The One-Hundred-in-One-Mirror

Subject: The One-Hundred-in-One-Mirror October 4th 2008, 4:52 am

Thanks to Kellycakes.... this is what the October challenge brought...

One-Hundred-in-One-Mirror

By Alexandra Riera

Natalie was as vain as any young woman could be in public although she took things to the extreme sometimes. Whenever she passed a shop window she would look at her reflection and immediately afterwards, she would readjust her hair or her coat. At home it was a little worse, according to her friends, of course. According to her, it was perfectly normal to have the house filled with mirrors in every single wall and even behind doors. Her excuse was that she had to look good at all times, not for anyone in particular, as you will surely understand, but for her sake as she didn’t have a boyfriend or anyone who was after her. What she did have were girlfriends and with them she shared make up tips and exchanged fashion news on a regular basis.

One day she complained that none of her mirrors showed her true self so her friends advised her to place an advert in e-bay for the “ultimate mirror” and see what she found. They assured her that that site had almost anything anyone could possibly want or not want and so, without any more delay, she went onto the computer and placed an add. Natalie wasn’t surprised at the responses she got but was surprised by the amount of different mirrors that were out there in the world. Someone offered her “The-one-hundred-in-one-mirror” and without giving it much more thought she went for it. She didn’t pay much for it; in fact, she had only paid what she would have paid for a bubble gum at the kiosk.

The mirror was delivered within a week. The mirror was much more than what she had expected although on first looking at it she had thought that it was just a plain and ordinary mirror. The mirror was as tall as her and it was supported by a wooden stand at the back attached to a beautifully carved wooden frame. She didn’t care about the frame, she was more interested in the little wheels the mirror had on its base. She pushed the mirror about and tested its stability and when she was happy with the mobility the wheels provided she stood in front of the mirror. What she saw scared her at first; she saw herself haggard looking and her hair in a mess and that threw her back a little bit. She then started thinking that perhaps she should go to the bathroom and do her hair a little bit to see if that way she would look better and to her surprise she saw herself with her hair all done up and with the headband she had wanted to buy for the past week.

Nalalie stared at the mirror and then placed her hands on her hair; perhaps she had been doing her hair distractedly whilst looking at herself in the mirror. “But the headband?” she wondered. “Where had it come from?” Confused, Natalie went to the other side of the room to check on one of her mirrors and she saw herself with her hair in a mess. She turned back to the new mirror and when she looked in she saw herself with her hair looking beautiful. She went to the rest of the mirrors in her house and she found that in all of them she looked tired and that her hair was in a mess.

She decided then that she had been right all that time and that her mirrors were not accurate. She took them all off the walls and threw them all into the rubbish container that was outside her house.

Natalie spent her time looking at herself in the mirror; whenever she changed rooms, she took the mirror along with her. Her friends called her but she told them she was busy so in the end they came up to her house to see what was up with her.

The girls liked Natalie’s mirror at first as they also looked beautiful, well, more beautiful than what they really were and had fun changing sizes, hair colours and clothes for a whole afternoon. The mirror seemed to echo their thoughts and however they wanted to see themselves as, the mirror provided the image. Natalie was the most excited of them all as she kept on saying that she had finally found a mirror that was accurate. On leaving, her friends commented among them that that mirror was a bit eerie and that they didn’t really feel comfortable with that mirror and in consequence they stopped going to Natalie’s house.

Natalie, on the other hand, felt very comfortable with her new acquisition; she no longer felt she had to go to the hairdresser’s to have her hair changed; the mirror did it for her. She no longer had to go to the shops to buy clothes either, the mirror provided her with clothes and showed her looking radiant at all times. What surprised her most was that she no longer needed to prepare food or go to the shops to buy provisions either. The mirror showed her in the kitchen preparing the most succulent lunches and dinners and best of all, Natalie enjoyed her meals thoroughly.

A few months later, Natalie’s friends, who had stopped going to her house, got together one afternoon at a café for their usual afternoon chat and in their conversation, Natalie came up as a subject. All of them were concerned about their common friend; they hadn’t heard a thing from her in a long time and wondered if perhaps they shouldn’t just pop in for a quick visit. It was agreed after a heated debate that they would all go together to Natalie’s house and check on her but that under no circumstances at all they were to step into her house.

