"The Museum of Mirrors and the (Mostly) Dead, Pt. 6" - A Surrealist Story in Serialized Form

I thought I'd try something out. Since I write so much fiction, I figured I'd try out a new piece on all you Steemers out there. It's dark (like nearly all of my stuff) and long (like a great deal of my stuff). It's one of six stories that will be included in my third collection coming out late next year. You can find my other (fully) posted non-fiction story "Colfax Place" on Steemit here:

https://steemit.com/nonfiction/@bucho/colfax-place-a-piece-of-non-fiction-about-the-midwest

I figure if the first couple of installments of this one pique some interest, I'll keep posting up new sections daily. Per usual, all critiques welcome as long as they're constructive. I'll also keep a running list of links at the bottom of each entry so you can play catch up a little easier.

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Mirror #5

“Pinochet”

Date Created Unknown/Unconfirmed
Found in 1993

Materials Used:
Cherry Wood, Ornate Carving, Art Itself

Type of Reflection:
Alternate Future
Normal Planar Reflective Surface

What You See:

The frame is a deep, reddish brown. It is three inches thick all around and intricately carved. The swirl of battle scenes flowing into tranquil scenes and back again runs along every inch. Though unconfirmed, the frame feels like someone has tried to imprint a general history of their country and their people into it in case the memory of them got lost along the way somewhere else.

And the mirror’s surface? Nothing. It appeared to be a regular mirror until you were close enough to breathe on it, the heat misting up on the surface before dissipating quickly into an image of your past, a pivotal moment, a life-altering direction based on a choice. The scene played out towards its inevitable, knowable end…which never came. Not as you remembered it. It was, in fact, the opposite of what actually happened; a completely separate decision had been made and you were viewing the ‘what could’ve been.’ The results were fascinating until the image fizzled back out into a cloudy gray and disappeared.
Another info placard hung on the wall to the right, but you couldn’t remember if it had been there before or not.

“Until his successful coup d’etat in 1973, Chilean president Augusto Pinochet seemed to make leadership decisions slowly, often mulling over an idea for days before ever vocalizing the order. The week before the coup was planned to take place, a constituent had given him this mirror as a gift. After that night, while he locked himself away in his room for hours at a time, he seemed to become brutally decisive in everything he did. Knowing what we know now, we can safely assume that Pinochet spent his free time playing out the endgames on a million different choices through the mirror’s image.

Ironically, sources claiming to have been close to the dictator say that his use of the mirror in making political decisions wasn’t about accumulating power in the moment, though that had been a perk. The driving force behind his abuse of the mirror’s ability was to find a way to make himself immortal, to be forever remembered in the pages of history until the book closed for good. Political power had been a close second, but only insofar as it could propel his name far into the future long after he’d been turned into food for worms.”

You stepped back in front of the mirror and breathed upon its surface again. There was no movement from deep within, no nothing. The light above dimmed; the light from the next mirror came into brightness.

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Next time in part 7: https://steemit.com/writing/@bucho/the-museum-of-mirrors-and-the-mostly-dead-pt-7-a-surrealist-story-in-serialized-form

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Previous Sections:
Part 1 - https://steemit.com/fiction/@bucho/the-museum-of-mirrors-and-the-mostly-dead-pt-1-a-surrealist-story-in-serialized-form

Part 2 - https://steemit.com/fiction/@bucho/the-museum-of-mirrors-and-the-mostly-dead-pt-2-a-surrealist-story-in-serialized-form

Part 3 - https://steemit.com/fiction/@bucho/the-museum-of-mirrors-and-the-mostly-dead-pt-3-a-surrealist-story-in-serialized-form

Part 4 - https://steemit.com/fiction/@bucho/the-museum-of-mirrors-and-the-mostly-dead-pt-4-a-surrealist-story-in-serialized-form

Part 5 - https://steemit.com/fiction/@bucho/the-museum-of-mirrors-and-the-mostly-dead-pt-5-a-surrealist-story-in-serialized-form