I.
The bell overhead tinkled with movement of the door when Angela and Hannah walked into the secondhand shop. Chairs and tables and bed frames and chests and cabinets were stacked up in precarious ways and there was only a narrow walkway to a glass case of jewelry behind which a hefty woman stood. Her breathing was vocal. Every audible inhalation was like a vacuum cleaner drawing in particles of dust and every exhalation was accompanied with a faint whistle.
“Are you looking,” the voice carried through the shop with a significant pause between words, “for something particular?” The woman shifted the massive girth of her body and the glass case beneath her arm creaked with a threat of splintering to pieces.
Hannah opened her purse while explaining, “My grandmother bought a dresser. I’m picking it up for her.” She handed the sales receipt to the woman hoping the dresser was not sitting beneath a pile of other furniture.
The shopkeeper cocked her head and looked at the words on the receipt through her glasses. I remember this sale. “Your grandmother is a sweet woman.”
Hannah smiled.
The shopkeeper’s mouth opened wide for a breath. “I’ll get the dresser. Wait here.”
She waddled out from behind the glass case. And, as she walked through a maze of lamps and electronics, the floorboards on which Hannah stood vibrated. Angela seemed unphased by concern and was fascinated by vintage jewelry shining on a dust free shelf.
The shopkeeper pushed a dolly with a dresser wrapped in protective plastic through the narrow walkway. She ushered Hannah aside and continued to the front door and then over the threshold. She looked back and called, “Is this your truck?”
Hannah hurried behind her to the door, impressed with her determination to move the dresser.. “Yeah, I’ll take it from here,” Hannah said and took the dolly from the woman.
Hannah called in the shop for Angela to help, and the two girls struggled to hoist the dresser into the bed of the truck, prepared with a thick blanket and ratchet tie-downs.
“You girls are strong,” the shopkeeper noted as she took the dolly back, ignoring the strength she just exhibited herself.
“Wait, look at these mirrors,” Angela pulled Hannah’s attention away from the truck.
The girls walked into the shop again. Angela asked the shopkeeper, who repositioned herself back behind the glass case, “Is there a story behind these mirrors?”
The woman exhaled with another whistle and a tear seemed to form in the corner of her eye, “No one ever asks where the things come from.”
Angela smiled as Hannah fingered etchings of a vine and flower border.
“The mirrors are twins. Two friends had these mirrors for years.. An aunt of one brought the mirrors in and said her niece got sick and just stared into the mirror for hours at a time.” Another audible exhalation pushed breath into Angela’s ear. After a while, she treated it like a compact and carried it in a velvet bag everywhere she went.”
Angela asked, “What did the other woman do with hers?”
The shopkeeper shifted her weight again and shrugged. “I only got half the story I guess.” She looked over to Hannah whose attention was focused on the same shelf of jewelry holding her friends attention just minutes earlier.
“In fact,” the shopkeeper said, “This is the jewelry from that same woman.” Her aunt brought that bench and bookshelf.” Another inhalation stirred the dust in the air and while her breath escaped she said with a laborious question, “Do you want the mirrors for your friendship?”
Angela looked at Hannah. “Should we buy them?”
Hannah shrugged and nodded at the same time with indifference.
II.
“Weird,” Hannah said when the girls were sitting in her truck.
“I thought she was sweet,” Angela replied.
“I don’t want that mirror,” Hannah said.
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s not my style.” Hannah said. “Will you hate it if I give mine to my Bubbe?”
Angela shook her head. “Maybe I’ll give the twin to my Nonna. Her house is full of stuff like this.”
Hannah drove in silence, which was unusual for the girls. Angela held the velvet pouch on her lap.
When Hannah pulled up in front of Angela’s grandmother’s house, Angela pulled on Hannah’s arm and said, “Don’t mention that the girl who lost her mind carried the mirror around.”
Hannah laughed.
“You know how superstitious she is. She’ll be pulling out the mirror during holiday dinners, making up stories-”
“I’ll just wait outside.”
Angela knocked and was pulled into Nonna’s house.
Inside she said, “Hannah and I are dropping off a dresser. But we found these mirrors.” She pulled one from the velvet pouch.
“Oh it’s be-u-tee-ful!” Nonna’s words stretched out like a rubber band. “Where on earth did you find it?”
“Some thrift shop Hannah had to stop at.”
“It’s been used?” Nonna shook her head and dropped it on the table in her foyer. “Take it back. You don’t use someone else’s mirror.”
Angela furrowed her brow. “It’s your mirror now.”
“Put it away,” Nonna continued. “I don’t know who looked in that mirror.”
Angela took the mirror that Nonna unwrapped and exchanged it for the one that was still wrapped. She kissed Nonna on the cheek and said, “You’re so superstitious,” before walking out the door.
Nonna took the velvet pouch and spilled the mirror wrapped in newspaper onto her kitchen table. She covered the glass with salt and left the mirror, shaking her head.
III.
The girls drove to Hannah’s Bubbe.
“Oh you’re too kind to an old woman.”
Hannah shook her head, “You should have a stranger deliver furniture when I’m always here for you?”
Bubbe nodded and pulled Hannah in for an embrace, leaving a red smudge of lipstick on her cheek. “I made some soup and I’ll get out some dinner for you two.”
“Bubbe you don’t need-”
“Need? Let’s not talk of need. Cooking is the one thing I can still do in my old age.”
“Will you stop saying you’re old!”
Bubbe pushed the skin of her cheeks. “You’re blind if you don’t see these wrinkles.”
Hannah nodded. “C’mon Ang, we have to bring this old lady her dresser.”
The girls pushed and pulled the dresser off the truck and into the house. They walked into the kitchen where Bubbe was standing at the stove. “Where should we put the dresser?”
Bubbe said, “Oh anywhere. I’ll set it up later.”
Hannah shook her head. “It’s heavy. I’m not letting you move it.”
Bubbe showed Hannah where she wanted the dresser and the girls also moved a bench that had previously been in the space.
“What is this?” Bubbe noticed the mirror Hannah had laid on the table. “It’s beautiful.”
Angela smiled remembering that her Nonna said the same thing.
Hannah told Bubbe the story the shopkeeper shared while the three sat at the kitchen table eating dinner. After cleaning the table and washing the dishes, Hannah kissed her grandmother goodbye.
Bubbe insisted, “You girls are not driving in the dark!”
Hannah shook her head. “I drive in the dark all the time.”
“Well, tonight you’re not.” Bubbe stood between the girls and the front door. “You’re not getting in trouble because you helped me today.”
“What trouble? We live around the corner.”
“I’m not letting you get in that truck. Myra’s daughter-”
“Okay, okay,” Hannah conceded before Bubbe could finish a story about one of her neighbors.
Bubbe pointed to the phone on the hall table. “Call your mothers and tell them you are staying before it gets too late.” She picked up the mirror and walked upstairs.
Hannah looked at Angela. “I’m sorry. I can’t drive you, but you can take the truck. Just pick me up tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll stay. It’s not a big deal.”
“My Bubbe is so weird sometimes. You’re sure you want to stay here?”
Angela smiled. “You met my Nonna, right? She didn’t want to take the mirror because other people looked in it.”
Hannah shook her head.
Bubbe returned. “That mirror is stunning! I can’t wait to see it with the morning light through the bathroom window.” She walked over and kissed Hannah on the cheek. “You really are too good to me.”
Hannah squeezed her Bubbe in a hug. “I hope you always see how beautiful you are when you look at your reflection.”
Bubbe pulled back to look upon her granddaughter’s face. She nodded and with the belief that she was looking at her reflection without the aid of a mirror, she said, “I always do. Now go and take a bath,” Bubbe said. “I put nightgowns on the vanity for you.”
IV.
Hannah pulled Angela up the stairs. “Seriously, you can go anytime.”
Angela laughed, “I love your Bubbe. And I’m definitely not leaving before we eat dessert.”
Hannah and Angela went into the bathroom together.
Hannah turned the faucet and the room became steamy. She dropped rose scented bath salts into the water.
“You can go first,” Hannah said before Angela undressed and climbed into the tub.
Hannah wiped the steam off the mirrors and thought she saw shadows in the vintage one. Squinting, she saw nothing but the mirror fill with steam again. “I’m opening the window. It’s too hot in here.” When she turned, the mirror fell. She opened the window and when she righted the mirror, she noticed the glass was clear.
Veronica laid back and closed her eyes.
Hannah sat on the vanity stool and played with her hair using Bubbe’s hair pins and the mirror. Without realizing, Hannah hummed a song. She pulled all the pins from her hair and each one sounded with a light ping on a silver tray. Veronica opened her eyes and caught the reflection of her friend in the mirror. But Hannah’s face was not the only one she saw. Veronica shifted her body and grabbed the ceramic wall of the tub, craning her neck to get a second look. The second face was pinning up her hair while Hannah was taking hers down.
“Han?”
Hannah continued to hum. She picked up Bubbe’s silver handled brush and pulled it through her thick blonde hair.
Just then, a knock on the door accompanied by Bubbe’s voice startled both girls.
“Are you ladies finished?”
Hannah turned to Angela and shook her head. She knew Bubbe was elated to care for her and her friend. “Five minutes, Bub,” she called.
Angela poured liquid body wash onto a bath sponge and quickly cleaned her skin.
Hannah pulled her clothes off while Angela wrapped towels around her body and hair. “I better get clean too.” She scrubbed her skin with the same sponge and then dunked her hair under the water to ge it wet.
“We’re done,” Hannah called while she stood and wrapped her body in a towel.
Bubbe walked into the bathroom and handed Hannah a smaller towel, “Cover your head before you get sick.”
Hannah laughed, “I just got out of the tub.”
“Here’s the nightgowns. Get dressed and then come down for cake.”
Hannah removed the towel and pulled a nightgown over her body. Angela did the same and the girls followed Bubbe downstairs to eat cake with coffee.
V.
