by Kristine Roland
Thank you to Jennifer Brock and Scott Ramsey for your always helpful advice. ~Kristy
Jeffrey put the last of his boxes down in his new room. He looked around. His bed, nightstand, dresser and desk had already been setup by the movers. The room was freshly painted with a bright blue on the walls, with a white ceiling. His mother had already made his bed. The comforter and pillowcases had the NY Mets baseball team logo, and the curtains in the room matched.
There was a walk in closet, and on the outside of the door to the closet was a full length mirror. His mother had decided to leave it, although she was making certain that the rest of the room was as masculine as possible.
Jeffrey's mother and father's divorce had been finalized just over a year ago. That had been rough on both his mother and himself. That had been nothing though on the day, about six months ago, when he had been rather publicly caught dressed as a girl. There had been no school that day. His mother was supposed to work, so he had been home by himself.
He had taken the rare opportunity to indulge himself in dressing up. He had been down in the family room when he heard his mother open the front door. Worse he heard her talking to her friend Emily, and he could hear Tim was with them.
She was saying, "Thanks for picking me up, Emily. I think my car is totaled. Just what I need right now. Come on in, let me get you guys something to drink. Jeff, I'm home."
Jeffrey knew he was caught; he had no chance of getting from the family room to the bathroom or his room without being seen. Sure enough, his mother came into the family room a moment later. The scene that followed that was not one he wanted to remember.
Tim of course told everyone at school, and it was pretty bad for a while. Than his Mom's grandmother had passed away, and his Mom had been left this house. His mother decided that a fresh start would do them both some good, and had decided to move here.
"Oh good, that was the last of the boxes. Get a start on unpacking your things Jeff. I'll go make us some lunch," said his mother.
"Ok, Mom," he said as he opened up the first box, and started putting his things away.
He came upon some clothes that he needed to hang in his closet. As he looked into the mirror, he was shocked to see that the room that it showed in the reflection was pink and the bed had a ruffled bed spread. The thing that shocked him even more was that it reflected a young girl, about his age in a pretty dress. Jeffrey shook his head and wiped his eyes, and looked again, and this time all he saw was his own room and himself.
"What the heck was that all about?" he thought to himself.
His mother called up to him and told him to come and eat.
---
After lunch, Jeffrey went back to his room. He went to the closet and examined the door and the mirror. While it was obviously old, the frame was intricately carved from a light colored wood. Until he looked close he had not noticed the themes of the carvings. He now saw that around the frame were small, but highly detailed characters from old nursery rhymes and stories. Now that he was examining the mirror closely he readily identified Jack and Jill, Hansel and Gretel, Alice and the white rabbit, amongst the many characters. It was clear that the frame itself was worth a fortune. He thought to himself, "that was probably the only reason his mother had left it."
As he looked closer, he noticed something very interesting. In the center at the top and bottom, and also the left and right sides of the frame was a symbol. The symbol was the infinity sign, but the two circles making up the loops were themselves the yin and yang symbols. The frame, though varnished, was not painted, so the dark areas were represented with fine carved hash marks.
The next thing he noticed was that everything to the left of the center point of this strange symbol at the top and bottom was mirrored to the right and everything above the center point of the symbols on the left and right were mirrored below. He also noticed that each of the characters appeared to be reaching toward the center of the mirror.
He touched the frame and tried to see how it was attached to the door. He did not see any obvious fasteners, or any way to remove the frame. "Well maybe that is why she did not get rid of it. It's quite valuable and she would have ruined it if she tried to get rid of it." Other then the unusual frame though, he did not see anything strange about the mirror. The door behind it appeared to be solid oak.
Eventually he just shrugged and went back to unpacking.
---
Jeffrey was apprehensive as he started school. In the car on the way to his new school, he thought about what had happened after Tim had told everyone at his old school about his dressing like a girl.
When Jeffrey got to school that next day, Tim had already spread the word, and kids were pointing at him, taunting him and laughing. He had been teased mercilessly by most of his class. Only one person, a girl named Claire was willing to be friends after that. He was sitting alone in the lunch room, since no one would sit with him, when Claire came over and asked if she could join him. He was surprised and frankly a little suspicious but cautiously said, "Sure."
They chatted about many things and Claire never mentioned the rumors floating around. He was still teased by everyone else, but Claire never said anything, except to tell people to leave him alone when they teased him in front of her.
Several weeks later, they were walking home from school together. Jeffrey asked her, "Why have you never said anything about… about…"
Claire said, "About your liking to dress like a girl?"
Jeffrey said, "Yeah. Everyone else teases me about it, but you have never said anything about it, not even to ask if it is true."
Claire said, "Because I figured you would let me know when you wanted to talk about it. I couldn't stand watching you be treated the way you were, and so I decided you needed a friend. I'm glad I did. If you do decide you want to talk about it, I'm here for you."
Jeffrey said, "Even if it's true, that I like to dress like a girl, that I wish I was a girl?"
"Sure, that doesn't bother me at all. I admit I'm curious as to why you want to be a girl?"
