Snow White's Mirror

by Shonna Slayton

  Billie began her ritual by stepping just inside the entrance, picturing Winn’s face and hearing him saying “breathe.” How did miners do this day in, day out for years?

  Uncle Dale waited, her problem being no secret in the family.

  When she looked up at him, he said, “Ready?”

  She nodded. It was easier this time.

  “Watch your step.” Uncle Dale pointed to the rubble from the latest blast. Piles of jagged rocks, both big and small, littered the area with only a narrow path cleared through into the darker cavern of Lou’s mine.

  Billie shuddered at the close quarters, the walls and ceiling close enough to touch, heavy with granite, streaked with minute traces of copper and gold. This must be the vein that crossed over into Lou’s. It wasn’t that spectacular, and she was surprised her uncle managed to make a case for it.

  “Look what’s hidden here. Can you understand any of this?” Uncle Dale asked, shining his light onto a cache of household items better suited for a living room than an underground mine.

  Billie’s pale light followed his, spotlighting on paintings, candlesticks, silk pillows, furniture. She took a stunned step forward.

  “If Lou’s so rich, why is she living the way she is?” Uncle Dale said, voicing Billie’s thoughts. “The old bird. She’s either more devious that I gave her credit, or she needs help. Sure as the sun sets, if she’s got the mirror, this is where it would be. Start looking.”

  Lou did say Fremont had left some things in the mine, but there were far too many luxury items to all belong to the missing cousin from Germany. But why would Lou have a cave of hidden treasures? Billie was missing something. Something Winn had said. What was it? And then something that Matron said about gifts, that Lou had refused all of her gifts.

  A side table that wasn’t there before.

  A vase of flowers left at Lou’s bedside and rejected.

  These were from Matron. She was giving gifts to Lou, trying to link her to the mirror somehow.

  Billie couldn’t go into the cavern. This space represented Lou’s strong will. Her fight against Matron. The sheer number of gifts, piled floor to ceiling was overwhelming. How could Lou stand up to the pressure for so long?

  “Quickly now,” Uncle Dale said, “Before she gets in here and moves things.” He shoved a rock off an object, and then held up a golden candlestick. “Amazing quality. The blast didn’t even scratch it.”

  A rock that size should have at least dented the candlestick. With renewed interest, Billie wandered the rows, amazed at what she saw. The magic mirror, despite its age and slow degradation had proved to be indestructible. What if Matron had been getting these items from the mirror?

  The mirror could give her the medicine for her mother after all.

  Billie glanced at Uncle wondering that he didn’t hear her; her thoughts were shouting.

  She made a show of searching through the treasures, but her mind was down the tunnel and on the other side of Lou’s locked door. Uncle had been on the right track, justified in his search, though questionably not his methods.

  As she looked at the treasures, another thought hit her hard. Winn and Lou already knew they could get things from the mirror. The evidence was all around her. They already knew and hadn’t told her.

  That’s why Matron laughed when Billie boasted she had the whole picture. After all she’d been through, and they still didn’t trust her?

  Her heart was crushed that she was still being left out. How were they to work together if they didn’t tell her everything they knew about the mirror?

  Uncle systematically scoured the cache on his side of the room, then came over to Billie’s and did the same. “Double-check me over there,” he said, pointing her where he wanted her to go.

  Each piece she looked at was lovely, but Billie knew she wouldn’t find what he was looking for. She marveled over all of Matron’s gifts until she thought of her own gifts from Matron and felt a chill run down her back.

  Matron got her exquisite objects from the mirror.

  Winn had warned her, but Billie thought she was strong enough to come close to temptation and not fall. How foolish she had been. Item by coveted item, she had been drawn into Matron’s web, which was tied to the mirror.

  After they’d seen every bauble and brick-a-brack, Uncle Dale raised his empty hands. “Well, that’s it, then. No mirror here. I’d still like to check out the rest of the mine, if you don’t mind keeping Lou out of here for me.”

  Billie nodded absently. “That might be hard to do once she sees what you did.” Billie shone her light at the hole blasted in the wall. “Can’t hide that.” Nor could Billie hide that she knew what Lou was still keeping from her.

  “I can’t predict anything that woman might do.” Uncle Dale’s gaze took in the room, his light shining on each item one by one. He shook his head. “Sorry I gave you hope. I guess those stories of your dad’s were just that. Stories. I can have things wrapped up here today.” He pointed at her. “Don’t say I don’t know how to cut my losses. Be ready to leave this weekend.”

  Chapter 42

  Winn waited outside Lou’s, sitting on the ground and leaning against the dried, splintered wood of the shack, his Stetson pulled low. Billie had a hard time looking him in the eye. Why didn’t he tell me? He knew how important finding a cure for my mother was.

  “My uncle broke through,” she said. “He’s doing one final sweep for the mirror.” She tried to keep her voice casual, like nothing had changed, but she must have failed, given the way he looked at her.

  “Guess he’ll be disappointed, then. No hidden magic mirror deep within the mine.” Winn stood, brushing the dirt from his trousers.

  Winn had to have known about the stash hidden in the mine. He knew the flowers came from Matron because Lou told him to give them back…to her.

