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I stepped in front of it and started to check out my hair.<br />
I mean, that’s what mirrors are for, right?<br />
“Who would put a mirror in a room all by itself?” Erin asked. I could see her dark reflection in<br />
the mirror, a few feet behind me.<br />
“Maybe it’s a valuable piece of furniture or something,” I said, reaching into my jeans pocket for<br />
my comb. “You know. An antique.”<br />
“Did your parents put it up here?” Erin asked.<br />
“I don’t know,” I replied. “Maybe it belonged to my grandparents. I just don’t know.” I ran the<br />
comb through my hair a few times.<br />
“Can we go now? This isn’t too thrilling,” April said. She was still lingering reluctantly in the<br />
doorway.<br />
“Maybe it was a carnival mirror,” Lefty said, pushing me out of the way and making faces into<br />
the mirror, bringing his face just inches from the glass. “You know. One of those fun house mirrors<br />
that makes your body look like it’s shaped like an egg.”<br />
“You’re already shaped like an egg,” I joked, pushing him aside. “At least, your head is.”<br />
“You’re a rotten egg,” he snapped back. “You stink.”<br />
I peered into the mirror. I looked perfectly normal, not distorted at all. “Hey, April, come in,” I<br />
urged. “You’re blocking most of the light.”<br />
“Can’t we just leave?” she asked, whining. Reluctantly, she moved from the doorway, taking a<br />
few small steps into the room. “Who cares about an old mirror, anyway?”<br />
“Hey, look,” I said, pointing. I had spotted a light attached to the top of the mirror. It was ovalshaped,<br />
made of brass or some other kind of metal. The bulb was long and narrow, almost like a<br />
fluorescent bulb, only shorter.<br />
I gazed up at it, trying to figure it out in the dim light. “How do you turn it on, I wonder.”<br />
“There’s a chain,” Erin said, coming up beside me.<br />
Sure enough, a slender chain descended from the right side of the lamp, hanging down about a<br />
foot from the top of the mirror.<br />
“Wonder if it works,” I said.<br />
“The bulb’s probably dead,” Lefty remarked. Good old Lefty. Always an optimist.<br />
“Only one way to find out,” I said. Standing on tiptoes, I stretched my hand up to the chain.<br />
“Be careful,” April warned.<br />
“Huh? It’s just a light,” I told her.<br />
Famous last words.<br />
I reached up. Missed. Tried again. I grabbed the chain on the second try and pulled.<br />
The light came on with a startlingly bright flash. Then it dimmed down to normal light. Very<br />
white light that reflected brightly in the mirror.<br />
“Hey—that’s better!” I exclaimed. “It lights up the whole room. Pretty bright, huh?”<br />
No one said anything.<br />
“I said, pretty bright, huh?”<br />
Still silence from my companions.<br />
I turned around and was surprised to find looks of horror on all three faces.