Jeffrey replied annoyed, "Meaning, why would you, a boy want to lower yourself to be a girl."
"That's not what I mean at all. I know why I like being a girl, and it isn't just because I was born a girl, so I can imagine there are reasons why you want to be a girl, but I'm curious as to what they are. What is it you dislike about being a boy?"
"I have always felt this way, as long as I can remember. I just feel like there is something wrong, like this me is not what I was supposed to be. It just feels off. It's not that I hate being a boy, I don't really. But if I had the chance to be a girl, I would jump at it. When I dress in girls clothes, I relax and feel like that part of me that is buried all the time is free."
"How did Tim find out?"
"We were off from school that day; Mom was supposed to go to work, and she got into an accident. Tim's Mom is a good friend of my Mom, so she picked her up and brought her home. I had not expected anyone home and was wearing some of my mother's clothes, when they came in."
"Your Mom didn't know?"
"No, and she went ballistic. She won't discuss it at all. She put a lock on her door, and I haven't been able to since. Claire, it's driving me crazy."
"What?"
"I want to talk to my mother about it, but she won't. And not being able to let … out for a while is just…"
"hmmm… Let me think about that, maybe I can help you somehow."
A few days later, Claire told him at lunch to meet her to walk home after school. After they left school grounds and were away from the other kids, she reached into her backpack and brought out a small bag. She said, "This is for you. It's not much, but I think they will fit."
"What is it?"
"Just a present for my friend." She gave him a small kiss on the cheek and ran to her house.
When he had got home, he went straight to his room and opened the bag. In it he found a pair of panties, a bra, nylons, a skirt and a top. He found a note, "These are some things I don't wear anymore, I think that you will be able to fit in them, though they may be a bit tight. The skirt has an elastic waist though, and the top was big on me. Claire."
His mother was due home shortly, but he could not help himself, he had to try them on. They were a little tight, but not so tight that he couldn't get into them. He felt the stress that had been building up, melt away. Knowing that if he was not careful, his mother would catch him, he reluctantly got undressed and back into his regular clothes. He looked around for a safe place to hide his things. In his closet he found the box that held his train set. He took out the trains, and the track, put the bag at the bottom of the box, and then everything else back on top.
The next day he and Claire found a place they could talk quietly without being overheard. She asked if the things she had given him had fit. He blushed as he thanked her and said, "They are a little tight, but I can wear them."
Claire smiled and said, "Good. I hope they help."
"Yes, I'm feeling much better today. I just have to be really careful and not let my mother find them, or catch me in them."
"Someday, we will have to get together. I would like to meet my new girlfriend."
Jeffrey had been very careful, and managed to avoid getting caught again by his mother for a couple of months, then one day he came home from school and his mother was in the kitchen fuming. She had his clothes on the table, "Where did you get these!"
"I found them."
"You mean you stole them!"
"No, they were being thrown out."
"So now you’re going through people's garbage! Go to your room. I told you this is going to stop. Its sick Jeffrey, you are a boy, boys do not wear bras."
On the way home the next day, Jeffrey told Claire that his mother had found her things. She had been cleaning up and thinking about having a garage sale and had looked in the box with his train set. Claire gave Jeffrey a hug and said, "I'm so sorry, Jeff. Don't worry, we will figure out some way to help you out."
It was only a few weeks later when Jeffrey found out that they would be moving to his Grandmother's old house. Claire was sad to see her friend go, but she said, "It might be a good thing to get away from here. At least you won't be teased about it, since no one there will know. I'm sorry that I won't be there to help you with your other needs."
They had promised to keep in touch.
Jeffrey was shaken back to the present when his mother pulled her car into the parking lot of his new school. They walked inside and his mother filled out the paperwork, and supplied his transcripts. Soon he was in his first class, and his jitters subsided as no one teased him. He joined several of the boys for lunch and seemed to be accepted right in.
---
The days went by, and Jeffrey was sure that he had just imagined what he saw in the mirror that first day. He settled into the new town, met some new kids, and was enjoying school. He knew that he still missed dressing up, but his mother gave him no opportunity to do so again. He had tried to talk to her about it, but she just told him it was not open to discussion.
He figured that it was just his mind playing tricks on him because he had been thinking about when he had gotten caught.
A few weeks later, he had been asleep, when he woke up, having thought he heard a noise in his closet. The moon was quite bright that evening, so the room was fairly well illuminated, and he looked over at the closet, and saw the girl in the mirror again.
She was reaching out to him and making a motion for him to come to her.
Scared but unable somehow to refuse he got out of his bed and headed over to her. He put his hand up to hers and found that his hand went into the mirror. She took his hand and guided him through.
Once he was on the other side, he looked down and saw that he was no longer a boy. He was really a girl, wearing a pretty dress. He looked at the girl he had seen in the mirror, and she said, "Hi Joann."
"Hi… Where am I? How did I get here? And who are you?"
"Whoa… One thing at a time. I'm Lisa. I'm your sister. You came through the mirror; I don't know how it works. Grandma Larkin told me it was time, and I have been watching for you."
