The Ghost In The Mirror

Everything was going good for me. I was a successful designer, a top entrepreneur and common face on the fashion and business magazines alike, when suddenly everything changed.

I was rushing to a meeting when my car was hit by a speedy truck. I vividly remember the huge blow, the pieces of glass shattering and then a sudden dense darkness.

Next morning, I woke up in my own apartment feeling lighter than ever. So light that I was up in the air. It took me a few hours to digest that, I WAS DEAD!

Being dead was difficult and much more boring. I went from being a workaholic to someone who was trapped in a world where even the basic necessities were no longer needed. I did not eat or sleep and the world was more boring than ever. My hazy existence made it difficult for me even to hold a pen or to handle my work objects. My career was over! There was so much more I could do, only if I had a little more time alive!

After a few tremendously boring months, a family moved in to my house, I guess it was finally sold. A family of three, mother, father and their 20 year old daughter settled in. The parents mostly stayed busy and we're not home that often.

Daughter on the other hand seemed to be down with some sort of mental illness. She stayed indoors, refusing to go out. She was so plain that I could have mistaken her for the servant's daughter easily. I liked staying nearby and watched her. After all she moved into my room, so I had the liberty to stay around. She read all day sitting near the window and looked outside with a deep intense longing. I realized just like me, she was trapped by something that I could not understand. I started feeling like she wanted to be someone outside of who she was and wanted to be at the places she has never been to. She read romance and history, poetry and travels but never was able to do it herself. I could not understand why?

Since the house was sold with my furniture, my beautiful big mirror was also in the room where the girl spent quite some time, brushing her hair but never looking in her own eyes. I realized she was ashamed of herself for not having the courage to be who she wanted to be.

I was intrigued by her. Her actions and her behaviour was so much like my own, but for different reasons, of course. I wanted to know her reasons so I snuck into her diary. I got to know what scared her so much.

There she wrote:

“Dear diary,

Everynight, I dream the same dream. I see myself as a young child and the same men holding my mouth and tying me up. I see myself being thrown in the back of a car and the darkness that stayed with me for hours before the police discovering me and returning me to my parents. I know I am safe now, but the fear never leaves me. I don't dress like a rich girl or even go out with the fear of being kidnapped again. I wish it was different. Ma and Pa keep me hidden. To be honest, I just wish that someone would lend me some courage to be able to conquer these fears.

With love,

Maria”

I was overwhelmed. She was kidnapped as a child and her fear was still haunting her. Only I wish I could just show her, how much she could do and be. I stood next to the mirror pondering, looking at the girl while she was brushing her hair when I slipped and fell into the mirror. I had dropped in a parallel world and when I looked at my own hands and feet. I had gone into the girl’s reflection. In the mirror I saw the girl's eyes opening widely.

She looked at her own reflection acting differently and she parted her lips to say something, but no words came out. I smiled and said, “Hello”. She did not respond to my greetings. I realized that she was unable to hear me, so I simply waved my hand. She gave me a reluctant nod. I would have run for my life if I saw my own reflection acting like this but maybe, her loneliness and her dire need for a companion made her find comfort in this as well.

Me being me, I looked at the clothes I was wearing, her clothes actually and I literally ached to get out of them. I wanted to wear a nice high neck top with a pair of high waisted pants and my beloved pearls. In an instant my imagination transformed into reality. I jumped and danced with the feeling of it. My imagination could be converted to reality in an instant! Then I looked at the young timid girl in the mirror looking like a child eyeing her favorite toy in the store. In the mirror she saw a reflection she never thought could appear. She stood up and tried to stand like me. I stood like a boss and she crossed her arms and straightened her back imitating me. She looked considerably better than her usual self.

We started playing this game frequently with me showing her different designs and then after a few days we even danced together. I wrote her a mantra then, on the wall behind me. It read, “I am a powerful giant who is fierce and confident. I can achieve anything I desire.”

We recited it together everyday and she looked so bright doing so. She started copying the designs I wore and asked her mother to arrange her for sketching and stitching tutor. Within a few months, this young dedicated girl started looking much more than the reflection I created. She started bringing her own touch and emotions into her designs and I was so proud of my beloved disciple.

She started keeping her windows wide open and one day, she did something I never imagined she would do.

She sent her designs to a few agencies and then appeared a man on her doorsteps. He was none other than my old manager.

“Your designs reminded me of a precious jewel we lost an year ago. I never thought anyone could replace her until we got your request. I feel like she has reincarnated again, as you.” He said with a few tears in his eyes. I never knew the old man was so emotional about me.

Then with a curious expression he said, “It is a strange coincidence that you live in the same house as once she did.”

The girl looked shocked. She asked him to show her a picture of me. She smiled as she looked at my picture with all the affection in the world in her eyes. A few tears dropped from them.

The manager asked her if she could go with him to the agency, where they could wrap up the procedure. He got up and stood in front of the mirror, I nodded agreeably.

She got a pen and a paper, wrote our mantra in it and slipped it inside a locket. She wanted to carry it around and to read it in the moments of self-doubt She smiled at me still with affection and gratitude and mustering all her strength started walking towards her door with my manager. I travelled with her in her reflections and as soon as she stepped out of her house, she looked up at sun and smiled. A gentle breeze caressed her face and played with her hair. I watched her with the greatest joy I had ever felt in my life. A warmth and tranquility swept across my being and then I noticed her looking at me with an expression I could not understand. Then I looked at myself and I realized, I was glowing and… fading away. I had finally attained peace and now it was time for me to go.

I gave her a smile, that conveyed that I will watch over you from a distance and she received it. With lots of love and tears I left my beautiful disciple to conquer her destiny. I saw from afar, my girl braving all her fears and becoming an inspiration for many many more people to come. She started her own school and trained thousands of people to conquer their fears and express themselves.

She always carried that locket with her all her life and everything while walking outside a door, she looked up and smiled which always, always reflected on my face.

-Anisha Sharma