Angela sat on the bed with her legs crossed braiding her hair. “You think what my Nonna said was true?”
Hannah closed the door behind her and sat next to her friend. “What did your Nonna say?”
Angela remembered Hannah remained in the truck and explained, “She said everyone that looks in a mirror leaves a piece of them inside.”
Hannah laughed. “If that was true, we’d be nothing.” She saw her friend’s skepticism and knew her grandmother’s superstition was weighing on her. She pointed toward the huge mirror hanging on the wall. “You’re looking at the mirror right now. You’re not inside it.”
Angela nodded and tied up her hair. “When I was in the tub, I saw you in the mirror.”
Hannah replied, “Yeah, I was looking in it.”
Angela explained, “No. I saw you INSIDE it.”
Hannah turned and looked at her friend, hearing fear under her words. She remembered seeing shadows before the glass steamed up, but did not tell her friend.
Angela continued, “It wasn’t you though. It was another face. It was like you. But, not like you.” Angela covered her face with her hands. “Go get it. Let me see if I can show you.”
Hannah left and returned to the bed, handing Angela the mirror. Angela sat so her face and Hannah’s fit in the reflection at the same time. “You were brushing your hair. And the girl inside brushed her hair.”
Hannah said, “That’s how mirrors work.” She stuck her tongue out and made a silly face which was reflected.
Angela smiled. “You’re right. It must have been my eyes.” She took the mirror from Hannah’s fingers and examined every inch of the glass with her eyes.
“Don’t let your Nonna be right.”
Angela turned the mirror down on the bed. “What do you mean?”
Hannah said, “You’re gonna get stuck in there and it’ll be me that has to tell her.”
The girls laughed. Hannah picked up the mirror and her fingernail ripped thin brown paper that lined the back of the glass. She peeled back the paper and behind it were two papers. One photograph of two girls and one handwritten note. “Look at this,” she said to Angela.
Angela looked hard at the photo. There were two girls in dresses edged with eyelet lace. Their hair had been twisted in curls and pinned close to their heads. One brunette and one blonde. Behind them was a brick wall with an open window. The brunette held a single daisy up to her face, hiding part of her mouth. They looked young but their eyes wore a veil of wisdom.
Angela said, “You know some people thought a camera would capture your soul.”
“Listen,” Hannah ignored her friend and read from the handwritten note. “They want two take you from me, I fall down upon my knee, I will beg to keep you here, I will lie to hide you near, Our reflection is our truth, They cannot abide our youth, Two mirrors are our home now, Do not lower a sad brow, You gave us no other way, Today will be our last day.”
Angela only heard half the words as she continued to look at the photo while Hannah read. She turned the photo over and whispered the names of the two girls, “Kathryn and Agnice.”
“Han, this is the girl that was brushing her hair with you.”
Hannah furrowed her brow. “What are you talking about?” She picked up the mirror. “This is a piece of glass. There is nobody in there.” She turned the mirror in every way she could and shook it over the bed. “Nobody.” Hannah took the photo from Angela. “These girls look a lot like us.”
Angela asked, “What are you saying?”
Hannah replied, “You saw ME in the mirror. It’s just a coincidence they look like us.”
“You’re right,” Angela conceded. “Put it away.”
Hannah stood it on the side table closest to her.
This needs more.
VI.
Chimes filled the air from the grandfather clock in the dining room. Hannah was used to the sound but her eyes sprung open when she heard it. Light from passing traffic danced in the mirror on the wall and then passed along the ceiling. The vintage mirror on the side table chirped with sound. Voices of laughter and screaming still sounded from the mirror. Hannah sat up and looked at shadows moving behind the glass. She moved her fingers along the border, and when she moved into the middle of the glass, she saw it warp around her finger.
“Come play.” The voice was high-pitched but hushed. Hannah looked at Angela sleeping, hearing her nose whistle with each breath. She questioned if she had heard a request from the mirror. “Please.” The word was distinct and definitely came from the mirror she held in her hands.
Hannah moved to sit on the cedar chest at the foot of the bed. Faces appeared clearly through the shadows. Hannah recognized the girls from the photo she pulled from behind the mirror. “How did you get in there,” Hannah whispered.
“We’ll show you.”
“We’ll tell you.”
Hannah was curious and pushed her fingers through again. Her body fell and she slid off the chest, hitting her head on the corner as well as the mirror, cracking the glass.
Angela woke with the noise. She noticed Hannah was not in bed, but did not think she was lying on the floor unconscious just feet away. She rolled over and continued sleeping.
VII.
“She’s comatose.” A doctor came into the waiting room and sat to hold Bubbe’s hand.
Bubbe gasped and raised her hand to her mouth, unable to speak. Angela sat in a ball on her chair crying.
“She wasn’t in bed, but I thought she was in the bathroom or downstairs.” She wiped her face and said, “If I knew she fell out of bed, I would have-”
“It’s not your fault child,” Bubbe interrupted Angela’s words. “Maybe I have too much junk in my house?”
The doctor shook her head and spoke to Bubbe. “From what we see, her brain is active. She’s just not awake. I’m sure it’s not your fault,” and then she turned to Angela to say, “It’s not your fault either.”
Hannah’s mother hurried into the waiting room. “Where is she?”
The doctor extended her hand for a shake. “Hannah is resting comfortably. We’re monitoring her brain and vascular functions.”
“I need to see my daughter.”
“Of course,” the doctor said and led her Hannah’s mom to her bed.
The machines beeped and buzzed. Hannah laid seemingly lifeless, breathing when a ventilator pushed and pulled her chest. Her mother fell into a chair next to her and took her hand, squeezing as tight as she could. “My baby,” she whispered. “What happened to you?”
REWORK TO INCLUDE:
Scene Int. Hospital Room
Hannah lies in a coma in the hospital. Hannah’s mother and grandmother are there. Hannah’s mother hugs Angela upon arrival and then explains the doctors are testing to see if there is any brain activity. She says it was a one in a million chance that she hit the corner of the chest at a specific part of her head. Angela asks to have some alone time with Hannah and then talks to her as if she is expecting a response. She pulls the mirror from a tote bag and pleads with Hannah to wake and show her how to see the shadows. Hannah’s brain activity causes the machines to go haywire and the doctors rush in. Hannah’s Bubbe sees the mirror and doesn’t understand why it is in the hospital room. Angela tries to explain but everyone is upset. The doctor sedates Hannah and asks everyone to go. Angela begs Hannah’s Bubbe to give her the other mirror. She is determined to figure out how to bring Hannah back.
VIII.
Angela sat with her Nonna and a full plate of food. “I’m not hungry.”
Nonna frowned, “You have to eat. You’re not doing anyone good by starving.”
Angela smiled and put a bite of chicken into her mouth, chewing slowly. She caught sight of the vintage mirror and walked across the room to hold it in her hand. “The mirror was next to her.”
Nonna furrowed her brow.
“The other mirror was cloudy. How is yours so clear?”
“What other mirror?”
“There were two. We gave you one and Hannah’s Bubbe the other. Her’s is cloudy, and I thought I saw-,” Angela stopped talking and moved the mirror in her hand around.
Nonna’s voice revealed her fear, “What did you see?”
“There was a girl, the opposite of Hannah.” Angela looked into her Nonna’s eyes. “But it wasn’t Hannah. Angela pulled the photo of the girls she found from her purse. “It was her.” Angela pointed out one of the girls in the photo.
“Who is that?”
Angela shook her head. “They were in the mirror.” Angela swallowed hard. “I mean the picture was,” she turned Nonna’s mirror over and pulled the brown paper away to find the same photo and poem.
Nonna stood and wrung her hands. “You think I’m superstitious! This is-”
Angela interrupted her grandmother, “You think these girls are IN the mirrors?”
“I told you everyone who looks in a mirror leaves a part of themselves,” Nonna said with a shaky voice.
“That can’t be true,” Angela reasoned. “We would be walking around as fractures of ourselves.”
“Your friend is in that mirror,” Nonna asserted.
“My friend is in the hospital.” Angela took the second photo and poem. “I’m going home. I think I need to be alone.”
IX.
Angela looked in the rearview mirror and noticed the sign of a paper shop behind her. It was the store from which she bought greeting cards.
She walked into the shop with the same tinkle of a bell the secondhand shop had. The sound was gentle but tore through Angela’s thoughts as if it was cutting through her thoughts with razors.
She started in the front of the store and circled around, looking to see if any card caught her eye. Feeling lost, Angela turned to walk out of the store when she heard laughter from the back of the store. It reminded her of Hannah’s laugh. When she got closer, she saw two girlfriends laughing at novelty cards in the holiday section.
The store stocked every holiday year round. Something pulled Angela to the witches and ghosts, and when she got closer, she saw a journaling kit entitled, Make Your Own Book of Shadows.
She grabbed the kit, pulled a few cards from the wall rack as she walked to the cashier and hurried home.
X.
The kit was little more than a notebook with short directions and printed pages. There was a ballpoint pen inside a faux feather. Angela looked at her purchase and felt like a fool. “It’s a gag,” she said aloud and turned the pages, reading the headings silently. Traditions, Dedication, Correspondence, Rituals, Divinations, Sacred Texts, Recipes, Spells.
“What am I doing?” Angela turned the last page and closed the book noticing the publisher on the cover. Day Thirteen Press. She noticed the address was local and without a second thought, she went to their office.
The thing she noticed was that the office was quite ordinary. There were beige walls and wooden chairs in the reception area. Posters of book covers surrounded her as she waited for assistance and after almost an hour of waiting, she was seen by an editor in a small office that was just as plain, behind an ordinary desk with a name plate reading Gretchen Evans.
“I have some questions about the Book of Shadows Kit you publish.” Angela reached into a tote bag and pulled the book and feathered pen. “How does this work?”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Gretchen said. “It’s a book that you write in.”