"Grandma Larkin… My mom had a Grandma Larkin, but she just passed away, recently. The house we are living in was hers."
"I know. But that was on the other side." Lisa said.
"Why am I a girl here?" Joann asked.
"Because that is who you really are. Something is wrong on the other side, and you have a boy's body, but here you are who you are supposed to be." Lisa told her.
"What about my mother? I have to go back." Joann said.
"If you wish to, simply put your hand on the mirror and you will go back." Lisa told him.
"Will I be able to come back here if I go back?" Joann asked.
"Yes. But at some point, you will have to choose one world or the other." Lisa said.
"How do I come back, it has only showed me your world twice now."
"Now that you have been through, you will be able to activate it yourself. Grandma Larkin activated it earlier tonight. She felt you would be more comfortable speaking with me, so she gave us some privacy."
Joann put her hand on the mirror and found he was pulled back to the other side and looking down saw himself again. He looked back at the mirror and Lisa waved, and said, "Good Night," though he could not hear her.
---
The next morning when he looked at the mirror it was again showing his normal room. He walked over to it, and put his hand on the frame, thinking of the other world. The reflection instantly changed.
He put his hand on the mirror and she found herself on the other side, looking back through the mirror at his room. She immediately put her hand back on the mirror and he found himself back in his room. When he backed away, the mirror image faded back to his own room.
---
"Mom, did you know Grandma Larkin well?"
"Not too well, Jeff. My mother died when I was quite young, and my father did not get along too well with her," Jeff's mother told him.
"When did you last see her then?" Jeff asked.
"I saw her a few years ago, at Aunt Joann's funeral."
Jeff started. "Aunt Joann? I don't think I've heard of her before."
"She was my mother's sister."
"What was your mother's name?" Jeff asked.
"Lisa. Her name was Lisa." She looked at Jeff strangely. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Maybe I have, but I don't think you would believe me." Jeff replied.
"Try me." His mother said.
Jeff told his mother about what he had seen in the mirror.
His mother of course did not believe him. She got upset and thought that this was just Jeff's way of getting her to talk about his desire to cross dress again. She told him, "That's not funny, Jeff. I've told you that you will put this behind you. Don't bring it up again!"
"Mom, I'm not lying to you, the mirror really is a portal to another world. I'll show you!"
His mother followed him to his room, he put his hand on the frame thinking of the other world, and the image changed.
"See Mom, the room in the mirror just changed."
"Stop it Jeffrey, it's not funny. I don't know what kind of game you are playing but there is nothing different in the mirror," she stormed out of his room.
---
He called Claire that afternoon. After getting caught up on how things were back at the old school, and telling her about the new school, he said, "Claire… I have something to tell you about, and I don't think you will believe me."
"Of course I'll believe you, Jeff, why wouldn't I?"
"Because I'm not sure I believe it myself," he replied. He then explained about the mirror, and how he had thought he had been hallucinating at first, but that when he found himself on the other side, he knew it was real.
"And you are sure you were not just dreaming?"
"I'm sure, I didn't go back to sleep at all that night."
"So you were really, physically a girl then?"
"Yes."
"How did it feel? Did you realize it right away? I mean I would think it would feel very different."
"Wonderful. I can't really describe it; yes it was different, but then not as much as I would have thought. I knew something was different, but I couldn't place it till I looked down and saw what was different."
"So you really think this mirror is a portal to another world?"
"Yes, I do. I don't understand it, but I do."
"You be careful, you could get trapped over there, and you have no idea what is really going on. I don't like the sound of having to choose between one world and the other."
"What I don't understand is why my Mom couldn't see it."
---
Jeff tried to resist the mirror, it frightened him. As time went by though, his need to spend time as Joann, knowing that he could really be Joann, was too much for him. He went to the mirror, activated it and pushed on through.
"Hello Joann," Lisa said as she sat up in her bed.
"Hi Lisa," he replied.
"It's been a while, I wasn't sure you would be back. Grandma Larkin said you would though, but it would take some time. I guess she was right."
"Well, I'm not sure I should be doing this. It's a bit frightening you know. What if I get stuck here, I don't really know where I am. But I just needed to come back again."
"It's ok, I understand. I'd be afraid to go through myself, I don't really know much about the mirrors, but Grandma Larkin says that they are very useful."
"Will I meet her?"
"Sure, when you want to, I'll introduce you."
"Ok… I think I want to, because I have lots of questions for her, but I have to go to school now, so I have to go back. I'll see you later."
---
Over the next few months, Jeff spent as much time as he could visiting the other side. The next time he went he met, Grandma Larkin.
She explained, "Joann, on this side, you are your true self. When you cross through the mirror only your soul passes through. Our bodies are supposed to be physical representations of the soul, and somehow in your world, your physical body is out of synch with your soul, and that is making Jeffrey very unhappy. When your soul crosses through the mirror a temporary physical representation comes into existence here. As long as you have a permanent physical existence in your world, you will be tied to that world, and will only be able to stay here for short periods of time. This world is very similar to yours, but there are significant differences."
"Why couldn't my mother see this world in the mirror?"
