Never Spring

On The Other Side

"Hey, you look so funky in this one. " slender hands lightly pushed me in front of a bent mirror and I appraised myself.

My hands were bent here and there. I could hardly recognize my widened and swirling features.

"I would put you in a colourful dress and display you as an art piece in a gallery."

The comment somehow didn't phase me.
The man standing just out of my sight was captured by a neighbouring mirror.
Impossibly tall, lean, pale, frail, blonde... He was a picture of a different nature.

"Why, thank you."

"Fire did an interesting number on all my works."

Firm but gentle pull brought me in front of a veined through glass so polished it might as well have been a mirror.

"What do you see?" He asked.
"A memory." my mouth moved but the voice that came out wasn't my own...

I gasped and sat up in my bed, my hands shaking as I grabbed my hair.

"Mom..." I wailed softly, my whole body shaking as I took in a new breath.

Mom's pendant swayed by it's chain around my neck.

I checked the clock by my bed; 3 am.

Noah rolled in his bed at the other side of the room, still dreaming.

Thank God.

I didn't manage to fall asleep again.

***

"Stay, I need you to do the writing. I'm sure he's there." I shared my dream with Jack over recess.

"You might yet catch up on me." he gave me a wry smile

"This is haunting."

"It is."

"Is it like that with you?" I couldn't imagine the sleep depravation of a month of this ability.

"Sometimes. But more often when I daydream. You could say I catch them easier in the light of day."

As our classroom cleared I focused, trying to call forth the vision as it was in my dream.

The smell of a cigarette came first, then the lithe figure made itself known in my own shadow.

Without the shadow fading, I heard the chalk move over looped words.

"Visit me again at my shop sometimes."