  “No, but he found some other things back there that Lou was trying to keep hidden.” She searched his face for his reaction. He looked at his boots.

  “Oh.”

  “Is that all? Oh? I can understand not telling me before I was trapped in the mirror with you, but now that I’m fully involved, shouldn’t I be fully involved? You know what I want from it.”

  “Yes. I’m sorry. Lou is still looking out for you.”

  “And you go along with her. Every. Time. Why?”

  He took a deep breath. “The mirror is in her house. It’s her responsibility.” He lifted his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. “And I think she’s right.”

  Billie twisted her lips.

  “She didn’t want you to be tempted more than you were able to handle. In all fairness to her, if you knew that you could get whatever you wanted from the mirror, would you have been more focused on figuring that part out, or working on how to escape?”

  “Escape, of course.” Or both. Both. If she could figure out how to get her mother’s medicine before the window closed…or if she could talk Matron into getting it for her…

  “Billie? Are you listening?” Winn waved his hand in front of her face.

  “Yes. What?”

  “I was saying that our time is so short we have to stay focused on the one thing. You can still do that, right?”

  She nodded. Yes. Time is short. She groaned, remembering what Uncle Dale said. “My uncle wants to leave this weekend.”

  Winn raised his eyebrows. “I’d like to see you try.”

  “What do I tell him?”

  “Nothing. The mirror will take care of everything.”

  “Can you imagine what would happen if I disappeared on the train, or if the train hit another camel when I tried to leave?”

  “That was probably the last camel in Arizona.”

  She tried not to laugh. “You know what I mean.”

  Winn reached for Billie’s hand. “You can’t tell him. It makes no sense unless you see it. And if you show him the mirror, what do you think he would do? He bought the claim next to Lou’s for crying out loud and blasted his way
in. You know the fever that sets in when someone finds treasure.” He pulled her forward, and they started walking down the mountain.

  “Take the town of Bisbee, for example,” he said pointing in the direction they were walking. “The first guy to find evidence of mineral deposits told two people, and they staked a claim together. Then he grubstaked another guy by the name of Warren to find more. Instead of keeping it between them, Warren told his friends, and they staked a bunch more claims, leaving the first guy out of it altogether. Nowadays most folks think of Warren as the founder of the camp. No one can keep a secret, so how many more people do we want to know about the mirror? Your uncle has seen what the mirror can produce. If he makes the connection, and that kind of information spreads, there’ll be a boomtown thrown up at Lou’s front door.”

  “So, there’s our answer. We don’t tell.” And see what happens when I get on a train. “Are we sticking to our plan then?” she asked.

  “Yes. This is no way to live. We keep on Matron until we uncover her secrets.”

  Once in town, they made their way to the back of the Poisoned Apple and snuck into Matron’s office. The dark clouds gathering outside made for dim light inside, but they couldn’t risk turning on the chandelier.

  Winn went straight for her file cabinet, and Billie looked through the desk again. They both completed thorough searches before moving on to other areas in the office, turning over pillows and looking behind picture frames.

  “I’m not finding anything,” Winn said.

  “Me either. There’s got to be something.” Billie started for the closet, but on her way there she stopped and stared at her reflection in Matron’s mirror. “Huh,” she said. “What if?” Billie looked around for a hefty object. She settled on a deep blue azurite paperweight from off Matron’s desk.

  “What are you doing?” Winn asked.

  Billie paused, the paperweight aimed at Matron’s mirror. “Just a hunch.”

  When a roll of thunder sounded outside she threw the azurite. The mirror shattered. She frowned. “I thought for sure.”

  “You were testing to see if it was another magic mirror? You could have just asked it.”

  “But then she might have seen us in her office.”

  What was bothering Billie was that she’d tried on the shoes in the office but fell into the mirror hanging on the wall at Lou’s. If Matron could make, or ask for things from the mirror, wouldn’t she think to make another mirror to use as a portal?

  “Come on,” Winn said. “We better get out of here. Someone will have heard that.”

  They scrambled outside without getting caught and made their way to the front of the building.

  “The items Lou stores in the mine are unbreakable,” Billie said. “The blast didn’t affect them. All that dynamite and rock? They were undamaged even when they got hit. I thought maybe…”

  “No. If that mirror were magic, don’t you think Matron would use it for convenience sake? She’s not the type to hike down a mountain every night unless she had no choice.”

  Winn had a point, but the idea wouldn’t leave. She needed to think about it some more. In comfort. “I’m going back to the hotel,” she said before stepping out onto the street. Another flash of lightning lit the sky, and suddenly buckets of rain dumped down before she was halfway across the street. The roar of millions of raindrops splatting against tin roofs and hard-packed clay was louder than any train rushing into town.

  “Run for it!” Winn called as he went the other direction.

  Instantly drenched, Billie dashed through the mud and into the nearest hotel with everyone else running from the rain. By the time she’d made it inside, the bottom of her skirt was caked in wet clay. What a mess they had all brought with them into the lobby. It looked like a river delta spreading out, the way their muddy shoes dropped the dirt at the doorway.