"The mirror is a gateway between our worlds. There are more of them, to date we are aware of 30 of them, there may be more. However each mirror, which exists in both worlds, can only be linked to one soul at a time. In rare cases, a mirror can be linked to two people that are practically the same in two worlds, which is what happened with your Great Grandmother and me, until she passed away. At that time the link was broken. Though it was no longer linked to me, it still recognized me and I could still activate it. One of the powers of the mirror is the ability to see things in other universes, but also in our own, so you're great grandmother Larkin knew that you were hurting. Her last wish was to give you the opportunity to choose. She left the house to your mother, knowing that you would come. I promised to give you the choice. While it was unlinked, anyone could use it to look to the other side, as long as it was active, so Lisa could watch you and wave to you that first night."
"So?"
"Once you came through, the mirrors on both sides became linked to you. I can no longer activate it, and no one other than you can now see through or go through it to the other side. It is locked to you now."
"Lisa said that I would have to choose one of the worlds eventually? Why?"
"As I explained, you can only exist for short times here with this temporary shell, and then you must return to your permanent body. Your situation is more complicated than most because of the gender difference. On that side you are unhappy being a boy. You long for what you can have here. You will eventually have to choose to stay here and be a girl, or to break the link to here altogether to keep from going insane."
"But if I have to return to my permanent body after a short time, how could I choose to stay here?"
"By breaking the link back to your world, your temporary body would become your permanent body. That is not something to consider lightly, my dear. If you do so, there is no going back."
"Oh…. Where did the mirror come from? How does it work?"
"I don't really understand how they work myself, even after all these years. I know the rules they operate under, and that is all. There are an infinite number of alternative universes. The one constant is that for humans we have two genders, not sure what meaning that has, but if you notice the symbols on the mirror that is what it represents. Interestingly though, you would think that with all of those universes, you would have millions of counterparts, but you don't. Most people are unique, a few like your great grandmother and I have one counterpart and an even fewer have a second, and so far there have only been two cases of a third being found."
"But where do they come from?"
"As far as we can tell, they just are. I don't think they are really mirrors myself, though that is the way that we perceive them. Every so often, new ones are located. Sometimes when the person they are locked to dies, they disappear from where they are, and show up somewhere else already locked to a new person, sometimes they stay put and wait to be locked onto someone new. As I told you, your great grandmother knew about your struggles, and we knew that your soul would correct itself here, so I believe the mirror answered her final wish, and waited to let me pass it to you."
---
The more time that he spent on the other side, the harder it became to return and become male again, yet he loved his mother and did not want to lose her.
"That is just spooky, Jeff," Claire said when he explained it to her.
"A bit, but it does work, exactly as she said it does.
"What are you going to do then? I don't want to lose you, Jeff."
"I know, Claire, and I don't want to lose you either. But she was right about one thing, coming back here, to this … body… I hate it. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I could just have some time as Joann, here, but my Mom just won't talk about it. She is constantly checking through my things and on me, so there is no way to steal time. The only relief I get is on that side of the mirror. I have a good life over there, I've spent evenings with my friends, and it is wonderful."
He tried again one morning to tell his mother about the mirror. His mother said, "Enough! I'm late for work, but tonight I'm going to get rid of that mirror, and then we won't have any more talk about this."
---
Jeff went straight to his room after school. He had to choose.
He called Claire to say goodbye, "Claire, Mom is going to destroy the mirror when she gets home. I can't … I just can't stay here as Jeff, I wanted to thank you for being the only person that understood, and to say Goodbye. Don't cry for me, Claire, I'm going to be fine."
"Jeff, no, don't please, don't!"
"I'm sorry, Claire, I have to go." Jeff hung up the phone, and made his choice.
Lisa was waiting for him. He pushed through the mirror.
---
His mother came home and found him in his room. She cried out, "NO!!"
The police came and tried to determine what had happened. "It makes no sense. That mirror blew out from the inside. It's almost like something hit it from behind, and the fragments came and stabbed him right in the heart."
Later that night she went into Jeff's room, and saw a piece of the mirror was still sitting there, missed by the detectives. She picked it up and could see a pretty girl looking out at her, she was crying, she took a letter and pushed it toward the mirror. Amazingly, a letter came out of the mirror shard and into her hand.
Jeff's mother picked up the note, and read it.
|
She looked back in the mirror shard and saw that it was fading. As it faded out she saw the pretty girl say "Goodbye."
Kristy
by Kristine Roland
Jeffrey moves into a new house. There is something strange about the Mirror on the Door.
Updated - Thanks to Stanman63 for sending me an edited version.
Authors Note: This is the original contest version of this story. I have since updated the story and posted as The Mirror on the Door - Revised. The new version is a revised and expanded version of this original story.
Jeffrey put the last of his boxes down in his new room. He looked around. His bed, nightstand, dresser and desk had already been setup by the movers. The room was freshly painted with a bright blue on the walls, with a white ceiling. His mother had already made his bed. The comforter and pillowcases had the NY Mets baseball team logo, and the curtains in the room matched.
