Never Spring

Playtime

Jack has taken my bag into the house.
Auntie agreed to let me stay with him after school on condition I got my homework done while at it.
"Come on, or are you chickening out?" Jack teased me from the balcony. I clenched my jaw and looked the tree over. I was a dexterous climber and I was positive I could make it. And then my homework would write itself.
From the balcony Jack cackled and clucked and I frowned, making my first attempt at finding the right place to carry my weight.
Soon Jack wasn't clucking anymore and watched my steady ascend. Foot to the right, a stabilising hand, the bark was holding my weight without yielding. From the topmost branch I could see Jack, slack-jawed.
"Well," I said landing on the balcony ", that wasn't so hard."
"Well...well it would have been if you weren't so skinny!" Jack pouted.
"Excuses. You have to write my homework then, I'll be so kind as to write you out a sample of my handwriting."
I followed Jack inside practically skipping.

The room I found myself in was large with a king-sized bed to the right and wardrobe lining the wall to the left. The middle was mostly taken up by a large table big enough to fit a family of six.

"Is this really your room?" I asked, scrutinizing the classic oil on canvas painting of the woods above the bed.

"What? I can't have a nice room?" Jack crossed his arms over his chest.
"It's just so... Out of character..." I searched for the right words, not wanting to offend him.
After a moment Jack shrugged.
"I thought it would be nicer to work in than my crampy room." something about the way he said it made me give up probing him further.

"Alright then. Work first, play later." I mimicked my auntie's favourite catchphrase and Jack muttered something under his breath.

***

"Play now." Jack closed the books and stuffed them in our bags.
"We can leave the bags here. I want to show you something." he said, and I didn't question him.
"You like ruins, right?" he asked, getting his coat on.

I remembered how I stopped at the ruined asylum yesterday... It wasn't exactly because it was a ruin...

"Yeah you could say I do." I said, not wanting to draw further attention to it.
"Good." Jack smiled impishly.

***

"Wow!" I carefully stepped over the threshold.
"Right? I can't believe they just left it like this but then again..." Jack stopped to make a scary face at the broken mirror.
The doors were burnt open and we were carefully stepping through a studio filled with mirrors. Some big, some small, some framed in artfully crafted pieces, some shattered, some seemed like molten plastic barely reflecting the floor littered with glass shards and an assortment of small items.
"Is it OK for us to be here?" I rubbed my arm, uneasy.
"Don't tell me you are scared." Jack said, starting to make circles around me. He stopped and started clucking again and I placed my hands on my hips. I turned and strode towards a blackened mirror. I started to make faces at it.
Jack stood right behind me so I could barely see him. I got immersed in contorting my face in all the nastiest ways. A moment later Jacked joined in beside me and we were laughing at our reflections in no time. I turned and played with my reflection in a big bent mirror which made me look chubby, then slender and tall, back to chubby.
"Joan! Come see!" Jack called and we explored a workshop with items we knew nothing about but tried to work anyway.
There was a certain warmth to the place I couldn't quite put my figure on. It didn't seem so scary as when I first stepped in.

We lingered, playing with our reflections, catching light in glass shards.

"Careful you don't cut yourself." Jack warned, sounding almost like uncle.
"What?" he asked when I looked at him. "Your mom wouldn't let me hang out with you anymore if you did."
I went silent.
Not my mom. I thought to myself.
My emotions consumed me...
"Hey, hey whats wrong, don't cry..." Jack drew closer, unsure what to do when tears started rolling down my face.
"I-I just..." I desolved into wails.
Jack hugged me and rocked me back and forth.
"It's OK, It's going to be alright." he cooed softly, his voice was different... As if he was mimicing someone else... I didn't care, I was grateful for his comfort.

It took me some time to settle down and gather myself up. Jack stayed quiet and only watched over me for a while.

"Let's go home." he decided for us both and I nodded and followed. My chest felt empty, as if someone reached in and hid my heart away from me.

With my last look around the place I noticed serpentine writing on one of the mirrors. It said:

"Thank you! Please come again!"