Angela leaned back in her chair. “I know. I know how a pen works. I know you set it up that I just have to fill in the blanks. But-”
Angela paused and Gretchen waited for her to find her words.
“If I write all the things in the book,” Angela opened the book to the Correspondence page. “If I write notes in here, what makes the words magick?”
Gretchen smiled. “You look to be an intelligent woman. I’m going to share a secret with you.”
Angela rolled her eyes. “I know it’s not really magick. But what if it is?”
Gretchen laughed. “Our press publishes a series of items that are fun for little girls to play with.”
Angela said, “My friend is stuck in between worlds.”
Gretchen’s face changed from jovial to concerned. “I don’t understand.”
Angela took a deep breath and explained, “We bought mirrors that seem to be magick. I don’t understand how they work, but I think there were two girls who were playing around with things they didn’t understand.” She choked out a chuckle. “Now I’m playing around with things I don’t understand.” Angela sat looking at Gretchen who remained silent and reluctant to share any information she had. “How did you know what titles to put on each page?”
Gretchen closed the door to her office and when returning to her chair, she flipped through the book on her desk. “When I worked on this, I tried to put more information on the pages. I wanted the user to get their intentions defined on the pages so they could manifest their wishes. But there were some others here who thought it was dangerous to put that power into the fingers of those without support in the event they conjure things they don’t intend.”
“It sounds like this isn’t just a joke for you,” Angela said. “I’m wondering if you can help me with something.” Angela pulled a note from her bag, “Could these writings be from someone’s book of shadows?”
Gretchen read the words silently and then asked, “Where did you get this?”
Angela replied, “It was behind a mirror I bought. There are actually two copies. There were two photos.”
Gretchen asked, “Were there two mirrors.”
Angela whispered, “Twins.” She pulled the photos from the bag and the second note.
“Twin magick is both black and white,” Gretchen explained.
“You mean good and evil?”
“No. It’s not that simple,” Gretchen frowned. “Good and evil are labels associated with morals not necessarily viewed the same by everyone.”
“I don’t understand,” Angela said and fought tears that were forming in her eyes.
“Black magick is generally associated with selfish acts. White is usually selfless. The poems look like an attempt at a spell intended to give and take.”
Angela questioned, “An attempt? So it’s just a poem? Not a spell?”
Gretchen laid the papers in front of Angela. “Two. It’s two different poems. If that’s all it is. But you have one set of words with seven syllables on each line and one with six. Careful numbers like this are dangerous.”
“I didn’t notice they are different.”
“Photos are different too,” Gretchen said and moved them to show Angela.
“Oh my gosh!” Angela’s eyes darted to and fro to look for differences.
“Elders claim a spell must be consecrated in ceremony,” Gretchen explained. “But it’s been known for years that a spell is more a wish or a want. Speaking can make it so.” Gretchen pulled Angela’s eyes into her gaze. “Be careful reading these notes.”
“My grandmom is afraid of all this,” Angela revealed. “She keeps telling me I can get stuck in the mirror with my friend.”
“It’s true. You need to be wary of things you don’t understand.”
“Can I bring you the mirrors to help me?”
“Child,” Gretchen said with a kind tone, “Without the spellcaster journal, I would be guessing.”
XI.
Angela sat alone in her own bedroom. They’re twins, she thought. Two pictures, Two poems. Same mirror. Her thoughts were silent for a moment and then she said aloud, “Different girls.” She examined the photos side by side. Her thoughts ran with fury around the details before her. Different dresses. Different window. Different flower. Different girl. She questioned aloud, “Why are there two pictures?”
Angela read the handwritten notes again silently.
They want two take you from me
I fall down upon my knee
I will beg to keep you here
I will lie to hide you near
Our reflection is our truth
They cannot abide our youth
Two mirrors are our home now
Do not lower a sad brow
You gave us no other way
Today will be our last day
They want you gone from me.
I fall upon my knee
I beg to keep you here
I whistle in your ear.
We speak only the truth
They cannot steal our youth
In the witching hour
We surrender power
You gave no other way
Today is our last day
These are different, she thought. She got a paper and pen to write the differences and look for clarity through the words.
XII.
“You said you remembered the woman who brought in those mirrors,” Angela was hardly in the second hand store before she spouted the words.
“What mirrors?”
Angela’s fury grew with each step she made toward the old woman. “You said no one asked for stories. We did. You know what I’m talking about!”
The shopkeeper looked over her glasses and sighed heavily. “It was my sister.”
“Your sister? So that would make the girls your nieces?”
The shopkeeper puckered her face and asked, “What girls?”
Angela exhaled with the same heft as the shopkeeper. “I- I don’t know if-,” she paused and shook her head. “I’m probably crazy, but I’ve seen two girls playing.”
The shopkeeper remained silent.
“In the mirror,” Angela pulled the pictures on the counter. “These girls. I think the girls were playing and distracted my friend. She’s in a coma.”
“What do you mean distracted?” The shopkeeper picked up the photos and was visibly shaken.
“The mirror was next to her when she fell and hit her head. She’s not waking up.” Angela pulled her hand to her mouth to control a sniffle and tears in her eyes. “I think she’s in the mirror too.”
The shopkeeper removed her glasses. “Kathryn was my niece. That’s her,” she said and pointed to one of the girls in a photo. “She was obsessed with magick. Not the illusion on the boardwalk kind of magic. Black and white magick. Spells written by,” she looked for the words in a long pause. “Self-proclaimed witches.”
“Then, this isn’t a poem?” Angela pulled the other papers that were behind the mirrors and placed it on the counter.
The shopkeeper returned her glasses to her nose and studied the words before looking again at Angela. “We found a journal of writings. Words that haunted me. Two can go if two will stay. All mentioned two and most mentioned the witching hour. Kathryn and Alice became inseparable and they had clocks everywhere with different times so that it was always the witching hour.”
“What does that mean? When is the witching hour?”
The shopkeeper shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought it was the hour thirteen.”
“There is no thirteen o’clock,” Angela questioned.
“No. I’ve never seen it on a clock. I never knew what she was talking about.” The shopkeeper’s voice was sad.
“What happened to the girls?”
The shopkeeper pursed her lips and Angela could see she was reluctant to tell the whole story.
Angela slammed her hand on the counter, shaking the jewelry inside. She demanded, “What happened to them?”
“Kathryn spoke of the witching hour. My sister was beside herself at her words. She was scared Kat was going to to summon up a ghost to haunt their house.”
“Did she?”
“No. But they kept talking of the witching hour. They never said when it was. The girls wanted to be opposites.”
“Opposites?”
“Yes. My brunette niece wanted to be blonde. She was smart and plain. Wanted to be dumb and pretty.” She sighed with disapproval. “After months of changes, they started going camping and then we really started noticing changes in both girls-”
“What changes?” Angela wanted every detail she could get.
“Their dress, the way they talked, even the way they walked.” The shopkeeper pulled lockets from the glass case. “They came home from a camping trip with these matching lockets. In fact, everything on this top shelf has a double. One for each of them.”
Angela noticed the detail she missed, even with her long stare the last time she was in the store.
“How many things have you sold from them?”
“Quite a few. No one’s come back with a complaint until now.” She opened the lockets to show they were currently empty. “Most girls would have photos in a locket., Both lockets had the other’s hair.
“They were wearing them in their beds when they fell asleep.”
“What do you mean, they fell asleep?”
She lowered her eyes before explaining, “They slept. Kathryn and her friend Agnice were found in twin beds sleeping. They didn’t wake up, but were breathing and had a pulse. They were alive, but not alive.”
“In between,” Angela said. “They went into the mirrors and couldn’t get out.”
“Grieve. Let your friend go,” the shopkeeper said.
“I can’t. I saw the girls in the mirror. I could’ve stopped this.”
“Nothin’ to do. The mirrors have her now,” The shopkeeper called after Angela as the bell above the door tinkled with her exit.
XIII.
Angela took the notes to her Nonna. “If anyone can tell me what this means, you can.”
Nonna shook her head and wrung her hands. “You should not get yourself involved,” she warned her granddaughter.
“It’s Hannah,” Angela said. “My best friend.”
Nonna sat silent.
“Please. You know so much about this stuff,” Angela begged.
Nonna stood and cried out, “I know nothing of witchcraft! You should be ashamed-”
“You know about superstition,” Angela said and pulled her grandmother’s hands into hers. “Just help me please.”
Nonna looked into Angela’s eyes. “I will not touch any of this. And I only know from what my mother and her mother taught me.”
Angela nodded indicating she understood.
“Let me see the picture,” she said and pointed to the table where Angela could put the photos.
“There’s two,” she explained. “It looked the same when they were separated. But together, they’re different.” She saw her Nonna shift her eyes from one to the other. “You see. The window is on the other side of the girls, so you think it’s just a reverse. Like the photo was developed backwards.”
Nonna saw the difference. “But this one shows the blonde with the flower.”
Angela smiled. “Yeah.” She pointed out all the differences she noticed. “The dresses are switched. This one has flowers and this one stripes. The opposite.”
Nonna nodded. “And there was one behind each mirror?”
Angela nodded. “One is this one,” She stood and retrieved the mirror from the sideboard. “And-”
Nonna waved away Angela’s words. “I know.” She sighed heavily. “Are the poems the same?”
Angela placed the handwritten notes next to each other. “No. Just like the pictures, they look the same at first. But I went through word for word.” Angela pulled a third note from her purse. “These are the words that are different.”
“Did you read the different words?”
Angela nodded. They don’t make sense. She handed Nonna the paper. Nonna pointed to the table indicating she would not touch even something her granddaughter had penned.
She looked over the three papers in silence and then said, “You have to change the words.”
Angela didn’t understand. “How?”
.
“Like the cryptograms I do in the paper.” Nona stood and walked to a desk in another room and returned with paper and a pencil. “You remember, I used to show you how to solve the puzzles?”
Angela did remember. She never sought to do newspaper puzzles herself and disregarded much of what her grandmother showed her.
