"TALES OF GHOSTS"
about Love and Death from the Land of Mists
a collection of short stories
in the “Playing Another Reality” series
"BROKEN MIRROR"
12. A BROKEN MIRROR
“Cold glasses… You touch them… Outside the windows, there is a City of the World of Illusions, abandoned, empty and gloomy. There is no one in the City, everyone is gone forever. The leaves on the trees have not yet blossomed, but spring will never come. Fog is walking along the gray streets. It gradually envelops the City, and everything goes into it without returning. That means there is no future. It all ended abruptly. The last star in the sky is about to fade, and there will be neither Light nor Darkness.
It’s raining on the edge of the Universe. You are alone in this City, but you will soon disappear into the Fog as well.
There are shards of the broken mirror on the floor. It crashed back in the summer, when everything was different: the gentle Sun was shining, the birds were singing, and being not alone, you were dreaming of. The mirror had a premonition…
Why are you the last one left in the City? Why did everyone leave but you? Why didn’t they take you with them? Or rather, most importantly, She, who left you that day, when the Sun was still shining, but the mirror broke, why?
And the Wind whispered to you, “Wait!”, but you went on looking for Her.
And the Sea echoed the Wind, “She’s not there!”, but you didn’t stop.
And the Sun laughed, “What a funny person!”, but you kept on your way without listening.
And the trees blocked the way, “Stubborn!”
And the leaves rustled, “Listen!”
And everything-everything-everything rang around, “We are just shadows!”
However, you heard Her Voice calling you! You couldn’t be mistaken! You trusted only that Voice, the only thing left of Her, what you were so afraid to lose forgetting. But you couldn’t neither hear what exactly She was telling you, nor understand where to find Her, since you lived in the World of Illusions…
And the Voice whispered, “I am with you! I’m here! I’m looking at you, I see and hear everything. You don’t need to look for me somewhere, but in yourself, in your soul, the piece of Heaven that is inside every human being, and no one can separate us, because we are the One.”
However, you couldn’t make out Her words and went farther and farther… from the Truth, until one day you returned … home …
Cold glasses… You touch them… And… you pass through them… Yes! You feel no pain because you are no longer here! Your breath leaves no trace on the shards of the broken mirror… The World of Illusions is your Past! Now, when the heart has stopped, you are able to scroll through your whole life like a movie, every moment, everything, everything, everything. Some fragments make you scared. You are looking for something in them and can’t find it. However, when you find it finally, you suddenly realize that it’s all in vain, because it’s all too late, since you are a Ghost.
You dissolve your own Consciousness in the Universe, in the very Fog that has swallowed up all the inhabitants of this City, including the most valuable – Her, and is now absorbing you. And your last thought is ringing like a bell: life is over, and you haven’t managed to do something very, very important…”
I re-read the final fragment of my novel about the Other Reality. It remained to write the Epilogue, but I had no energy left, so I went to the Land of Dreams.
When I woke up in the morning, I remembered that I had forgotten to buy myself something for breakfast, so I hurried to the fog-shrouded street. There was a giant supermarket right in the next house, and Time was valued by me much more than money.
All I’d lived for lately was my book. I wanted to finish writing it in time for the birthday of my close friend, who didn’t want to live after the sudden death of his beloved wife.
I habitually took a cart at the entrance and headed for the row of dairy products. I usually had yogurt or oatmeal for breakfast. Having approached the shelf with yogurts, I reached out for the curds, when suddenly… someone pushed me hard.
I turned around and saw a man with… a bloody face and… a hole in his skull! He was walking away with an imposing gangster gait, not noticing anyone, with one hand he rolled a cart with groceries, and with the other he held the phone, talking with someone as if nothing had happened!
I squeezed my eyes shut, and when I opened them, the man was gone. Perhaps he had already turned into meat products.
However, as soon as I came to my senses from the creepy man, I noticed two unusual old ladies approaching the curds, and the cold seized my soul: the old ladies had ‘walking’ body parts, gathering into a single whole and moving away from each other!
As they came closer to me, they were discussing the last news report and the weather for the next day. The old lady in black took some cottage cheese and a carton of milk, and the old lady in white took some curds with raisins, and they left.
I decided to follow the old ladies, but, turning into a meat aisle, I got into a whole crowd of creepy people: some of them had obvious injuries, someone was shining through, and others were in a state of trance, not noticing anyone around, like a zombie, they were hitting people and shelves, trying in vain to find a way out of the giant maze of the supermarket.
In the line at the butcher’s counter, several faces were flickering strongly. I got closer to them, but their special effect didn’t disappear!
“Excuse me,” I said to the flickering girl. “Can you tell me what’s going on here?”
“It’s a queue,” the girl gave me an uncomprehending look, “for meat. Do you want meat?”
“No,” I recoiled and decided to get out of there as soon as possible.
However, at the bakery, I ran into Lada, my neighbor and a doctor, specialized in proper nutrition.
“Disgrace!” looking at the dates on the packages of bread, Lada exclaimed. “Look, Seraphyma, not a single fresh loaf!”
I was glad and about to share my glitches with the doctor I knew, who would never put me in a psychiatric hospital, when… Oh, Lord! Lada turned to me her back with a wooden pole sticking out of it!
Having chosen nothing for breakfast, I flew out of the store like a bullet and sat down on a bench in front of my doorway, trying to dissolve the obsession in the fresh air, but similar creepy people passed by me, and the picture didn’t change!
“It’s all a dream, it’s all just a dream! I will wake up! I’ll wake up soon, and everything will return to normal!” I repeated as mantra, going up home.
As I entered my flat, the first thing I did, out of habit, was to glance in the mirror, but… it wasn’t there! I flew up to the table where I had left my manuscript with the last chapter already completed, but… the table, together with the manuscript, dissolved right before my eyes!!! And everything around became somehow different, too! The space seemed to twin! I saw my room simultaneously in two versions: with the whole mirror on the wall and with shards of the broken mirror on the floor…
I sat down on the edge of the bed, not understanding anything, except for one thing: I would never be able to recreate the novel to help my friend survive!
Suddenly I felt the presence of someone nearby and shifted my gaze to the front door that I hadn’t closed. The very same friend appeared on the threshold.
He came up to me, sat down nearby, pulled a shard out of my neck and said,
“Cold glasses… You touch them… And… you pass through them… Yes! You feel no pain because you are no longer here! Your breath leaves no trace on the shards of the broken mirror… The World of Illusions is your Past! Now, when the heart has stopped, you are able to scroll through your whole life like a movie, every moment, everything, everything, everything. Some fragments make you scared. You are looking for something in them and can’t find it. However, when you find it finally, you suddenly realize that it’s all in vain, because it’s all too late, since you are a Ghost.
You dissolve your own Consciousness in the Universe, in the very Fog that has swallowed up all the inhabitants of this City and now is absorbing you. And your last thought is ringing like a bell: life is over, and we haven’t managed to do something very, very important…”
1989