Foxtales #19 - Mom's Magic Mirror

This is my entry for Foxtales #19

Mom's Magic Mirror

Cassie sat down at her dresser and touched the gilded, wrought iron frame of the mirror. The golden braids inlaid with large emeralds and sapphires that caught the last rays of sunlight that trickled into her heavily curtained bedroom. She sighed softly and ran her fingertips over the smooth gemstones and she suddenly found herself lost within a memory. She was maybe six years old and her father had just lost his business in the recession and they had been forced to sell everything they owned and all of them had moved into her Grandmother's house two states away from Kuala Lumpur. The only thing her mother had begged her father not to sell was the dresser with the gilded mirror. Her heart broke remembering how her mother had thrown herself onto the dresser, protecting it almost like one would a child. She recalled how many years later on her deathbed, her mother had asked her to bring the mirror for her one last time. No goodbyes to her five children, only to her mirror did she hang on for one last look before melting away with her arms wrapped around the gold plated frame. Back in real time, she blinked and looked hard into the mirror. Her reflection looked back at her, burrowed eyebrows and all stared back hard at her, willing the damned piece of furniture to talk, and tell her the many secrets it kept for it's many masters. She could almost hear a strangled whisper creep out from the sapphires which looked like the eyes of a tiger. Suddenly there came a deep and ominous voice which seemed to come from deep inside her head. " Cassandra, Cassandra, You seek the Magic Mirror?" it said aloud. "Y...Yes I guess?" She answered carefully. What in the world. a magic mirror? What did she think this was anyway? Snow White or some warped version of a some urban fairytale? She didn't want to go insane like her mother, whose last moments on earth were spent talking to a bleeding mirror. Taken over by a sudden surge of anger, Cassie grabbed the mirror and threw it across the room, shattering it in a thousand pieces.She went around picking up the large gemstones that were all over her floor, counting twenty emeralds and fifteen sapphires. Those she would sell at the local pawn shop tomorrow, perhaps she would go get a nice mirror with dotted lightbulbs as a frame from IKEA. Yes, she wanted to feel like Audrey Hepburn, backstage at some fancy New York broadway musical. She finished cleaning up the rest of the gilded mess and dumped it all in the rubbish chute. Emotions ruled her actions when she went off her meds, and she hadn't taken any pills for days. She felt so liberated and happy, yet she couldn't quite understand why there was also a lot of grief in her heavy heart. Guess being Bi-polar had it's advantages and disadvantages after all, she thought with a smile as she closed the door to her apartment with the gemstones safely inside her handbag.

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Thank you and I hope you enjoyed my short story! It's been fun joining Fox Tales and your drawings truly are inspiring.

For more of my work please checkout my blog at @nikisteem
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