There was a walk in closet, and on the outside of the door to the closet was a full length mirror. His mother had decided to leave it, although she was making certain that the rest of the room was as masculine as possible.
Jeffrey's mother and father's divorce had been finalized just over a year ago. That had been rough on both his mother and himself. That had been nothing though compared to the day, about six months ago, when he had been rather publicly caught dressed as a girl. There had been no school that day. His mother was supposed to work, so he had been home by himself.
He had taken the rare opportunity to indulge himself in dressing up. He had been down in the family room when he heard his mother open the front door. Worse he heard her talking to her friend Emily, and he could hear Tim was with them.
She was saying, "Thanks for picking me up, Emily. I think my car is totaled. Just what I need right now. Come on in, let me get you guys something to drink. Jeff, I'm home."
Jeffrey knew he was caught; he had no chance of getting from the family room to the bathroom or his room without being seen. Sure enough, his mother came into the family room a moment later. The scene that followed that was not one he wanted to remember.
Tim of course told everyone at school, and it was pretty bad for a while. Than his Mom's grandmother had passed away, and his Mom had been left this house. His mother decided that a fresh start would do them both some good, and had decided to move here.
"Oh good, that was the last of the boxes. Get a start on unpacking your things Jeff. I'll go make us some lunch." His mother said.
"OK, Mom." He said as he opened up the first box, and started putting his things away.
He came upon some clothes that he needed to hang in his closet. As he looked into the mirror, he was shocked to see that the room that it showed in the reflection was pink, and the bed had a ruffled bed spread. The thing that shocked him even more was that it reflected a young girl, about his age in a pretty dress. Jeffrey shook his head and wiped his eyes, and looked again, and this time all he saw was his own room and himself.
"What the heck was that all about?" he thought to himself.
His mother called up to him and told him to come and eat.
The days went by, and Jeffrey was sure that he had just imagined what he saw in the mirror that first day. He settled into the new town, met some new kids, and was enjoying school. He knew that he still missed dressing up, but his mother gave him no opportunity to do so again. He had tried to talk to her about it, but she just told him it was not open to discussion.
He figured that it was just his mind playing tricks on him because he had been thinking about when he had gotten caught.
A few weeks later, he had been asleep, when he woke up, having thought he heard a noise in his closet. The moon was quite bright that evening, so the room was fairly well illuminated, and he looked over at the closet, and saw the girl in the mirror again.
She was reaching out to him and making a motion for him to come to her.
Scared but unable somehow to refuse he got out of his bed and headed over to her. He put his hand up to hers and found that his hand went into the mirror. She took his hand and guided him through.
Once he was on the other side, he looked down and saw that he was no longer a boy. He was really a girl, wearing a pretty dress. He looked at the girl he had seen in the mirror, and she said, "Hi Joann."
"Hi… Where am I? How did I get here? And who are you?"
"Whoa… One thing at a time. I'm Lisa. I'm your sister. You came through the mirror; I don't know how it works. Grandma Larkin told me it was time, and I have been watching for you."
"Grandma Larkin… My mom had a Grandma Larkin, but she just passed away, recently. The house we are living in was hers."
"I know. But that was on the other side." Lisa said.
"Why am I a girl here?" Joann asked.
"Because that is who you really are. Something is wrong on the other side, and you have a boy's body, but here you are who you are supposed to be." Lisa told her.
"What about my mother? I have to go back." Joann said.
"If you wish to, simply put your hand on the mirror and you will go back." Lisa told him.
"Will I be able to come back here if I go back?" Joann asked.
"Yes. But at some point, you will have to choose one world or the other." Lisa said.
Joann put her hand on the mirror and found he was pulled back to the other side and looking down saw himself again. He looked back at the mirror and Lisa waved, and said, "Good Night," though he could not hear her.
"Mom, did you know Grandma Larkin well?"
"Not too well, Jeff. My mother died when I was quite young, and my father did not get along too well with her," Jeff's mother told him.
"When did you last see her then?" Jeff asked.
"I saw her a few years ago, at Aunt Joann's funeral."
Jeff started. "Aunt Joann? I don't think I've heard of her before."
"She was my mother's sister."
"What was your mother's name?" Jeff asked.
"Lisa. Her name was Lisa." She looked at Jeff strangely. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Maybe I have, but I don't think you would believe me." Jeff replied.
"Try me." His mother said.
Jeff told his mother about what he had seen in the mirror.
His mother of course did not believe him. She got upset and thought that this was just Jeff's way of getting her to talk about his desire to cross dress again. She told him, "That's not funny, Jeff. I've told you that you will put this behind you. Don't bring it up again!"
Over the next few months, Jeff spent as much time as he could visiting the other side. He met Grandma Larkin.
She explained, "Joann, on this side, you are your true self. There are parallels, but you are not the same as the Joann that died on the other side, nor is the Lisa here your grandmother. Some souls are shared between each world. Mine for instance was shared by your great grandmother on the other side. Yours is shared with Jeffrey on the other side. But your soul is female, and that is making Jeffrey very unhappy. This mirror is special and is allowing both parts of your soul to come together."
