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