Before knocking on the door, they checked to see if they could see their friend through a window and were shocked at what they saw. There, in front of the mirror, sat Natalie on the floor, moving her arms about and talking to herself. She had lost a lot of weight, so much so that they could see the bones protruding through a dirty dress she was wearing that hung loose all about her. Her hair looked as if it hadn’t been brushed in months.

The girls backed off from the window and huddled together. A little while later one of them went to the front door and knocked on it.

“I’m busy”, came a weak voice from inside.

“It’s me. Open up Natalie! I need to talk to you.” Mary shouted through the door in the hope that her friend would open the door and that their plan would work.

“I’m busy, come back tomorrow” replied Natalie.

Georgina, who was biting her nails, suddenly pulled Mary back from the door. “Tell her there’s a fire.”

“Fire!” shouted Kate muffling her voice with a handkerchief on her mouth.

Goergina and Mary looked at Kate in wonder. “What was that for?” whispered Mary, but before Kate could answer, the door was flung open and Natalie made her way out with difficulty as as she was pushing the mirror outside her house with all her might.

The three girls went straight to Natalie, they had to hold her up as she seemed to be about to faint. One of them, Mary, held onto the mirror and kicked it. Natalie suddenly straightened up, freed herself from the embrace of the other girls, punched Mary and then fell onto the floor not once letting go of the mirror. Mary recovered her composure, she hadn’t really been hurt but she was shocked that Natalie had such a crush on the mirror. “That mirror is no good, Natalie,” She said and then addressing the other two girls she told them that they had to throw the mirror in the bin.

Natalie started screaming as the girls took the mirror off her hands. Kate pulled hard on the frame and the frame started coming off the mirror. Natalie’s nose started bleeding but no one noticed; they were busy trying to break the mirror. Georgina took hold of the back stand of the mirror and started pulling it off, when she did so, Natalie’s screams got louder as her foot was starting to twist in a disgusting angle.

“Stop! Stop!” Shouted Mary as she pulled the other two girls off the mirror. “They’re linked!”

Georgina and Kate looked at Natalie aghast; she was writhing on the floor in pain and trying to get to her mirror at the same time. It was a poor sight but most of all it was a frightening site. “We can’t destroy the mirror,” said Kate with a sense of defeat. For a moment the three girls just stood there watching Natalie crying on the floor and keeping an eye on the mirror just in case it did something to them. Kate looked at the mirror for a bit longer and she saw that everything seemed to be alright; there they were sitting on the floor playing cards, Natalie was alright, no one was hurt and she looked just fine. She went to have a closer view and stood right in front of it.

C O N T I N U E D B E L O W :

Subject: One-Hundrede-in-One-Mirror - part 2 October 4th 2008, 4:52 am

One-Hundred-in-One-Mirror

By Alexandra Riera

C O N T I N U E D :

“There’s nothing wrong with this mirror.” She said to her friends. “She’s just imagining things, look”, she said as she pointed at the mirror for her friends to look at.

Mary was the first one to get to Kate and between her and Kate they pulled her away from the mirror. Mary wanted to kick the mirror again but thought better of it; she just took her jumper off and put it over the mirror whilst Georgina held onto Kate; she then told Georgina to take her jumper off too and when she did, they covered the whole mirror up. Immediately after, Natalie seemed to feel better if not look better. Kate just looked a little anxious but she seemed fine.

“Right,” said Kate decisively, “let’s take her inside and call a doctor. Me….. I’m going to sell this thing in e-bay right now. It’s obviously no good.” Mary and Georgina looked at Kate and then at each other.

“Ok,” said Georgina, “you two take her inside and I’ll hide this mirror from view.” And then, just as Kate was beginning to help Natalie up, she got closer to Mary and whispered to her to make sure that Kate posted the advert in e-bay.

“Alright, alright,” said Mary, “let’s get on, let’s get on.”

Kate and Mary took Natalie inside and sat her on the sofa. “Get on with that advert Kate, I’ll call the doctor.”

Georgina was still busy at the back of the house covering the mirror with blankets and sleeping bags she had found in the garden shed when she heard a car stop at the house. She went to the front to see who it was and saw a young man with a briefcase getting out of the car.

“You must be the doctor.” She told him.

“Yes. What’s wrong?”

