The Archway
Lit Up Summer Holiday Prompt
It was a glorious sunny day; the kind of day that Pamela loved to be outside. There were so many wonderful nooks and crannies in the garden that it was a pleasure to explore. The most exciting part was the archway, which led to a mirror.
It had always fascinated Pamela, because it seemed to reflect more than was actually there. There was never any real evidence for this, she just felt it. As she approached her favourite spot, and the archway came into view, she sensed her excitement grow ever more tangible.
She could see herself and her surroundings in the mirror now, looking exactly as she had expected. As always, though, there was something subtly different about her reflection.
Her heart was drumming out a gallop, as she scanned the image, looking for anything out of place. As usual, she couldn’t spot anything specific.
Then, with a shudder, something truly amazing occurred: she actually found a difference. On this side of the mirror, her white dress had one blue stripe around the hem. But, in her reflection, it had two.
She stared, mouth agape, at her dress in the mirror, and then down at herself.
Just as she was about to check for yet another time, a voice said, “Finally!” She looked up and there, in the mirror, was the person speaking.
“I thought you were never going to find the difference!”
Pamela cocked her head to one side, the way that dogs do when they are confused but, to her surprise, her reflection did not echo the gesture: her and her reflection were no longer in sync.
To make matters more interesting, it was her reflection that was speaking, whereas she wasn’t. She placed her hand on her mouth, just to be sure it was closed, and found, with relief, that it was.
“Now you’ve found the key, we can play together!” said the other her.
“I …” Pamela began, then discovered that no further words were forthcoming.
She tried again.
“I don’t …” she spluttered. It was an improvement and showed promise, but then nothing else came out. Wonderful, she thought, something amazing is happening and I can’t even speak!
“Don’t worry,” her reflection was saying, “it’s always a bit tricky to find the words to begin with. I mean, we all talk to ourselves, of course, but we’re not really equipped to deal with getting a response back.”
“Are you … Pamela?” Pamela asked.
“Well, yes, obviously, you silly billy,” said her reflection, in a kind yet chastising tone. “Why else would I look and sound like you? Who were you expecting as your reflection, Henry the Eighth?”
“It is simply marvellous to be able to talk to you,” she said, having found her voice. “I have no idea how any of this is possible, of course, but it doesn’t matter. I love seeing old friends and meeting new people, and, well, you’re both, aren’t you, really?”
Mirror-land Pamela was smiling a beautiful, broad smile. She had a secret, it was very obvious.
“It gets even better than that, my darling self,” said her reflection. “We don’t have to just talk, we can be together, and play any time we want to!”
Pamela was confused. “How do we do that? Can you come through the mirror to me?”
Her reflection shook her head, slowly.
“No, my lovely one. I can’t come through that way, but you can come through to me.”
Pamela wasn’t sure if she was excited or terrified at the prospect of going through the archway, into the mirror. She decided that it was a case of being both — excitified, she coined it, at that moment.
She considered the logistics of the operation, and then said, “I’ll cut myself walking through the glass!”
Her reflection let out a thunderous giggle.
“No, you silly bean, you won’t actually be walking through the glass. You’ll be passing between … your world and my world. It won’t hurt a bit, I promise you.”
“Okay, but I can’t be too long, because my mum … I mean, our mum, is expecting me inside for lunch soon!”
“Don’t worry, we will get you back in a jiffy!” said her mirror self.
She found she could step through easily, and the world on the other side was just the same as hers. There was something missing though. She looked around carefully, but couldn’t spot the difference, until she heard a voice behind her.
She found herself forced to turn around, and then she saw the other her smiling back at her, once again from behind the mirror. She couldn’t understand why that felt wrong, until she realised that she was supposed to be on the same side as her.
The other her was not wearing the same smile now. There was no beauty there, only a dark menacing purpose. Pamela felt her heart sink.
“Well, there you are,” the imposter said, “now you can be stuck behind the glass, waiting for me to appear, and I can go and have some fun!”
With that, her copy skipped off happily towards her house.
Of course, Pamela herself was forced to skip off towards her house, too, on this side of the mirror. Except, when she got there, she realised that the mirror world went black, when the Pamela on the other side of the mirror wasn’t actually looking at it.
Now, she was stuck, in an empty void, waiting for the next time she might be summoned to the mirror from the other side.
She suspected it was going to be a long wait.
