And Another One

“The mirror showed a reflection that wasn't my own,” Forty-year-old Lawson Briggs announced to his wife in the kitchen. His words dripped with anxiety and urgency but he somehow remained relatively calm. He was black as the Labrea Tar Pits. But he and his wife were thousands of miles away in Hockessin, Delaware. He just peered at an image in the mirror. It was of a middle aged Chinese woman. His wife, thirty-two-year-old Vienna looked up from her salad. She finished chewing.

“You’re trapped in an alternate universe when it comes to reflections,” Vienna explained. The color almond engulfed her five feet four inch petite frame. Each word rang with reserve and knowledge.

“Okay so how do I get out of it?”

“Do you have your phone?”

“I do.”

Vienna rose from her seat like an empress in her palace.

“What you’re going to want to do is take a picture of the mirror with the flash engaged. You’re going to have to position the portrait just right and ensure that you capture the photo with the angles made to fit the entirety of the mirror. Stand and look at the image for at least ten seconds and continue away from the mirror.” She said all of this so calmly.

“Have you done this before? Does this happen to have anything to do with rocks under the bed or your menstrual blood in the gumbo?”

“Maybe.” She went over to the back door and unlocked and opened it as Lawson jetted back to the mirror. He rolled up his sleeves and looked down at his arms. They were still black as the night sky outside. They glistened with sweat. He grabbed his phone and went to the mirror in the bathroom. His hands quavered. Then, he straightened. Lawson breathed.

His mind ambled on an entire journey of discovery as he tried not to look at the woman in the mirror. Like a fire set ablaze in his soul, he knew that he would have to snap the shot with precision and never surrender to the power of the mirror. In a moment, he snapped the photo. The flash was like the light of an oncoming locomotive. His stomach rumbled and his mind reeled. An ivory smile returned to his face. In the mirror, a coal black man standing six feet two inches stared back at him. “Ha! It worked!” His excitement caused him to become even more engaged and he ran back to his wife.

She had finished her meal and now relaxed in the atrium reading a book. She looked up and screamed.

“I don’t know who you are but you better get the hell out of my house before I call the cops!” Vienna exclaimed.

“What? I did what you told me to do!” Just then, after all of the excitement of seeing himself in the mirror, he had not taken the time to look at himself without one. His hands passed over the fair skin and epicanthal folds and over the breasts.

“Aaaaah!” He ran to the mirror once more. The blackness stared back at him. This, however did not sooth him. Vienna dialed the authorities. She held a baseball bat out to protect herself from Lawson who had just returned from his reflection once again.

“Look, you of all people should understand. You hinted that something like this happened to you before,” Lawson reasoned.

“Hey! You can take the jewelry if you want. I just don’t want to be hurt,” Vienna asserted.

“Babe….”

“I’m not your ‘Babe’, you don’t know me, lady!”

“We’ve been married for seven years! Let’s go up to the mirror. I’ll show you who I say I am. I’m a black man. I’m not a Chinese woman!”

The flash of blue and red lights illuminated the window.

“You can make this extremely easy. You can go back upstairs and die or you can comply. It’s your choice,” Vienna offered an ultimatum as police officers trained their service pistols on Lawson.

“I’m me! I’m black!” He shouted.

“You’re having an episode. We’re going to put away our guns and slowly escort you to the squad car,” Officer Joe Levy offered.

Officer Rayna Hospers already retracted her firearm.

Lawson was in tears that the white shirt he wore soaked up. He felt like an exotic animal being trapped in a world that rooted against him.

He had reached the fifth step in the mansion that they called home. Now, it seemed the entire structure fell upon his head.

The officers approached as Vienna brought her hands up to her face. Tears streaked her cheeks. Rayna closed the cold bracelets of justice around Lawson’s wrists. They marched him down like everything was in slow motion. Once they got to the police car and placed a hand over his head, Vienna then walked out of the house and saw to it that her husband, this Chinese woman, this person whom she knew for over a decade and married without children could be brought to a psychiatric hospital.

The police officers lingered for a bit more as they filled out a report based on Vienna’s words. The November wind stung with a frostiness that made it feel like twenty nine degrees Fahrenheit.

“Did you say you’ve never seen this woman before?” Officer Rayna asked.

“Never in my life.” Vienna replied with such detachment and disbelief that it seemed like she had never seen a person in the house at all.

“How do you think she got into the house?”

“I think my husband left it open when he left for work this morning,” Vienna responded.

“And where is he?” Levy asked.

“I haven’t a clue. He just…left.” The officers exchanged glances but continued.

“We’re going to take her into the Beasley Psychiatric Center. If ever you feel the need to contact us or want to report a psychiatric emergency, never hesitate to call 988.” A sincere smile crossed Levy’s face.

Lawson closed his eyes and propped his head against the window. Then, he looked straight ahead at the rear view mirror in the car and noticed himself again. Black man. Handsome. Strong. He looked down. Now he was a Chinese woman. Gorgeous. Strong. The cruiser rolled away with Vienna walking slowly back into her house. A few neighbors stood and looked as the blue and red glow faded into the distance.

Vienna picked up her feet and shut the back door and locked it. She went to the center of the house and looked around with glee.

“All mine!” she shouted and the echo bounced around the walls. She journeyed to her laptop computer. She entered Lawson’s name as another entry to her list. “And another one,” she said and then started packing all of his materials to be shipped out to the thrift store.

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