Nonna wrote, erased, and wrote more. The page was full of scrawlings before she slid a paper to her granddaughter.
Angela noticed the words, witching hour before any other. “The lady at the thrift store said that. The witching hour.”
Angela bit her lower lip and then pointed out a detail missed on the photographs earlier, “The girls are wearing watches. They all have different times.”
Nonna asked, “Why would they have-”
“The girl’s aunt thought they were looking for the witching hour.”
Nonna exclaimed, “I don’t want you playing with these words. We have no control once spirits-”
“Nonna! It’s Hannah,” Angela reminded.
“Your friend is in a hospital and the doctors will save her,” Nonna said.
Angela said, “They’re looking for something in her body to fix. If her soul needs help, they can’t.”
Nonna sighed heavily and wiped tears from her eyes. “It is said that if you wake between the hour of two and three, there is a ghost prodding you.”
Angela asked, “What does that mean?”
“A ghost is trying to talk to you. It wants you to do something,” Nonna said.
“So if Hannah woke up between two and three-”
“The witching hour,” Nonna defined.
“The girl I saw in the mirror-”
“You saw someone in the mirror?” Nonna was beside herself in fear. “I told you not to get used mirrors. Take that one out of my house!”
“Yours is clear,” Angela said. “The other one looks cloudy.” Angela looked into the mirror on the table before her. “But not all the time.”
“I don’t like this,” Nonna reiterated.
“Why would it be cloudy? But only sometimes?”
Nonna whispered, “I don’t know.”
Angela sat in silence processing all the information she had collected. “The old lady said the girls would play with witchcraft and try spells. Maybe a spirit pulled them in and they pulled Hannah?”
Nonna sat quietly while Angela unraveled the mystery.
“I woke up that night.”
Nonna gasped.
“I think it was just before three. I was trying to go back to sleep and heard her Bubbe’s clock.” A tear rolled down Angela’s cheek. “I think it was three. I can’t remember.”
“I’m making you tea,” Nonna said.
“If two friends go, then two must stay,” Angela said while sitting alone at the table. “They wanted both of us to be in the mirror so they could come out.”
Angela walked into the kitchen where she found her grandmother preparing a tray of tea and cookies. “I know what has to be done. I don’t know if I can do it alone.”
XIV.
The three women sat at Bubbe’s dining table drinking coffee in silence. The tick and tock of the grandfather clock gave Angela a start with each minute even though she watched the movement and should have been prepared for the noise when it came.
Nonna kept her eyes on the mirrors and Bubbe teared up when she saw movement behind the glass.
The hour hand moved and the chimes sounded through the house. Bubbe pulled the mirror close to her face and she could hear faint laughter. “I’m coming honey.”
A high-pitched voice wailed, “I’m waiting.”
Bubbe dropped the mirror and a crack splintered. “That’s not Hannah,” she whispered. Bubbee cried. “What if I pull the wrong one? I can’t do this.” She stood and paced in the room.
Angela lifted the mirror and looked at her reflection. She saw a girl moving inside the mirror behind her face. “We’re gonna hold you here. They won’t be able to hold you in there.”
Bubbe cried. “In where? How do you know that Hannah’s in there?”
Angela shook her head in negation. “I don’t.. But someone’s in there. And you know that Hannah is not laying in her body right now.”
Angela whispered into the mirror, “Is that you Kathryn?” The reflection tilted her head up and made Angela’s face look like a skull. She cocked her head to the left and right making grotesque shapes. “Please go get Hannah,” Angela said refusing to acknowledge the tear sliding down her cheek.
The face disappeared and the faint laughter continued. A scream was clear.
“If you can’t go in. I will,” Angela insisted. “Just keep hold of my hands.”
Nonna pushed the mirror down onto the table and insisted, “You are not going in there!”
“I have to!”
Bubbe sighed heavily and returned to the table. When the mirror was lifted, three girls were clear in the glass. Two were on either side of Hannah who struggled for freedom. Hannah reached out and cried out, “Don’t come in here!”
Bubbe took the mirror. “She’s my granddaughter. I’ll go.” She pressed her fingers through the glass that contoured and opened allowing her hand inside. “It’s cold!” She gasped and pulled back away from the mirror noticing the crack from dropping earlier was no longer there.
Nonna cried, “This is not right!”
Voices of laughter and screaming still sounded from the mirror.
“I don’t want to be a part of this. Angela -”
“No,” Angela cried and pulled Nonna back into her chair. “Hannah is in there.”
“Your friend is in the hospital. She has doctors to help her. Not an old woman and a child.” Nonna pleaded with Angela, “We should go before you-”
“Nonna,” Angela said, “What if that was me in there instead of Hannah?”
Nonna pulled Angela’s face into her hands. She looked deep into her granddaughter’s eyes. “I would do anything to get you back.” She nodded at Bubbe.
Bubbe looked at the clock and saw over fifteen minutes passed. “Between two and three, right?”
Angela nodded and took Bubbe’s hand.
Bubbe closed her eyes and pushed her hand through the wobbly glass again. Her head thudded down on the table and Angela squeezed harder as she cried, “Nonna!”
Nonna checked Bubbe’s pulse and stroked Angela’s hair reassuring, “She’s still alive. Just hold on to her.” Nonna held Bubbe’s other hand tightly to ensure she wouldn’t be lost if Angela let go.
XV.
The girls need to say that there needs to be two. Two in for two to get out. They need to recall being pulled into the mirror by the last inhabitants.
In the mirror world, Bubbe walked on ground that waved and warped beneath her feet. “Hannah!” She said her granddaughters name and heard laughter in return. “Where are you?” This time her words were distorted sounding backwards in her ears. “Hannah!” Her name was clear. “Kathryn, what have you done with my baby?” All the words were distorted. The noises in Bubbe’s ears were loud and disrupted her thoughts. She questioned why she was in this backwards place. So quickly she forgot about her granddaughter. Timepieces surrounded her as she walked, ticking counterclockwise.
“Help us!” The voice was clear. Bubbe walked toward the sound. “Help us!” The voice was piercing Bubbe’s ears and continued with a higher pitch than at first. “Help us!” The cry was peppered with laughter.
A young girl pulled on Bubbe’s dress. Her mouth seemed to move different from the words expelled. “Help me and my friend get out of here.” Her movements were severe and unnatural.
“What’s your name?” Bubbe’s asked with backwards words.
“Kathryn,” she said. “Come to my tea party.”
Bubbe looked and there was a table with three settings. There was a girl tied to a chair that bent the wrong way. She struggled while she wailed in pain behind a scarf that gagged her mouth.
Kathryn pulled Bubbe to the table and said, “We have chocolate chip cookies.”
Bubbe tried to sit but was unable to figure how her legs could bend to fit the chair. Kathryn contorted Bubbe’s legs and she winced in pain with every crack of her bones. The girl would was restrained used her eyes to plead with Bubbe, hoping she remembered her.
Bubbe took a sip of tea and asked, “Why is your friend tied up?”
Kathryn and Agnice laughed a high pitched squeal.
“She’s been bad,” Kathryn said. “You don’t want to be bad, do you?”
Bubbe shook her head. Kathryn pushed a cookie to Bubbe’s lips. Agnice pushed a cup of tea to Bubbe with force enough to break the cookie and bruise her face. “Your tea is getting cold.”
Hannah was able to move the scarf from her mouth. “Bub,” she said without distortion.
Agnice spun with the back of her hand cracking Hannah in the face.
Clocks continued to spin around the girls. Hannah knew they were running out of time. “We have to get to the mirror Bubbe.” Her words did not make sense.
Kathryn jumped up with glee and laughed. “You don’t have time! You won’t have time! You have to stay with us!”
Agnice said softly, “I never had a grandmom before.”
Hannah screamed, “You can’t have mine!” She teared up and asked, “Bub why don’t you remember me?”
The only word of Hannah’s that continued to be clear was Bub. But it was enough for Bubbe to remember her mission. “Hannah.”
Hannah cried and the clocks grew louder with their movement. Bubbe stood and was able to straighten her crooked legs. She untied Hannah while fighting off Kathryn and Agnice.
Kathryn pulled Hannah screaming, “Don’t take our new friend!”
Agnice yelled, “Grandmom! Don’t leave me!”
Bubbe looked at the girls and felt a familial connection. “ You have Hannah’s eyes,” she said.
Bubbe turned back to the mirror girls. Hannah pulled Bubbe away from them. “You’re not their grandmom!”
Bubbe understood the words the mirror girls used. She couldn’t make sense of what Hannah was saying any longer.
Agnice appeared between Bubbe and the mirror hanging in the foggy space. Her face was softer than it appeared at the tea party. “Please stay with me.”
The clocks were ticking louder. It was two fifty-seven. Hannah held tight to Bubbe’s hand. The mirror swayed to and fro before them. And then when she cleared her eyes from tears, she saw her dining room. She saw Angela and Nonna at the table crying. She saw her own body slumped over and not moving. Bubbe looked at the mirror girls who were standing holding hands and then grabbed the mirror to stop it’s movement. She pushed her body through the glass and pulled Hannah with her.
In the dining room, a mist appeared that had the shape of Bubbe and Hannah. It floated in the air as the broken mirror vibrated violently on the table.
Nonna clasped her hands and raised them up to her mouth, breathing heavily.
Bubbe raised her head and gasped for air. At precisely three am, the phone rang with a call from Hannah’s mother.
“Her brain activity is normal,” she said. “The doctor can’t explain it. She’s up and talking.”
Bubbe cried tears of joy and could not speak. Angela picked up the phone to hear her friend speaking.
“We’re smashing the mirrors,” Angela said.
“There’s only one,” Hannah said. “It doesn’t work both ways anymore.”
Angela’s voice was a mix of strength and fear. “We can’t take the chance they figure out another way.”
“No,” Hannah said with a raspy voice. “The girls need hope they can get out.”
