Mirrors & Reflections

Mirrors and Reflections
(18/11/05)

I barge into my bedroom, slamming the door and feeling a mild satisfaction at the BAM it makes. I head straight to my bed and plop on it to relax but I can’t. I’m so frustrated. I can’t take it anymore.

I’m bored!! Bored, bored, bored!! The world is so monotonous. Nothing exciting ever happens here, no adventure. It’s the same thing over and over. I want some excitement in my life, something interesting, anything!! I want out of here, out of this boring world!!

I jump off the bed and grab any items within reach and throw them across the room. Clock, pillow, hand mirror, lipstick, hairspray, everything hits the wall and either smashes or drops to the floor.

I plop back onto the bed, still unsatisfied with my temper tantrum. I roll over onto my stomach and notice the full-length mirror standing in the corner.

Striding to the mirror, I stand there for a while, my anger subsiding. I stare at my reflection, my twin. So alike yet so different. Long blonde hair, blue eyes, pink mouth, fair skin. Same, same, same. An exact replica.

But… Yes, there’s a but there.

But her body is different from mine. I lift my hand and it follows, except that it lifted its left hand instead of right. Her left is my right and my right is her left. Her right is my left and my left is her right.

Stupid girl. If I lift my right hand, you should lift your left because your left is in fact my right, especially if you are a real person. Stupid girl.

I can feel my anger boiling up again and in a fury, I punch the mirror. Hit it hard with all my strength. But it doesn’t break. It can never break.

I am so jealous, jealous of my reflection. She’s so damn lucky. She doesn’t have to live in this world. She doesn’t have to feel bored. Her world ought to be at least more interesting than mine. Lucky bitch. I should be in her place. I should be there, living in that world while she should be here, suffering from insane boredom.

I peer closer, my face only inches away from the mirror, eye to eye with my reflection.

Just look at that face, so full of sweetness and innocence. So cute and cuddly. A real charming princess.

It’s disgusting!!! What kind of a face is that??!! A monstrosity!!

You’re a stupid girl, you are, and ugly too. You would fit so well in this world of mine. You should be here, you should, you should, instead of me. Why in hell am I stuck here while you’re there in that opposite world of yours? I have a quarter of a mind to put you here; half a mind would be wasting too much on your pathetic form. And maybe I should. Maybe I would. Maybe I will.

I want to go through. I want to change places with you. You hear me??!! I want to go through, mirror, let me through!!

The mirror shimmers, it answers.

Yes, yes, finally, finally.

The mirror. The reflection is gone. In its place, I see pictures, scenes of the other world. How exciting, how thrilling, and I am going to be there soon. Soon. Soon, I’ll be away from this world, away from this insanely boring world. I will be free.

The scenes fade away and I can see my reflection again.

Come, Alice, touch the mirror. Touch it, go through it. You know you want it. You want to change places as badly as I do. You want my world, you know you do.

You can have the Mad Hatter and the March Hare with their insanely boring tea parties. You can have the Cheshire Cat and his dull clichés. You can have the Queen of Hearts and her unexciting croquet games and endless beheadings. You can have Twiddle-dee and Twiddle-dum with their tiresome annoyance. You can have the Jabberwocky and the forever-late White Rabbit. Take all the insanity, take my boring, dull, uninteresting world, take it all, you can have it.

Let me have your wondrous world.

Touch the mirror, Alice, touch it, touch it. Yes, yes, that’s it. Closer, closer.

I watch as her hand moves, moves closer to the mirror’s surface. But… she wavers and stops, just an inch away. So close, so close. Arghhh!!!

Fine, that’s close enough for me.

I thrust my hand and grab her wrist, pulling her through the mirror, and she almost knocks me over, her eyes wide with surprise. The force of the pull tumbles her to the floor, her cry of shock changing to a cry of pain.

I kick her, all my feelings of envy and anger are put into that kick. Still I am not satisfied so I kick her again, listening to her pain-filled cries. After spitting at her for a last touch, I laugh. Laugh hard and loud.

So long, sucker.

Looking back at the mirror, I move forward.

One small step for Alice, and one giant leap into the mirror for me, Alicia, the Alice of Wonderland, soon to become the Alice of Normal-Earth-Land.

* ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and its many colourful characters are all copyrights of the late and imaginative Charles Lutwidge Dodgson a.k.a. Lewis Carroll. I do not, in any way, own the characters nor do I make any profit from writing this story.

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