The more time that he spent on the other side, the harder it became to return and become male again, yet he loved his mother and did not want to lose her.
He tried again one morning to tell his mother about the mirror. His mother said,"Enough! I'm late for work, but tonight I'm going to get rid of that mirror, and then we won't have any more talk about this."
Jeff went straight to his room after school. He had to choose. Lisa was waiting for him. He pushed through the mirror.
His mother came home and found him in his room. She cried out, "NO!!"
The police came and tried to determine what had happened. "It makes no sense. That mirror blew out from the inside. Its almost like something hit it from behind, and the fragments came and stabbed him right in the heart."
Later that night she went into Jeff's room, and saw a piece of the mirror was still sitting there, missed by the detectives. She picked it up and could see a pretty girl looking out at her, she was crying, she took a letter and pushed it toward the mirror. Amazingly, a letter came out of the mirror shard and into her hand.
Jeff's mother opened the letter, and read it.
Dear Mom,
I am sorry. I love you so much, but I had to choose, and on this side of the mirror I can be who I really am. Grandma Larkin sends her love as well, and promises that she will take good care of me.
Love you always,
Jeffrey.
She looked back in the mirror shard and saw that it was fading. As it faded out she saw the pretty girl say "Goodbye."
Claire's good friend Jeffrey went through a mirror in the door, what effect did that have on Claire's life?
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/14716/mirror-door-revised
Kristy
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Claire turned off the lights at the front of the house and brought the remaining candy back into the kitchen. It had been at least an hour since the last of the trick or treaters had come to her door.
After cleaning up, Claire walked into her study and stopped short, when she saw the mirror on the closet door. Her heart skipped a beat and she fell against the door to the room. Claire caught her breath, pulled herself together and went over to the closet door.
She examined the mirror, it was obviously old. The frame was intricately carved from a light colored wood. She saw that around the frame were small, but highly detailed characters from literature, all of which seemed to be from mystery novels. Examining the mirror closely she saw Holmes and Watson, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, Tommy and Tupence Beresford, Poirot and Hastings amongst the many characters. It was clear that the frame itself was worth a fortune.
As she looked closer, she noticed what she was really looking for. In the center at the top and bottom, and also the left and right sides of the frame was a symbol. The symbol was the infinity sign, but the two circles making up the loops were themselves the yin and yang symbols. The frame, though varnished, was not painted, so the dark areas were represented with fine carved hash marks.
Then she confirmed that everything to the left of the center point of this strange symbol at the top and bottom of the frame was mirrored to the right and everything above the center point of the symbols on the left and right were mirrored below. Each of the characters appeared to be reaching toward the center of the mirror.
She touched the frame to see how it was attached to the door. There were no obvious fasteners, or any way to remove the frame. The door behind it appeared to be solid oak.
Claire collapsed into her desk chair, and closed her eyes. "Why now; after all these years? I stopped looking for The Mirrors years ago, when Steve and I got married. Steve had saved me; my obsession with finding one of The Mirrors almost destroyed me."
Claire's thoughts went back to where it had all began, over sixty years prior. She'd been a young teenage girl at the time. Earlier that day a rumor had gone around about one of the boys in her class, that he had been caught the day before wearing his mother's clothes. That he wanted to be a girl. Claire did not know the boy, whose name was Jeff. Oh, she knew who he was, it was a small enough class that she knew most of the people's names at least, but she had never even spoken to him before.
She saw him being teased and taunted by just about everyone, and at lunch time he was sitting alone as everyone was avoiding him. Her heart broke for this poor boy, and she had made up her mind then and there that she was going to be his friend.
She smiled as she remembered going over to him that first day and asking if he minded if she sat with him. She saw a look in his eyes, gratitude, mixed with fear. He was naturally suspicious that she was trying to pull a prank on him, but longed for a friend. He had let her join him.
To make him feel at ease she avoided mentioning anything about the rumors. She would scold anyone who teased him in front of her, but that was as far as she would go in acknowledging that she knew about them. One day on the way home from school, Jeff had finally been ready to talk to her about it. He asked her why she had never said anything about the rumors.
She had told him that it was his business, that if it were true then she was there if and when he wanted to talk about it. She made it clear to Jeff that she would be his friend whether it was true or not. As it turned out it was true, Jeff had wanted to be a girl. His mother had completely rejected this need in him and he was hurting very badly from it. Worse, since his mother had so completely locked things down for him, he couldn't get even the mild release that occasional dressing had given him.
For a couple of days, she had tried to decide how she could best help Jeff. She would love to have had him come over and play "dress-up," but that would have been difficult to explain to her mother. Having a boy in her room, would have been forbidden for any reason, having him getting changed, well that was right out.
She went into the closet and looked through her clothes. As she came across one of her favorite skirts, she knew that was what she was going to do. It had a nice elastic waist, which would make it more likely that it would fit Jeff, and she had a nice oversized top that would go well with it. She went to her lingerie drawer and took out one of her newer pairs of panties, a package of nylons and one of her older bras that she had outgrown the cup size for, but would still probably fit Jeff.