The bell overhead tinkled with movement of the door when Angela and Hannah walked into the secondhand shop. Chairs and tables and bed frames and chests and cabinets were stacked up in precarious ways and there was only a narrow walkway to a glass case of jewelry behind which a hefty woman stood. Her breathing was vocal. Every audible inhalation was like a vacuum cleaner drawing in particles of dust and every exhalation was accompanied with a faint whistle.
“Are you looking,” the voice carried through the shop with a significant pause between words, “for something particular?” The woman shifted the massive girth of her body and the glass case beneath her arm creaked with a threat of splintering to pieces.
Hannah opened her purse while explaining, “My grandmother bought a dresser. I’m picking it up for her.” She handed the sales receipt to the woman hoping the dresser was not sitting beneath a pile of other furniture.
The shopkeeper cocked her head and looked at the words on the receipt through her glasses. I remember this sale. “Your grandmother is a sweet woman.”
Hannah smiled.
The shopkeeper’s mouth opened wide for a breath. “I’ll get the dresser. Wait here.”
She waddled out from behind the glass case. And, as she walked through a maze of lamps and electronics, the floorboards on which Hannah stood vibrated. Angela seemed unphased by concern and was fascinated by vintage jewelry shining on a dust free shelf.
The shopkeeper pushed a dolly with a dresser wrapped in protective plastic through the narrow walkway. She ushered Hannah aside and continued to the front door and then over the threshold. She looked back and called, “Is this your truck?”
Hannah hurried behind her to the door, impressed with her determination to move the dresser.. “Yeah, I’ll take it from here,” Hannah said and took the dolly from the woman.
Hannah called in the shop for Angela to help, and the two girls struggled to hoist the dresser into the bed of the truck, prepared with a thick blanket and ratchet tie-downs.
“You girls are strong,” the shopkeeper noted as she took the dolly back, ignoring the strength she just exhibited herself.
“Wait, look at these mirrors,” Angela pulled Hannah’s attention away from the truck.
The girls walked into the shop again. Angela asked the shopkeeper, who repositioned herself back behind the glass case, “Is there a story behind these mirrors?”
The woman exhaled with another whistle and a tear seemed to form in the corner of her eye, “No one ever asks where the things come from.”
Angela smiled as Hannah fingered etchings of a vine and flower border.
“The mirrors are twins. Two friends had these mirrors for years.. An aunt of one brought the mirrors in and said her niece got sick and just stared into the mirror for hours at a time.” Another audible exhalation pushed breath into Angela’s ear. After a while, she treated it like a compact and carried it in a velvet bag everywhere she went.”
Angela asked, “What did the other woman do with hers?”
The shopkeeper shifted her weight again and shrugged. “I only got half the story I guess.” She looked over to Hannah whose attention was focused on the same shelf of jewelry holding her friends attention just minutes earlier.
“In fact,” the shopkeeper said, “This is the jewelry from that same woman.” Her aunt brought that bench and bookshelf.” Another inhalation stirred the dust in the air and while her breath escaped she said with a laborious question, “Do you want the mirrors for your friendship?”
Angela looked at Hannah. “Should we buy them?”
Hannah shrugged and nodded at the same time with indifference.
II.
“Weird,” Hannah said when the girls were sitting in her truck.
“I thought she was sweet,” Angela replied.
“I don’t want that mirror,” Hannah said.
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s not my style.” Hannah said. “Will you hate it if I give mine to my Bubbe?”
Angela shook her head. “Maybe I’ll give the twin to my Nonna. Her house is full of stuff like this.”
Hannah drove in silence, which was unusual for the girls. Angela held the velvet pouch on her lap.
When Hannah pulled up in front of Angela’s grandmother’s house, Angela pulled on Hannah’s arm and said, “Don’t mention that the girl who lost her mind carried the mirror around.”
Hannah laughed.
“You know how superstitious she is. She’ll be pulling out the mirror during holiday dinners, making up stories-”
“I’ll just wait outside.”
Angela knocked and was pulled into Nonna’s house.
Inside she said, “Hannah and I are dropping off a dresser. But we found these mirrors.” She pulled one from the velvet pouch.
“Oh it’s be-u-tee-ful!” Nonna’s words stretched out like a rubber band. “Where on earth did you find it?”
“Some thrift shop Hannah had to stop at.”
“It’s been used?” Nonna shook her head and dropped it on the table in her foyer. “Take it back. You don’t use someone else’s mirror.”
Angela furrowed her brow. “It’s your mirror now.”
“Put it away,” Nonna continued. “I don’t know who looked in that mirror.”
Angela took the mirror that Nonna unwrapped and exchanged it for the one that was still wrapped. She kissed Nonna on the cheek and said, “You’re so superstitious,” before walking out the door.
Nonna took the velvet pouch and spilled the mirror wrapped in newspaper onto her kitchen table. She covered the glass with salt and left the mirror, shaking her head.
III.
The girls drove to Hannah’s Bubbe.
“Oh you’re too kind to an old woman.”
Hannah shook her head, “You should have a stranger deliver furniture when I’m always here for you?”
Bubbe nodded and pulled Hannah in for an embrace, leaving a red smudge of lipstick on her cheek. “I made some soup and I’ll get out some dinner for you two.”
“Bubbe you don’t need-”
“Need? Let’s not talk of need. Cooking is the one thing I can still do in my old age.”
“Will you stop saying you’re old!”
Bubbe pushed the skin of her cheeks. “You’re blind if you don’t see these wrinkles.”
Hannah nodded. “C’mon Ang, we have to bring this old lady her dresser.”
The girls pushed and pulled the dresser off the truck and into the house. They walked into the kitchen where Bubbe was standing at the stove. “Where should we put the dresser?”
Bubbe said, “Oh anywhere. I’ll set it up later.”
Hannah shook her head. “It’s heavy. I’m not letting you move it.”
Bubbe showed Hannah where she wanted the dresser and the girls also moved a bench that had previously been in the space.
“What is this?” Bubbe noticed the mirror Hannah had laid on the table. “It’s beautiful.”
Angela smiled remembering that her Nonna said the same thing.
Hannah told Bubbe the story the shopkeeper shared while the three sat at the kitchen table eating dinner. After cleaning the table and washing the dishes, Hannah kissed her grandmother goodbye.
Bubbe insisted, “You girls are not driving in the dark!”
Hannah shook her head. “I drive in the dark all the time.”
“Well, tonight you’re not.” Bubbe stood between the girls and the front door. “You’re not getting in trouble because you helped me today.”
“What trouble? We live around the corner.”
“I’m not letting you get in that truck. Myra’s daughter-”
“Okay, okay,” Hannah conceded before Bubbe could finish a story about one of her neighbors.
Bubbe pointed to the phone on the hall table. “Call your mothers and tell them you are staying before it gets too late.” She picked up the mirror and walked upstairs.
Hannah looked at Angela. “I’m sorry. I can’t drive you, but you can take the truck. Just pick me up tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll stay. It’s not a big deal.”
“My Bubbe is so weird sometimes. You’re sure you want to stay here?”
Angela smiled. “You met my Nonna, right? She didn’t want to take the mirror because other people looked in it.”
Hannah shook her head.
Bubbe returned. “That mirror is stunning! I can’t wait to see it with the morning light through the bathroom window.” She walked over and kissed Hannah on the cheek. “You really are too good to me.”
Hannah squeezed her Bubbe in a hug. “I hope you always see how beautiful you are when you look at your reflection.”
Bubbe pulled back to look upon her granddaughter’s face. She nodded and with the belief that she was looking at her reflection without the aid of a mirror, she said, “I always do. Now go and take a bath,” Bubbe said. “I put nightgowns on the vanity for you.”
IV.
Hannah pulled Angela up the stairs. “Seriously, you can go anytime.”
Angela laughed, “I love your Bubbe. And I’m definitely not leaving before we eat dessert.”
Hannah and Angela went into the bathroom together.
Hannah turned the faucet and the room became steamy. She dropped rose scented bath salts into the water.
“You can go first,” Hannah said before Angela undressed and climbed into the tub.
Hannah wiped the steam off the mirrors and thought she saw shadows in the vintage one. Squinting, she saw nothing but the mirror fill with steam again. “I’m opening the window. It’s too hot in here.” When she turned, the mirror fell. She opened the window and when she righted the mirror, she noticed the glass was clear.
Veronica laid back and closed her eyes.
Hannah sat on the vanity stool and played with her hair using Bubbe’s hair pins and the mirror. Without realizing, Hannah hummed a song. She pulled all the pins from her hair and each one sounded with a light ping on a silver tray. Veronica opened her eyes and caught the reflection of her friend in the mirror. But Hannah’s face was not the only one she saw. Veronica shifted her body and grabbed the ceramic wall of the tub, craning her neck to get a second look. The second face was pinning up her hair while Hannah was taking hers down.
“Han?”
Hannah continued to hum. She picked up Bubbe’s silver handled brush and pulled it through her thick blonde hair.
Just then, a knock on the door accompanied by Bubbe’s voice startled both girls.
“Are you ladies finished?”
Hannah turned to Angela and shook her head. She knew Bubbe was elated to care for her and her friend. “Five minutes, Bub,” she called.
Angela poured liquid body wash onto a bath sponge and quickly cleaned her skin.
Hannah pulled her clothes off while Angela wrapped towels around her body and hair. “I better get clean too.” She scrubbed her skin with the same sponge and then dunked her hair under the water to ge it wet.
“We’re done,” Hannah called while she stood and wrapped her body in a towel.
Bubbe walked into the bathroom and handed Hannah a smaller towel, “Cover your head before you get sick.”
Hannah laughed, “I just got out of the tub.”
“Here’s the nightgowns. Get dressed and then come down for cake.”
Hannah removed the towel and pulled a nightgown over her body. Angela did the same and the girls followed Bubbe downstairs to eat cake with coffee.
V.
