Chapter 23

23

     School came and went and Jordan said goodbye to Stacey as she bounded into the house and headed for the kitchen.

     “There you are!” She heard her mother call and Jordan wondered what that meant.

     “You knew Stacey and I were stopping at Jo Jo’s for a shake, mom. What’s up?” Jordan asked, entering the sunny country kitchen where her mother was icing a chocolate cake for dessert.

     “I guess I forgot,” Her mother said absently as she began cleaning the countertop. “Your friend stopped by and I told her she could wait in your room, thinking you’d be home soon, but after awhile she said she had to go…”

     “Friend?” Jordan snapped, “Who?”

     Her mother frowned, “Um…. Terry, no- it was Teresa, I believe.”

     “Teresa? What did she want?” Jordan cried.

     Sensing her daughter’s distress, her mother frowned and replied, “I don’t know Jordan, something about a school project. She said that she…”

     Jordan didn’t wait for her mother to finish. She raced from the room and up the stairs to the attic. She nearly fell backward down the steep staircase as she hit the door, grasping the knob for leverage, regaining her balance and quickly thrusting open the attic door.

     The mirror was gone. How in God’s name could she have managed the mirror alone? She raced to her room to see if anything else was missing and shrieked in terror.

     The mirror stood in the corner of her room. No longer in shadows, no longer covered, fully exposed it stood there. Jordan jumped a mile when she heard her mother beside her.

     “Looks good doesn’t it? I told you it would look beautiful in here. Since your dad’s home for a couple days we both decided it was time to move it in here. We’re going to clean out the attic and need the room to move things around in there anyway. Besides, I’m tired of you using the mirror in my room all the time. Now you have a full-length mirror of your own to use.”

     At that her mother left the room and Jordan stood there speechless. There was no doubt that Teresa had seen the mirror and Jordan wondered if Teresa had tried to use it.

     That night over dinner, Jordan interrogated her mother.

     “So, what exactly did Teresa say, mom?”

     “Jordan, I told you. She said that you and she were friends and that you were working on a history project together. I told her you weren’t home yet and after hanging in the kitchen getting under my feet, I suggested she wait in your room.”

     “How long was she here?” Jordan quizzed.

     Sighing loudly and glancing at Jordan’s father, his eyebrows arched in question, her mother replied, “Probably about 3o minutes maybe. She said she forgot something and she’d come back later.”

     “How’d she know where my room was?” Jordan asked, an accusing tone in her voice.

     “I showed her to your room,” her father piped in. She seemed like a nice enough girl. Dressed oddly, but she was very polite. She was really taken with the mirror in your room-“

     “Unlike other people,” her mother interrupted staring point blank at Jordan. But Jordan didn’t seem to notice, instead her attention was now on her father.

     “What did you tell her about the mirror?” She asked, an edge of panic in her voice.

     “I told her that a dear friend of yours left it to you in a will and that you insisted it remain in the attic. I also told her that we had only moved it to your room that morning and that we hoped it would be a surprise.”

     “Yeah, it was a surprise all right,” Jordan mumbled under her breath.

     “What was that?” her father asked. “Jordan is there a problem you’re not telling us about? You know you can talk to us if there is.”

     “No,” Jordan sighed loudly, “I’m fine. I guess I better finish up and get started on that project. Teresa can be… unreliable and she may not come back tonight.”

Jordan finished her last bite, ran up to her room and logged into her IM.

     Shortcake: Hey you on?

     Wildie13: yep. Sup?

     Shortcake: ur never gonna believe this. Teresa came to my house. She saw the mirror. They moved it to my room!!!

     Wildie13: WAT??? OMG! Wat r u gonna do?

     Shortcake: Wat can I do? I do know this – I gotta destroy the mirror. That’s all there is to it.

     As Jordan signed off, she sat staring at the mirror, which stood in the corner staring back. If she destroyed the mirror, how would she explain it to her mom and dad? It would be pretty obvious that she’d done it on purpose so Jordan knew she had to hang for awhile longer- wait it out and then make her move.