  She squeezed her way to a place at the window so she could watch the downpour. There was no sign of Winn, so he must have ducked under shelter somewhere else.

  Those who had sought refuge on the sidewalks under awnings were soon standing in water and had to clamber for higher ground on stairs or in buildings. The streets became puddles, became creeks, became rivers. Billie had never seen anything like it.

  “Where’s all the water coming from?” Billie asked as she watched the waters race down the street.

  “Floods. We get them sometimes,” said a waitress, taking a break from her customers to watch the excitement outside. “Runs right off the mountains, gets channeled through the valley and into town. Always makes a mess.” She looked out the window. “I’ve never seen it this bad.”

  Several pieces of wood floated and churned on top of the brown water. Then larger pieces floated by, a lamp shade, and then possibly curtains zipped by.

  “It got a house,” someone said, excited.

  “It won’t flood in here?” Billie asked, eyeing the water rising higher and higher up the steps. Would they be swept away?

  “Doubt it,” said a man watching at the window beside her.

  “There’s someone stuck in the water,” a little boy said, pointing up the street.

  “He’s right,” another said. “Hurry.”

  At the top of the road, a head was bobbing, arm flailing while the figure gripped a piece of debris floating on the rising water. He latched onto a tree caught between buildings and it looked for a moment like he was saved, but the panic on his face revealed he was losing his grip against the waters trying to sweep him away.

  Several men raced outside. A rope was procured and tossed to a gentleman across the street. They held it taut and called out to the poor soul fighting for his life. “We’ll catch you.”

  Billie held her breath. It was difficult to tell if the man noticed the rescuers. Could they be heard above the noise of the water? The crowd forming on the porch began calling to him and gesturing to let go.

  He did.

  Seconds after releasing the tree he was hurtling toward the rope. He latched on with both hands, as water surged up around him and over his head.

  “He’s going to drown,” a woman yelled.

  A burly man, who Billie recognized as one of the firemen in the parade jumped into the water, using the rope to guide him. The men on either side of the road strained at the added weight.

  For several seconds it looked as if they would both be lost, but the fireman fought the current, lugging the half-drowned man slung over his shoulders until they reached the steps of the hotel.

  “Stand back. Give him some room.”

  They dragged the man across the threshold where they paused to let him get his bearings.

  Safe, he lay in the mud of the entryway, panting to catch his breath. Wet black hair plastered to his skull, and his clothes dripped a wide puddle around him.

  Quickly, someone handed over a wool blanket to wrap him up. The water outside was comparatively warm, but shock was setting in, and the man visibly shivered.

  But above all this, what caught Billie’s attention most was that he was a dwarf.

  A coincidence? How many dwarfs were common to remote mining towns?

  With her heart beating hard against her chest she hovered at the edge of the crowd, not taking her eyes off the newcomer. She feared if she glanced away he might disappear again, and now that she had found him, she wasn’t letting him go.

  “Are you well?” Someone asked him.

  He nodded, rubbing his beard. “Ja. Yes,” he said with a thick German accent.

  Billie sucked in a breath. It had to be him. Her missing cousin, the owner of the watch and, hopefully, the missing piece in this whole mirror mystery.

  Chapter 43

  Since Billie and her distant cousin Fremont had never met, he couldn’t know who she was, but he had definitely noticed her staring. He kept checking to see if she was looking, and of course she was. Billie didn’t care if she was making him uncomfortable.

  She had to wait until the crowd around him left, and she could
speak privately. She wanted to run and get Lou, but aside from the danger of going outside with the flood rising, that would give him an opportunity to slip away. The way his gaze shifted to the door and the flood waters rushing by seemed like he was contemplating throwing himself back in to get away from all the people hovering over him.

  She inched closer in case he decided to try his luck in the water.

  Eventually, the curious started wandering off for more excitement in watching the flood, and Billie saw her opportunity.

  When he looked at her again, she said, “We have your watch.”

  The man flinched, and after a moment of staring at her, darted for the door. Wrapped the way he was in a blanket, he had trouble with balance, slipping on the mud, and landing with a thud.

  “Whoa there, cowboy.” A man with a handlebar mustache stopped Fremont from leaving and handed him a towel. “You ain’t goin’ back out in that.” He forced Fremont to sit back down. “I’ll be right back with some dry clothes.”

  Billie stood protectively with Fremont while the man made his way around the room gathering whatever the men were willing to give up. Billie wondered how he planned to talk a pair of pants off someone.

  “Lou’s been worried about you.”

  “Who are you?” he said.

  “Chester Bergmann’s daughter. Wilhelmina.”

  “Ach du lieber.” He dried his hair with the towel. “It is a family reunion then? Where is the old man?” Fremont’s accent hit the consonants hard.

  “My father passed away a few months ago.”

  Fremont took in her black crepe as if seeing it for the first time. “Ach. I am sorry. What are you doing here?”

  “Bringing your watch back to Lou, but I guess now that you’re here it should go to you?”

  He paused, looking uncomfortable. “Ja, it is mine.”

  “Does Lou know you’re back? You know you disappeared without a ne’er-you-will.”

  Fremont cleared his throat. “That could not be helped.”