Angela sat on the bed with her legs crossed braiding her hair. “You think what my Nonna said was true?”
Hannah closed the door behind her and sat next to her friend. “What did your Nonna say?”
Angela remembered Hannah remained in the truck and explained, “She said everyone that looks in a mirror leaves a piece of them inside.”
Hannah laughed. “If that was true, we’d be nothing.” She saw her friend’s skepticism and knew her grandmother’s superstition was weighing on her. She pointed toward the huge mirror hanging on the wall. “You’re looking at the mirror right now. You’re not inside it.”
Angela nodded and tied up her hair. “When I was in the tub, I saw you in the mirror.”
Hannah replied, “Yeah, I was looking in it.”
Angela explained, “No. I saw you INSIDE it.”
Hannah turned and looked at her friend, hearing fear under her words. She remembered seeing shadows before the glass steamed up, but did not tell her friend.
Angela continued, “It wasn’t you though. It was another face. It was like you. But, not like you.” Angela covered her face with her hands. “Go get it. Let me see if I can show you.”
Hannah left and returned to the bed, handing Angela the mirror. Angela sat so her face and Hannah’s fit in the reflection at the same time. “You were brushing your hair. And the girl inside brushed her hair.”
Hannah said, “That’s how mirrors work.” She stuck her tongue out and made a silly face which was reflected.
Angela smiled. “You’re right. It must have been my eyes.” She took the mirror from Hannah’s fingers and examined every inch of the glass with her eyes.
“Don’t let your Nonna be right.”
Angela turned the mirror down on the bed. “What do you mean?”
Hannah said, “You’re gonna get stuck in there and it’ll be me that has to tell her.”
The girls laughed. Hannah picked up the mirror and her fingernail ripped thin brown paper that lined the back of the glass. She peeled back the paper and behind it were two papers. One photograph of two girls and one handwritten note. “Look at this,” she said to Angela.
Angela looked hard at the photo. There were two girls in dresses edged with eyelet lace. Their hair had been twisted in curls and pinned close to their heads. One brunette and one blonde. Behind them was a brick wall with an open window. The brunette held a single daisy up to her face, hiding part of her mouth. They looked young but their eyes wore a veil of wisdom.
Angela said, “You know some people thought a camera would capture your soul.”
“Listen,” Hannah ignored her friend and read from the handwritten note. “They want two take you from me, I fall down upon my knee, I will beg to keep you here, I will lie to hide you near, Our reflection is our truth, They cannot abide our youth, Two mirrors are our home now, Do not lower a sad brow, You gave us no other way, Today will be our last day.”
Angela only heard half the words as she continued to look at the photo while Hannah read. She turned the photo over and whispered the names of the two girls, “Kathryn and Agnice.”
“Han, this is the girl that was brushing her hair with you.”
Hannah furrowed her brow. “What are you talking about?” She picked up the mirror. “This is a piece of glass. There is nobody in there.” She turned the mirror in every way she could and shook it over the bed. “Nobody.” Hannah took the photo from Angela. “These girls look a lot like us.”
Angela asked, “What are you saying?”
Hannah replied, “You saw ME in the mirror. It’s just a coincidence they look like us.”
“You’re right,” Angela conceded. “Put it away.”
Hannah stood it on the side table closest to her.
This needs more.
VI.
Chimes filled the air from the grandfather clock in the dining room. Hannah was used to the sound but her eyes sprung open when she heard it. Light from passing traffic danced in the mirror on the wall and then passed along the ceiling. The vintage mirror on the side table chirped with sound. Voices of laughter and screaming still sounded from the mirror. Hannah sat up and looked at shadows moving behind the glass. She moved her fingers along the border, and when she moved into the middle of the glass, she saw it warp around her finger.
“Come play.” The voice was high-pitched but hushed. Hannah looked at Angela sleeping, hearing her nose whistle with each breath. She questioned if she had heard a request from the mirror. “Please.” The word was distinct and definitely came from the mirror she held in her hands.
Hannah moved to sit on the cedar chest at the foot of the bed. Faces appeared clearly through the shadows. Hannah recognized the girls from the photo she pulled from behind the mirror. “How did you get in there,” Hannah whispered.
“We’ll show you.”
“We’ll tell you.”
Hannah was curious and pushed her fingers through again. Her body fell and she slid off the chest, hitting her head on the corner as well as the mirror, cracking the glass.
Angela woke with the noise. She noticed Hannah was not in bed, but did not think she was lying on the floor unconscious just feet away. She rolled over and continued sleeping.
VII.
“She’s comatose.” A doctor came into the waiting room and sat to hold Bubbe’s hand.
Bubbe gasped and raised her hand to her mouth, unable to speak. Angela sat in a ball on her chair crying.
“She wasn’t in bed, but I thought she was in the bathroom or downstairs.” She wiped her face and said, “If I knew she fell out of bed, I would have-”
“It’s not your fault child,” Bubbe interrupted Angela’s words. “Maybe I have too much junk in my house?”
The doctor shook her head and spoke to Bubbe. “From what we see, her brain is active. She’s just not awake. I’m sure it’s not your fault,” and then she turned to Angela to say, “It’s not your fault either.”
Hannah’s mother hurried into the waiting room. “Where is she?”
The doctor extended her hand for a shake. “Hannah is resting comfortably. We’re monitoring her brain and vascular functions.”
“I need to see my daughter.”
“Of course,” the doctor said and led her Hannah’s mom to her bed.
The machines beeped and buzzed. Hannah laid seemingly lifeless, breathing when a ventilator pushed and pulled her chest. Her mother fell into a chair next to her and took her hand, squeezing as tight as she could. “My baby,” she whispered. “What happened to you?”
REWORK TO INCLUDE:
Scene Int. Hospital Room
Hannah lies in a coma in the hospital. Hannah’s mother and grandmother are there. Hannah’s mother hugs Angela upon arrival and then explains the doctors are testing to see if there is any brain activity. She says it was a one in a million chance that she hit the corner of the chest at a specific part of her head. Angela asks to have some alone time with Hannah and then talks to her as if she is expecting a response. She pulls the mirror from a tote bag and pleads with Hannah to wake and show her how to see the shadows. Hannah’s brain activity causes the machines to go haywire and the doctors rush in. Hannah’s Bubbe sees the mirror and doesn’t understand why it is in the hospital room. Angela tries to explain but everyone is upset. The doctor sedates Hannah and asks everyone to go. Angela begs Hannah’s Bubbe to give her the other mirror. She is determined to figure out how to bring Hannah back.
VIII.
Angela sat with her Nonna and a full plate of food. “I’m not hungry.”
Nonna frowned, “You have to eat. You’re not doing anyone good by starving.”
Angela smiled and put a bite of chicken into her mouth, chewing slowly. She caught sight of the vintage mirror and walked across the room to hold it in her hand. “The mirror was next to her.”
Nonna furrowed her brow.
“The other mirror was cloudy. How is yours so clear?”
“What other mirror?”
“There were two. We gave you one and Hannah’s Bubbe the other. Her’s is cloudy, and I thought I saw-,” Angela stopped talking and moved the mirror in her hand around.
Nonna’s voice revealed her fear, “What did you see?”
“There was a girl, the opposite of Hannah.” Angela looked into her Nonna’s eyes. “But it wasn’t Hannah. Angela pulled the photo of the girls she found from her purse. “It was her.” Angela pointed out one of the girls in the photo.
“Who is that?”
Angela shook her head. “They were in the mirror.” Angela swallowed hard. “I mean the picture was,” she turned Nonna’s mirror over and pulled the brown paper away to find the same photo and poem.
Nonna stood and wrung her hands. “You think I’m superstitious! This is-”
Angela interrupted her grandmother, “You think these girls are IN the mirrors?”
“I told you everyone who looks in a mirror leaves a part of themselves,” Nonna said with a shaky voice.
“That can’t be true,” Angela reasoned. “We would be walking around as fractures of ourselves.”
“Your friend is in that mirror,” Nonna asserted.
“My friend is in the hospital.” Angela took the second photo and poem. “I’m going home. I think I need to be alone.”
IX.
Angela looked in the rearview mirror and noticed the sign of a paper shop behind her. It was the store from which she bought greeting cards.
She walked into the shop with the same tinkle of a bell the secondhand shop had. The sound was gentle but tore through Angela’s thoughts as if it was cutting through her thoughts with razors.
She started in the front of the store and circled around, looking to see if any card caught her eye. Feeling lost, Angela turned to walk out of the store when she heard laughter from the back of the store. It reminded her of Hannah’s laugh. When she got closer, she saw two girlfriends laughing at novelty cards in the holiday section.
The store stocked every holiday year round. Something pulled Angela to the witches and ghosts, and when she got closer, she saw a journaling kit entitled, Make Your Own Book of Shadows.
She grabbed the kit, pulled a few cards from the wall rack as she walked to the cashier and hurried home.
X.
The kit was little more than a notebook with short directions and printed pages. There was a ballpoint pen inside a faux feather. Angela looked at her purchase and felt like a fool. “It’s a gag,” she said aloud and turned the pages, reading the headings silently. Traditions, Dedication, Correspondence, Rituals, Divinations, Sacred Texts, Recipes, Spells.
“What am I doing?” Angela turned the last page and closed the book noticing the publisher on the cover. Day Thirteen Press. She noticed the address was local and without a second thought, she went to their office.
The thing she noticed was that the office was quite ordinary. There were beige walls and wooden chairs in the reception area. Posters of book covers surrounded her as she waited for assistance and after almost an hour of waiting, she was seen by an editor in a small office that was just as plain, behind an ordinary desk with a name plate reading Gretchen Evans.
“I have some questions about the Book of Shadows Kit you publish.” Angela reached into a tote bag and pulled the book and feathered pen. “How does this work?”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Gretchen said. “It’s a book that you write in.”