She sat down and wrote a note saying that these were things she didn't wear any more, she chuckled as she thought, "well at least I won't once I give them to Jeff."
It had given her a nice warm feeling, knowing that she had been able to help Jeff. She saw him much more relaxed the next day, and that went on for a couple of months. Then his mother had found the clothes. Jeff got into a lot of trouble for that, but he had not mentioned to his mother that she had given them to him. She couldn't imagine what her own mother would have said about that!
A few weeks later, Jeff had told her that they were moving, that his mother had inherited a house from her grandmother, and they were going to go live in it. She was really sorry to see Jeff leave, but she also was happy for him, because the kids at his new school would not know about his situation and he would not be teased there.
They had kept in touch, and one day Jeff had told her a strange story about the mirror in his room being a portal to another universe. When he went through it, he came out into a world where he was truly physically a girl. It was hard to believe, but she knew intuitively that Jeff was not making this up.
It frightened her, especially when Jeff told her he had been told that he was eventually going to have to choose one world over the other. Several months later she had gotten the call that still haunted her to this day, Jeff had chosen, he was going to go through the portal and break the link back. To her it sounded too much like suicide, even though she believed Jeff. She had begged him not to do it, but in the end, he had said goodbye and hung up.
She cried the whole night long, and when she heard that Jeff's body had been found with a piece of mirror through his heart, she was devastated.
Her mother had taken her to Jeff's memorial service and the funeral. She looked at Jeff's mother with hatred in her eyes, and waited for an opportunity to get her alone. She and her mother were invited back to the house after the ceremony at the graveyard; her mother was hesitant, but acquiesced.
Later in the afternoon, she was coming back from using the bathroom, when she saw Jeff's mother sitting on the bed in his room. She went in and closed the door behind her.
Jeff's mother said, "Claire? Right? You were a friend of Jeff's from his old school?"
"Yes."
"Jeff spoke about you a lot. You were very good to him… after…"
"Somebody had to be. He needed you to listen to him. He was hurting so badly, I tried to help him… But you wouldn't listen to him, and then you wouldn't believe him when he told you about The Mirror. I tried to stop him, he called to say goodbye before he went through, I begged him not to, and he said he was sorry, but he had to go."
"He told you about the mirror?"
"Yes, he told me. He told me it was a portal to another world, a world where he was really a girl. He told me he had a sister there named Lisa, and a Grandmother Larkin. He had friends there that all knew him as a girl, and he told me he just couldn't stay here as a boy, and that you had told him you were going to destroy the mirror and he would be stuck here. I don't know how he did it, but then he killed himself and it's your fault!"
Jeff's mother broke down crying, and said "I didn't know… I thought he was just trying to get me to let him dress up."
Claire said bitterly, "Are you happy now? Was it worth having him kill himself instead of at least listening to him about his need to be a girl? If you had just listened, he would still be here. He must have broken that mirror somehow and stabbed himself. He needed help, he needed to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist to help with his gender problems, not to be told 'Be a man.' But no, you thought he should just suck it up, and that's why he is dead."
Jeff's mother raised her head defiantly and said, "He's not dead. He was telling you the truth. I came back in here that night, after the police had left and everything and they had missed a piece of the mirror. I saw her in the mirror and she pushed this note over to me."
She reached into her purse and handed it to Claire.
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"You saw her, in the mirror?"
"Yes, she was crying and she said goodbye."
"Where is the mirror piece now?"
"The image faded out, and next morning it was gone. The same thing happened to the pieces the detectives had gathered. They were all signed into the evidence room that night, and next morning they were all gone. Even the frame and the door it was on disappeared. The door was solid oak, that door was in its place in the morning, it's a regular closet door."
Claire reacted like she had been struck, "You mean that all of that portal stuff was really true. It wasn't just some fantasy that he created to deal with his pain?"
"Yes Claire, I don't know how or why, but it was real. I wish with all my heart that I had listened to him, and tried to meet him halfway, but I do know that somewhere on the other side of that mirror, she is happy now."
Claire never did speak to Jeff's mother again after that night. From that moment on she became obsessed with trying to find one of The Mirrors, so she could find a way to see Jeff one more time and to be sure that he was happy.
There was not much she could do while she was in school. She did what research she could on the internet, but it was difficult. You couldn't just google "mirror portals" and get an answer. She did get some leads though, by following through and finding people that were into the occult. She had to be a bit careful though, because her parents strongly disapproved of anything occult.
They had tried to get her to focus on more mundane things like dating and schoolwork. Dating was pretty much out of the question though. The boys all remembered her friendship with Jeff, and none of them wanted to be tainted as being a possible sissy, if she were to like them.
Her parents had pushed her to go to college, but her grades had slipped the last couple of years of high school. She just wasn't interested in it. Once she graduated high school, she packed up and started a cross country search for more information on The Mirrors. She found an old VW bus that she was able to buy cheap, which she could use as a camper. She worked odd jobs, when she could, mostly in retail or waiting tables, to bring in money for food and gas and the car insurance.
