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“Please—pull the string!” I called.
No one seemed to hear me.
“We’re just hanging out,” I heard Zack tell my mom.
“But where’s Max?” I heard her ask. “How did you find this little room? What are you all doing
in here?” Her voice sounded as if it were coming from underwater, far, far away.
The entire room began to shimmer in the light, flickering on and off. I held on tightly to the frame
of the mirror, struggling not to float away.
“Can you hear me?” I called. “Please, somebody—pull the string! Bring me back!”
They were just gray shadows in the wavering, rolling light. They didn’t seem to hear me.
Gripping the frame tightly, I saw a shadow approach the mirror. My mom. She walked around it,
admiring it.
“I can’t believe we never knew about this room. Where did this old mirror come from?” I heard
her ask.
She was standing so close to me. They all were.
They were so close and so far away at the same time.
“Please bring me back!” I shouted.
I listened for an answer. But the voices faded away.
The shadows moved in a flickering blur. I tried to reach out to them, but they were too far away.
I let go of the mirror frame and began to float.
“Mom, I’m right here. Can’t you hear me? Can’t you do anything?”
So light, so completely weightless, I floated in front of the mirror.
My feet were off the floor. I couldn’t see them in the blinding glare.
I floated to the mirror glass, under the light.
I could feel the light pull me closer. Closer.
Until it pulled me right into the mirror.
I knew I was inside the mirror. Inside a glistening blur of colors. The shapes shimmered and
rolled together as if underwater.
And I floated through the glimmering shards of light and color, floated silently away from my
friends, away from my mom, floated away from the tiny attic room.
Into the center of the mirror.
Into the center of an undulating, rolling world of twisting lights and colors.
“Help me!” I cried.
But my voice was muffled by the blurred, shifting colors.
“Bring me back! Get me back!”
Floating deeper into this glimmering world, I could barely hear myself.
Deeper into the mirror. And still deeper.
The colors gave way to shapes of gray and black. It was cold here. Cold as glass.