Angela leaned back in her chair. “I know. I know how a pen works. I know you set it up that I just have to fill in the blanks. But-”
Angela paused and Gretchen waited for her to find her words.
“If I write all the things in the book,” Angela opened the book to the Correspondence page. “If I write notes in here, what makes the words magick?”
Gretchen smiled. “You look to be an intelligent woman. I’m going to share a secret with you.”
Angela rolled her eyes. “I know it’s not really magick. But what if it is?”
Gretchen laughed. “Our press publishes a series of items that are fun for little girls to play with.”
Angela said, “My friend is stuck in between worlds.”
Gretchen’s face changed from jovial to concerned. “I don’t understand.”
Angela took a deep breath and explained, “We bought mirrors that seem to be magick. I don’t understand how they work, but I think there were two girls who were playing around with things they didn’t understand.” She choked out a chuckle. “Now I’m playing around with things I don’t understand.” Angela sat looking at Gretchen who remained silent and reluctant to share any information she had. “How did you know what titles to put on each page?”
Gretchen closed the door to her office and when returning to her chair, she flipped through the book on her desk. “When I worked on this, I tried to put more information on the pages. I wanted the user to get their intentions defined on the pages so they could manifest their wishes. But there were some others here who thought it was dangerous to put that power into the fingers of those without support in the event they conjure things they don’t intend.”
“It sounds like this isn’t just a joke for you,” Angela said. “I’m wondering if you can help me with something.” Angela pulled a note from her bag, “Could these writings be from someone’s book of shadows?”
Gretchen read the words silently and then asked, “Where did you get this?”
Angela replied, “It was behind a mirror I bought. There are actually two copies. There were two photos.”
Gretchen asked, “Were there two mirrors.”
Angela whispered, “Twins.” She pulled the photos from the bag and the second note.
“Twin magick is both black and white,” Gretchen explained.
“You mean good and evil?”
“No. It’s not that simple,” Gretchen frowned. “Good and evil are labels associated with morals not necessarily viewed the same by everyone.”
“I don’t understand,” Angela said and fought tears that were forming in her eyes.
“Black magick is generally associated with selfish acts. White is usually selfless. The poems look like an attempt at a spell intended to give and take.”
Angela questioned, “An attempt? So it’s just a poem? Not a spell?”
Gretchen laid the papers in front of Angela. “Two. It’s two different poems. If that’s all it is. But you have one set of words with seven syllables on each line and one with six. Careful numbers like this are dangerous.”
“I didn’t notice they are different.”
“Photos are different too,” Gretchen said and moved them to show Angela.
“Oh my gosh!” Angela’s eyes darted to and fro to look for differences.
“Elders claim a spell must be consecrated in ceremony,” Gretchen explained. “But it’s been known for years that a spell is more a wish or a want. Speaking can make it so.” Gretchen pulled Angela’s eyes into her gaze. “Be careful reading these notes.”
“My grandmom is afraid of all this,” Angela revealed. “She keeps telling me I can get stuck in the mirror with my friend.”
“It’s true. You need to be wary of things you don’t understand.”
“Can I bring you the mirrors to help me?”
“Child,” Gretchen said with a kind tone, “Without the spellcaster journal, I would be guessing.”
XI.
Angela sat alone in her own bedroom. They’re twins, she thought. Two pictures, Two poems. Same mirror. Her thoughts were silent for a moment and then she said aloud, “Different girls.” She examined the photos side by side. Her thoughts ran with fury around the details before her. Different dresses. Different window. Different flower. Different girl. She questioned aloud, “Why are there two pictures?”
Angela read the handwritten notes again silently.
They want two take you from me
I fall down upon my knee
I will beg to keep you here
I will lie to hide you near
Our reflection is our truth
They cannot abide our youth
Two mirrors are our home now
Do not lower a sad brow
You gave us no other way
Today will be our last day
They want you gone from me.
I fall upon my knee
I beg to keep you here
I whistle in your ear.
We speak only the truth
They cannot steal our youth
In the witching hour
We surrender power
You gave no other way
Today is our last day
These are different, she thought. She got a paper and pen to write the differences and look for clarity through the words.
XII.
“You said you remembered the woman who brought in those mirrors,” Angela was hardly in the second hand store before she spouted the words.
“What mirrors?”
Angela’s fury grew with each step she made toward the old woman. “You said no one asked for stories. We did. You know what I’m talking about!”
The shopkeeper looked over her glasses and sighed heavily. “It was my sister.”
“Your sister? So that would make the girls your nieces?”
The shopkeeper puckered her face and asked, “What girls?”
Angela exhaled with the same heft as the shopkeeper. “I- I don’t know if-,” she paused and shook her head. “I’m probably crazy, but I’ve seen two girls playing.”
The shopkeeper remained silent.
“In the mirror,” Angela pulled the pictures on the counter. “These girls. I think the girls were playing and distracted my friend. She’s in a coma.”
“What do you mean distracted?” The shopkeeper picked up the photos and was visibly shaken.
“The mirror was next to her when she fell and hit her head. She’s not waking up.” Angela pulled her hand to her mouth to control a sniffle and tears in her eyes. “I think she’s in the mirror too.”
The shopkeeper removed her glasses. “Kathryn was my niece. That’s her,” she said and pointed to one of the girls in a photo. “She was obsessed with magick. Not the illusion on the boardwalk kind of magic. Black and white magick. Spells written by,” she looked for the words in a long pause. “Self-proclaimed witches.”
“Then, this isn’t a poem?” Angela pulled the other papers that were behind the mirrors and placed it on the counter.
The shopkeeper returned her glasses to her nose and studied the words before looking again at Angela. “We found a journal of writings. Words that haunted me. Two can go if two will stay. All mentioned two and most mentioned the witching hour. Kathryn and Alice became inseparable and they had clocks everywhere with different times so that it was always the witching hour.”
“What does that mean? When is the witching hour?”
The shopkeeper shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought it was the hour thirteen.”
“There is no thirteen o’clock,” Angela questioned.
“No. I’ve never seen it on a clock. I never knew what she was talking about.” The shopkeeper’s voice was sad.
“What happened to the girls?”
The shopkeeper pursed her lips and Angela could see she was reluctant to tell the whole story.
Angela slammed her hand on the counter, shaking the jewelry inside. She demanded, “What happened to them?”
“Kathryn spoke of the witching hour. My sister was beside herself at her words. She was scared Kat was going to to summon up a ghost to haunt their house.”
“Did she?”
“No. But they kept talking of the witching hour. They never said when it was. The girls wanted to be opposites.”
“Opposites?”
“Yes. My brunette niece wanted to be blonde. She was smart and plain. Wanted to be dumb and pretty.” She sighed with disapproval. “After months of changes, they started going camping and then we really started noticing changes in both girls-”
“What changes?” Angela wanted every detail she could get.
“Their dress, the way they talked, even the way they walked.” The shopkeeper pulled lockets from the glass case. “They came home from a camping trip with these matching lockets. In fact, everything on this top shelf has a double. One for each of them.”
Angela noticed the detail she missed, even with her long stare the last time she was in the store.
“How many things have you sold from them?”
“Quite a few. No one’s come back with a complaint until now.” She opened the lockets to show they were currently empty. “Most girls would have photos in a locket., Both lockets had the other’s hair.
“They were wearing them in their beds when they fell asleep.”
“What do you mean, they fell asleep?”
She lowered her eyes before explaining, “They slept. Kathryn and her friend Agnice were found in twin beds sleeping. They didn’t wake up, but were breathing and had a pulse. They were alive, but not alive.”
“In between,” Angela said. “They went into the mirrors and couldn’t get out.”
“Grieve. Let your friend go,” the shopkeeper said.
“I can’t. I saw the girls in the mirror. I could’ve stopped this.”
“Nothin’ to do. The mirrors have her now,” The shopkeeper called after Angela as the bell above the door tinkled with her exit.
XIII.
Angela took the notes to her Nonna. “If anyone can tell me what this means, you can.”
Nonna shook her head and wrung her hands. “You should not get yourself involved,” she warned her granddaughter.
“It’s Hannah,” Angela said. “My best friend.”
Nonna sat silent.
“Please. You know so much about this stuff,” Angela begged.
Nonna stood and cried out, “I know nothing of witchcraft! You should be ashamed-”
“You know about superstition,” Angela said and pulled her grandmother’s hands into hers. “Just help me please.”
Nonna looked into Angela’s eyes. “I will not touch any of this. And I only know from what my mother and her mother taught me.”
Angela nodded indicating she understood.
“Let me see the picture,” she said and pointed to the table where Angela could put the photos.
“There’s two,” she explained. “It looked the same when they were separated. But together, they’re different.” She saw her Nonna shift her eyes from one to the other. “You see. The window is on the other side of the girls, so you think it’s just a reverse. Like the photo was developed backwards.”
Nonna saw the difference. “But this one shows the blonde with the flower.”
Angela smiled. “Yeah.” She pointed out all the differences she noticed. “The dresses are switched. This one has flowers and this one stripes. The opposite.”
Nonna nodded. “And there was one behind each mirror?”
Angela nodded. “One is this one,” She stood and retrieved the mirror from the sideboard. “And-”
Nonna waved away Angela’s words. “I know.” She sighed heavily. “Are the poems the same?”
Angela placed the handwritten notes next to each other. “No. Just like the pictures, they look the same at first. But I went through word for word.” Angela pulled a third note from her purse. “These are the words that are different.”
“Did you read the different words?”
Angela nodded. They don’t make sense. She handed Nonna the paper. Nonna pointed to the table indicating she would not touch even something her granddaughter had penned.
She looked over the three papers in silence and then said, “You have to change the words.”
Angela didn’t understand. “How?”
.
“Like the cryptograms I do in the paper.” Nona stood and walked to a desk in another room and returned with paper and a pencil. “You remember, I used to show you how to solve the puzzles?”
Angela did remember. She never sought to do newspaper puzzles herself and disregarded much of what her grandmother showed her.