She followed leads where they would take her, and she got close a few times, only to get there after a person that supposedly had one had recently passed away, and the mirror was gone. She did learn quite a bit about them along the way, by speaking to family members of people that had them.
There were supposedly about 30 of them at any given time, though occasionally a new one would be discovered. The mirrors were locked to an individual and they were the only ones that could use them. It was rare, but occasionally an unlocked mirror would stay behind after the lock was broken, and then wait to lock to the person that finds it, but usually it will disappear and reappear somewhere else already locked to a person.
Those things all confirmed what Jeff had told her, years before. She also learned that no one could take control of a mirror. Several times in history, someone had tried to, by killing the person the mirror was locked onto, but the mirror would explode as soon as the person tried to use it and they would be killed, similar to what happened to Jeff's body.
Those that knew had tried to convince her that she should give up trying to search for the mirrors; they told her she would never find one by looking for it. Her obsession however, just got stronger as a result of such advice. She was sure she could track one down. She just wanted to see for herself that Jeff was ok.
She spent 3 years looking for the mirrors. She was running out of energy. She was lonely, and tired of bouncing from one place to another. She had no money, no friends, and only the one overriding obsession kept her going.
Then one night, she was waiting tables at a local diner. A young man came in and sat by himself at one of her tables. He had smiled at her and they had chatted a bit about nothing really while she served him.
He soon became a regular at her diner, and always asked to sit at one of her tables. She learned that his name was Steve, and he was a senior at a local college. One night Steve asked her if she would like to see a movie or something when she wasn't working. She had hesitated, and Steve's smile left his face and said, "If you are seeing someone else, it's ok, you just well I've been coming here daily for a couple of months now, and I really like you, but you have the aura of loneliness to you. I'd like to get to know you."
Claire said, "No, I'm not seeing anyone else. I've been … well it's a long story, but I move around a lot, and it's been a long time since anyone has taken an interest in me."
Steve said, "Well I would like to learn more about you."
Claire made the decision that had changed the rest of her life, for the better. She smiled and said, "I think I would like that."
Steve and Claire dated for just over a year, and Claire put all thoughts about chasing The Mirrors aside. Early on she had told Steve about it, and he gave her a wry smile and said, "Claire, your friend is either happy in another universe somewhere, or he is dead, hopefully in heaven, or re-incarnated as a girl or whatever, but I'm sure that he would not want you to waste your whole life looking for him. At least not if he was any kind of a friend to you, he wouldn't."
Claire had shaken her head.
"Plus, and I don't want to speak badly of your friend, because you obviously cared for him deeply, but he moved on without looking back, don't you think you should too?"
And so Claire finally had done so. They were married, and she started taking classes at a local community college. Now that she was free to live again, and was focusing on her own needs, she did very well and ultimately was accepted into a good school, where she studied psychology. It took a long time, but with Steve's help and support she eventually got her doctorate in psychology, with a specialty in transgender issues.
She and Steve had two children, and had a good life together. He had passed away earlier in the year, and their children were grown and married with their own kids. She did not get to see them often, as they lived on the opposite coast from her, but she loved video conferencing with them across the internet.
Claire opened her eyes and looked again. Yes, The Mirror was still there. Again she asked herself, "Why? And on Halloween of all nights, did one of The Mirrors decide to come to me now."
It was spooky, she had very little left here for her, other than those wonderful times when she would get to go visit her kids. Thinking back to Jeffrey, she wondered if the mirror was here as a harbinger of her own death. It scared her a little, but she wasn't afraid to die any more. Halloween of course was supposed to be the night when the veil between this world and the next was at its thinnest. She laughed and said, "of course, when else would it come."
She tried to remember back to all that she had learned about the mirrors, and she could not remember any instance where the mirror was thought of as being harmful to the person it locked too. Even in Jeffrey's case, Jeffrey certainly did not think so. Most of the people that knew of people with them said that they had felt it was a blessing. So why was she afraid?
She thought about it, and wondered, what do I really want from the mirror now? The answer came to her; she would love to really just check in with Jeff, to see if his life had turned out the way he wanted. To share with him her story as well, and to just hug an old friend, was all she would want with it now. "Oh, of course" she thought, "I could also use it to keep an eye on my kids and grandkids."
Claire got up and touched the two sides of the mirror, thinking about her friend Jeffrey, no Joanne she thought. The reflection changed, and a nice room, well lit was displayed, with an elderly woman, sitting in a rocking chair, reading from a tablet PC, and drinking tea was shown.
Claire put her hand on the mirror and found herself being pulled through to the other side.
Claire looked down at herself and was pleased to find that she was herself, and not some other person. Then she looked around the room, and noticed on the mantle a series of pictures showing that the woman in the rocking chair was part of a large and apparently loving family.
Claire felt a peace wash away old angst she wasn't aware she was even still carrying, and she smiled at the woman in the rocking chair and said, "Hi Joanne, It's me, Claire. I've missed you so much. I don't have long, because I have to go back to be with my family, but tell me, how was life as a girl?"
Happy Halloween Everyone!