Georgina thought for a bit; she didn’t want to have to explain about the mirror so she just told him that her friend was anorexic and that she need help. The doctor mumbled something to himself and then asked her to take her to see the patient.

On entering the house, the doctor was shocked about the mess and on seeing Natalie on the sofa he went immediately to her; that girl looked like a skeleton. He opened his briefcase and started getting medical instruments out. “Please leave us alone, if you don’t mind.” He told the girls. “She’ll probably have to go to hospital.” He said to no one in particular.

Mary and Georgina went to Natalie’s computer with Kate to make sure the advert was placed. “Right, all we have to do now is wait for someone to ask for it,” said Mary.

“That could take ages!” Said Georgina.

“hummmm… Maybe the doctor would like a mirror” said Mary with a naughty smile.

“Yes... Specially if we give it to him for free.” Said Kate.

Whilst the doctor was attending to Natalie, the girls went to the garden shed, got the mirror out and took it back to the front of the house, just by the doctor’s car. “We mustn’t look at it, alright? Said Mary.

“I’ve just left your friend in bed, she’s sleeping now, she should stay there for a while. She’s going to need someone to look after her for a while; to feed her and wash her and all that. She won’t need to go to hospital unless she gets worse. Has she got anyone?” he asked the girls who were surprised to see him outside the house.

“Yes.. yes.. we’ll take turns looking after her,” Mary told him as she looked at the other girls for their support. They nodded in agreement.

Kate came forwards, “how would you like a lovely mirror?” She asked the doctor.

“A mirror?”

“Yes, we’d like to give you a mirror as a present, the truth is that we don’t need it anymore so perhaps you’d like to have it.”

“I don’t need a mirror” the doctor said.

“Well, you could just give it to someone who needs a mirror then.” Said Georgina.

The doctor looked puzzled. Mary went to the back of the mirror and gestured for the girls to do the same. Slowly and carefully, Mary uncovered the mirror for the doctor to see it.

“What a beautiful mirror,” he said as he went to touch it. He passed his fingers on the beautifully carved frame and then stood back to admire it. “It certainly is a beautiful mirror, why don’t you want it?”

The girls stood quiet looking for a decent answer; they hadn’t planned on that question. “hem.. hem…” began Mary.

“It’s too bulky” blurted out Kate before Mary could tell the truth.

“It will certainly look good in my private surgery” replied the doctor.

“It’s for you then” Said Mary and then covered up the mirror again.

“Hey, but you’re going to need those blankets!” he told them as he went to take them off.

“The blankets come with the mirror; you might scratch it in your car without them.”

The girls helped the doctor getting the mirror into his car and were relieved when the doctor was out of sight. They went back into the house, sat by Natalies’s bed and cried.

The doctor, Mr Nazran drove to his surgery and carefully took the mirror up the stairs all the way to his consulting room. He removed the blankets on the mirror and stood looking at it. He then decided on a good corner for the mirror and left it there; he didn’t bother to check himself in the mirror, he wasn’t interested, he was a busy man trying to climb up the ladder of success by combining government health care work with his private surgery.

When he next came to his surgery, he had a queue of about ten people waiting to be seen. He quickly changed into his doctor’s clothes and one by one he called his patients. He found that most of his patients remarked on the mirror and went to look at themselves in it. He found that some of them, after looking at themselves in the mirror told him that there was nothing wrong with them, that they felt better and left his surgery. This surprised and worried Mr Nazran to say the least as the patients who said that felt better were the ones that were actually the most ill. One afternoon, he went to look at the mirror and stared at it for a long time wondering what was wrong with the mirror but he couldn’t find a fault with it. How was he going to be successful if most of his patients went away? He wondered.

The end

(2658 Words)
© 2008 Alexandra Riera
October 4th - 2008

I might continue this….

Subject: Reply October 4th 2008, 8:16 am

It is good. I do like stories where a person wanting to be deceived suffers when their deceptions are granted. I also have a private belief that most illness is psychological, so I accept the end of the story. I also agree that the doctor would not be deceived by the mirror, because what deceptions he would consider are not those of appearance and vanity. I thus accept your tale. Well done.

Subject: Re: The One-Hundred-in-One-Mirror October 4th 2008, 11:44 am

hahaah Thanks TerishD

I still have to post comments on yours...it's just that once I start going I just have to carry on. : )