Nonna wrote, erased, and wrote more. The page was full of scrawlings before she slid a paper to her granddaughter.
Angela noticed the words, witching hour before any other. “The lady at the thrift store said that. The witching hour.”
Angela bit her lower lip and then pointed out a detail missed on the photographs earlier, “The girls are wearing watches. They all have different times.”
Nonna asked, “Why would they have-”
“The girl’s aunt thought they were looking for the witching hour.”
Nonna exclaimed, “I don’t want you playing with these words. We have no control once spirits-”
“Nonna! It’s Hannah,” Angela reminded.
“Your friend is in a hospital and the doctors will save her,” Nonna said.
Angela said, “They’re looking for something in her body to fix. If her soul needs help, they can’t.”
Nonna sighed heavily and wiped tears from her eyes. “It is said that if you wake between the hour of two and three, there is a ghost prodding you.”
Angela asked, “What does that mean?”
“A ghost is trying to talk to you. It wants you to do something,” Nonna said.
“So if Hannah woke up between two and three-”
“The witching hour,” Nonna defined.
“The girl I saw in the mirror-”
“You saw someone in the mirror?” Nonna was beside herself in fear. “I told you not to get used mirrors. Take that one out of my house!”
“Yours is clear,” Angela said. “The other one looks cloudy.” Angela looked into the mirror on the table before her. “But not all the time.”
“I don’t like this,” Nonna reiterated.
“Why would it be cloudy? But only sometimes?”
Nonna whispered, “I don’t know.”
Angela sat in silence processing all the information she had collected. “The old lady said the girls would play with witchcraft and try spells. Maybe a spirit pulled them in and they pulled Hannah?”
Nonna sat quietly while Angela unraveled the mystery.
“I woke up that night.”
Nonna gasped.
“I think it was just before three. I was trying to go back to sleep and heard her Bubbe’s clock.” A tear rolled down Angela’s cheek. “I think it was three. I can’t remember.”
“I’m making you tea,” Nonna said.
“If two friends go, then two must stay,” Angela said while sitting alone at the table. “They wanted both of us to be in the mirror so they could come out.”
Angela walked into the kitchen where she found her grandmother preparing a tray of tea and cookies. “I know what has to be done. I don’t know if I can do it alone.”
XIV.
The three women sat at Bubbe’s dining table drinking coffee in silence. The tick and tock of the grandfather clock gave Angela a start with each minute even though she watched the movement and should have been prepared for the noise when it came.
Nonna kept her eyes on the mirrors and Bubbe teared up when she saw movement behind the glass.
The hour hand moved and the chimes sounded through the house. Bubbe pulled the mirror close to her face and she could hear faint laughter. “I’m coming honey.”
A high-pitched voice wailed, “I’m waiting.”
Bubbe dropped the mirror and a crack splintered. “That’s not Hannah,” she whispered. Bubbee cried. “What if I pull the wrong one? I can’t do this.” She stood and paced in the room.
Angela lifted the mirror and looked at her reflection. She saw a girl moving inside the mirror behind her face. “We’re gonna hold you here. They won’t be able to hold you in there.”
Bubbe cried. “In where? How do you know that Hannah’s in there?”
Angela shook her head in negation. “I don’t.. But someone’s in there. And you know that Hannah is not laying in her body right now.”
Angela whispered into the mirror, “Is that you Kathryn?” The reflection tilted her head up and made Angela’s face look like a skull. She cocked her head to the left and right making grotesque shapes. “Please go get Hannah,” Angela said refusing to acknowledge the tear sliding down her cheek.
The face disappeared and the faint laughter continued. A scream was clear.
“If you can’t go in. I will,” Angela insisted. “Just keep hold of my hands.”
Nonna pushed the mirror down onto the table and insisted, “You are not going in there!”
“I have to!”
Bubbe sighed heavily and returned to the table. When the mirror was lifted, three girls were clear in the glass. Two were on either side of Hannah who struggled for freedom. Hannah reached out and cried out, “Don’t come in here!”
Bubbe took the mirror. “She’s my granddaughter. I’ll go.” She pressed her fingers through the glass that contoured and opened allowing her hand inside. “It’s cold!” She gasped and pulled back away from the mirror noticing the crack from dropping earlier was no longer there.
Nonna cried, “This is not right!”
Voices of laughter and screaming still sounded from the mirror.
“I don’t want to be a part of this. Angela -”
“No,” Angela cried and pulled Nonna back into her chair. “Hannah is in there.”
“Your friend is in the hospital. She has doctors to help her. Not an old woman and a child.” Nonna pleaded with Angela, “We should go before you-”
“Nonna,” Angela said, “What if that was me in there instead of Hannah?”
Nonna pulled Angela’s face into her hands. She looked deep into her granddaughter’s eyes. “I would do anything to get you back.” She nodded at Bubbe.
Bubbe looked at the clock and saw over fifteen minutes passed. “Between two and three, right?”
Angela nodded and took Bubbe’s hand.
Bubbe closed her eyes and pushed her hand through the wobbly glass again. Her head thudded down on the table and Angela squeezed harder as she cried, “Nonna!”
Nonna checked Bubbe’s pulse and stroked Angela’s hair reassuring, “She’s still alive. Just hold on to her.” Nonna held Bubbe’s other hand tightly to ensure she wouldn’t be lost if Angela let go.
XV.
The girls need to say that there needs to be two. Two in for two to get out. They need to recall being pulled into the mirror by the last inhabitants.
In the mirror world, Bubbe walked on ground that waved and warped beneath her feet. “Hannah!” She said her granddaughters name and heard laughter in return. “Where are you?” This time her words were distorted sounding backwards in her ears. “Hannah!” Her name was clear. “Kathryn, what have you done with my baby?” All the words were distorted. The noises in Bubbe’s ears were loud and disrupted her thoughts. She questioned why she was in this backwards place. So quickly she forgot about her granddaughter. Timepieces surrounded her as she walked, ticking counterclockwise.
“Help us!” The voice was clear. Bubbe walked toward the sound. “Help us!” The voice was piercing Bubbe’s ears and continued with a higher pitch than at first. “Help us!” The cry was peppered with laughter.
A young girl pulled on Bubbe’s dress. Her mouth seemed to move different from the words expelled. “Help me and my friend get out of here.” Her movements were severe and unnatural.
“What’s your name?” Bubbe’s asked with backwards words.
“Kathryn,” she said. “Come to my tea party.”
Bubbe looked and there was a table with three settings. There was a girl tied to a chair that bent the wrong way. She struggled while she wailed in pain behind a scarf that gagged her mouth.
Kathryn pulled Bubbe to the table and said, “We have chocolate chip cookies.”
Bubbe tried to sit but was unable to figure how her legs could bend to fit the chair. Kathryn contorted Bubbe’s legs and she winced in pain with every crack of her bones. The girl would was restrained used her eyes to plead with Bubbe, hoping she remembered her.
Bubbe took a sip of tea and asked, “Why is your friend tied up?”
Kathryn and Agnice laughed a high pitched squeal.
“She’s been bad,” Kathryn said. “You don’t want to be bad, do you?”
Bubbe shook her head. Kathryn pushed a cookie to Bubbe’s lips. Agnice pushed a cup of tea to Bubbe with force enough to break the cookie and bruise her face. “Your tea is getting cold.”
Hannah was able to move the scarf from her mouth. “Bub,” she said without distortion.
Agnice spun with the back of her hand cracking Hannah in the face.
Clocks continued to spin around the girls. Hannah knew they were running out of time. “We have to get to the mirror Bubbe.” Her words did not make sense.
Kathryn jumped up with glee and laughed. “You don’t have time! You won’t have time! You have to stay with us!”
Agnice said softly, “I never had a grandmom before.”
Hannah screamed, “You can’t have mine!” She teared up and asked, “Bub why don’t you remember me?”
The only word of Hannah’s that continued to be clear was Bub. But it was enough for Bubbe to remember her mission. “Hannah.”
Hannah cried and the clocks grew louder with their movement. Bubbe stood and was able to straighten her crooked legs. She untied Hannah while fighting off Kathryn and Agnice.
Kathryn pulled Hannah screaming, “Don’t take our new friend!”
Agnice yelled, “Grandmom! Don’t leave me!”
Bubbe looked at the girls and felt a familial connection. “ You have Hannah’s eyes,” she said.
Bubbe turned back to the mirror girls. Hannah pulled Bubbe away from them. “You’re not their grandmom!”
Bubbe understood the words the mirror girls used. She couldn’t make sense of what Hannah was saying any longer.
Agnice appeared between Bubbe and the mirror hanging in the foggy space. Her face was softer than it appeared at the tea party. “Please stay with me.”
The clocks were ticking louder. It was two fifty-seven. Hannah held tight to Bubbe’s hand. The mirror swayed to and fro before them. And then when she cleared her eyes from tears, she saw her dining room. She saw Angela and Nonna at the table crying. She saw her own body slumped over and not moving. Bubbe looked at the mirror girls who were standing holding hands and then grabbed the mirror to stop it’s movement. She pushed her body through the glass and pulled Hannah with her.
In the dining room, a mist appeared that had the shape of Bubbe and Hannah. It floated in the air as the broken mirror vibrated violently on the table.
Nonna clasped her hands and raised them up to her mouth, breathing heavily.
Bubbe raised her head and gasped for air. At precisely three am, the phone rang with a call from Hannah’s mother.
“Her brain activity is normal,” she said. “The doctor can’t explain it. She’s up and talking.”
Bubbe cried tears of joy and could not speak. Angela picked up the phone to hear her friend speaking.
“We’re smashing the mirrors,” Angela said.
“There’s only one,” Hannah said. “It doesn’t work both ways anymore.”
Angela’s voice was a mix of strength and fear. “We can’t take the chance they figure out another way.”
“No,” Hannah said with a raspy voice. “The girls need hope they can get out.”
