Chapter 2

2

     “Future Glimpse?” Jordan’s tanned face wrinkled in confusion as she tried to take in all that Bethany had told her. “You mean to tell me that mirror can show the future, Bethany?”

     Bethany’s smile changed to a grim determination as she raised a shaky, gnarled hand to her forehead. Something she often did when she was very upset or deep in thought.

     “I know, Jordan, that it seems far fetched. But it’s true. I was given this mirror by my great Aunt Isobella. She told me what the mirror could do, but my skepticism wouldn’t allow me to believe it. Even when I saw my own mother’s death. I could’ve saved my mother’s life, Jordan, but I didn’t act. Instead I froze in fear and indecision and hours later, I got the dreaded news. My mother was dead, and I alone was responsible.”

     “Oh, come on Bethany, you weren’t resp-“

     “Jordan,” Bethany cut in sharply, “What I am giving you is a big responsibility. You will only see pain and suffering in this mirror, but the beauty is that you can stop it. You will have the power to foresee other’s futures and then change it- stopping God knows what. I feel that you are the right person for this duty, Jordan. Will you accept my gift?”

     Silence gathered and hung thick as fog as Jordan turned from Bethany and strode to the window. Outside the birds were chirping and some children were playing on the street. The world looked normal and yet where she stood, reality ceased and she felt like Alice in Wonderland. Surely, this was not happening and Bethany would burst out laughing at any moment, but she didn’t and when Jordan turned to face Bethany once more, the grim determination that she saw caused the curtain of reality to come crashing down. Everything that Jordan had thought to be solid in the world had now become shaky and uncertain.

     “I don’t know, Bethany. It’s all just so… unreal, you know?”

     “I know, Jordan, truly I do. That mirror has been in my closet for years. I have never wanted to look into it again. AS a matter of fact, the last time I did look into the mirror, it was just after my mother’s funeral. Only this time it was different. I stared into the mirror in anger and frustration, searching for my own destiny. What I saw was a feeble, overweight woman, bedridden- destined to die alone. I am the woman that I saw, Jordan. This- here and now- was the future revealed to me.”

     “But you’re not alone, Bethany, I am here and I promise I won’t desert you.” Jordan wrung her hands as she paced the floor.

     “Jordan, honey, go get your dulcimer from the back bedroom and let me hear you play. We will have time to talk more about this. You need time to think.”

     Nodding her head in agreement, and a little more than shaken up, Jordan did as she was instructed, returning with her instrument.

     The dulcimer was a beautifully crafted instrument, made from pale pine wood. The oblong, stringed instrument rested across Jordan’s lap as she seated herself beside Bethany, and using the stick that her father had carved for her, she pressed it against the frets as she strummed, playing all of Bethany’s favorite songs.

     As she was finishing, “Let’s Meet by the River,” an old gospel song that made Bethany particularly melancholy, they were interrupted by the arrival of the night nurse, coming to care for her charge for the evening.

     Jordan said her goodbyes and left for home. As she strolled down the road toward her two-story house, she wondered if her parents should know about what Bethany told her. Surely, they would prevent her from future visits if they thought Bethany was losing it. Better to keep it to herself for now.

     That night, Jordan tossed and turned, dreaming over and over about the mirror and what Bethany had told her. She awakened more than once that night in a cold sweat, half-expecting to find the mirror hovering over her, like some Frankenstein monster. All that met her bleary gaze however, was a bedroom full of stuffed animals, a softly glowing computer screen sitting on her corner desk, and a bookshelf ladened with books. No boogey man, no fortune telling mirror, and sadly for her, no rest.

     “Maybe by morning, Bethany will have forgotten about this conversation and we can move on,” Jordan mumbled to herself as she fell into another round of fitful sleep.