and she gasped with relief.

  “You’re out,” Winn said, and held her tight. “We both are.”

  “Well, yeehaw!” Billie laughed and cried all at once. She nestled into Winn, drawing strength from his arms. She shook from shock, from fear, from relief.

  The air smelled spring-morning fresh after the cloistered mist, and Billie breathed and breathed, trying to rid herself of the stale smell that had also seeped into her clothes. No wonder Winn preferred the outdoors like he did.

  Lou thumped her cane on the floor as she moved to the mirror. She got up close and peered in. “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” she said tersely.

  The mirror swirled and whirled while everyone remained riveted to the spot. Soon, a faint version of Matron was revealed, barely visible at the dawn of day. She was scowling.

  “I am, of course.”

  She scanned the room until her gaze landed on Billie. “Found my shoes, I see,” she said looking down.

  The ruby slippers faded from Billie’s cursed feet and disappeared, leaving behind a burning sensation.

  “Where’d they go?” Billie asked.

  “Child, where do you think? Back onto my feet.” She looked down as if admiring them, but the edges of the mirror cut off the view for the rest of them. “I do hate them so, but they are irresistibly pretty, aren’t they?” She frowned. “And unpredictable. I hoped I’d not see this side of the mirror again.”

  “They’re the portal that pulls you into the mirror,” Billie said.

  “And you, now, too.”

  “I’ll never put them on again.” Billie crossed her arms. Lesson learned.

  “Doesn’t work like that,” Matron said. “They were only the final piece. To tip the scales so to speak. I hoped they’d stay on your feet, and I’d finally be free.” She narrowed her eyes. “Something about you is interfering with my plan, but don’t worry, I’ll figure it out. There’s still time. Once the mirror has you, it doesn’t let go easily. Right, Mr. Harris?”

  Billie didn’t know how to respond. She didn’t like being part of Matron’s plan, but if there was something about her interfering with that plan, she wanted to know what it was to make sure she kept doing it.

  “I never got near your shoes,” Winn said, standing close to the frame. “How did I get pulled into the mirror?”

  Matron shrugged. “You were just trouble waiting to happen and a happy accident for me.”

  “Aren’t you the one in charge of the mirror?” Winn said.

  “If I were in charge, you think I’d still be in here?”

  “Then who is in charge if not the queen?” Lou said.

  Matron twisted her lips as if amused.

  “We figured out who you are,” Billie said. “You’re the evil queen who tried to have Snow White killed.”

  “Evil now, is it? That must have been added to the story after my time. No one called me evil. Ambitious, yes.” She waved her hand nonchalantly. “It wasn’t much of a stretch for you to figure out. Yes, yes. I’m the queen, and you lot are descended from those
nasty dwarfs. Except my card player here, who found himself in the wrong place. Bully for you. Doesn’t change anything, though does it?”

  Billie’s eyes widened at the shift in Matron’s demeanor. If she’d acted like this from the start, it would have been easy to understand why Lou didn’t like her.

  “Actually, it changes a lot,” Billie said. “I’ve got the full picture now.”

  Matron laughed. A big, gut churning chortle that sent a tingle up Billie’s spine.

  “See what I mean?” Winn said. “You’d think a woman stuck in a mirror for centuries would have learned some humility by now.”

  “Silly child. You’ve only got as much of the picture as you’ve figured out, and what they’ve told you,” Matron said. “I gave you a chance. I told you I could help you become whoever you wanted to be. Instead, you fell to temptation. I knew your vanity would be your undoing.”

  Billie let out a small gasp. She wasn’t silly, she just believed life was meant to be enjoyed. Sure, she might place a little too much on outward appearance, but that was no reason to trap her in the mirror. “You planned for me to take your place from the moment you knew I was in town.”

  Matron pursed her lips. “Yes and no. You were always a possibility, but as a Bergmann, you could have been just as useful to me outside the mirror as inside.” She waved her hand in a circular motion. “I could have set you up to do anything you wanted in this town, but you chose to associate with these people instead of me. Wrong decision.”

  “No,” Lou said. “She made the right decision. You’re buying up the town and putting people out of business out of spite. No one wants to be a part of that.”

  “As queen, I’m used to owning everything.” Matron stated it simply, as if there were no other way. “If I’m going to live here, I ought to be comfortable. These immigrants are used to a hard life, in fact, they crave it, moving from one mining place to the next. A town finally begins to get decent, and they move along to the next mining boom.”

  With each taunt Matron threw out, Billie grew angrier. She wanted to say something to show that Matron hadn’t won. That the fight wasn’t over. To take back control from her, even if they didn’t know what they were doing yet. She wanted to do something to disrupt Matron’s life the way she had disrupted Winn’s and now her own.