Chapter 9

9

     It wasn’t a day later that Jordan found out exactly what it meant. Once again, she was out mowing the lawn when she heard an ambulance wailing in the distance. Bursting from their door across the street, Mr. and Mrs. Clemmons dashed down the quiet lane toward “death curve” as it was often called; the same place where she and Stacey had their first “accidental” encounter. Several accidents had occurred on that portion of road. It was narrow, difficult to see around due to the tall weeds and bushes, and worst of all, it was barely a lane wide.

     Jordan could plainly see the fear in their eyes as they headed toward the cut in the hill. Dropping the weed whacker, Jordan ripped off her gloves and dashed after them. She often babysat for the family and little Kayla was so adorable. Kayla especially loved insects and animals. Jordan fondly recalled the last time she had sat for the Clemmons’ when Kayla had shown Jordan her butterfly garden. Inside were beautiful butterflies sporting patterns of dark amber, orange, black and white. What a thrill it was when Mr. Clemmons allowed Jordan to accompany Kayla into the yard, where the butterflies exploded like fireworks from their prison into the clean, free air. Winged fairies, they wafted upon the invisible breeze, lighting on flowers for the first time. The screaming siren even closer now brought Jordan back and she doubled her speed, realizing that one of the kids must be badly hurt.  

Jordan cut through her yard and rounded the corner of their property to where the road snaked in a sharp left hand turn. There, on the ground, lay Kayla, covered in blood, her bike twisted and ensnarled in the bushes. An older man stood nearby, wringing his hands and apologizing over and over. It really wasn’t his fault. He was driving. Who knew that a kid would be on a bike at the worst possible spot? She heard the ambulance attendants tell the Clemmons that Kayla’s condition was serious and that she needed surgery immediately. They all jumped into the ambulance and rode off while the police took care of the poor old man.

     Jordan spoke up after a few moments and offered to wheel the bike to the Clemmons’ house and the officer agreed, thanking her as he drove off. The old man hung around for a few moments. He continued to twist and wring his fingers, his mouth opening and closing silently like a fish.  It seemed he wanted to say something… to explain himself, however there was no one left to listen other than the remaining officer waiting on a wrecker,  and Jordan didn’t particularly enjoy talking to strangers.

She grasped the bike by its middle and pulled it from the bushes, half wheeling, half carrying it away. She glanced back one last time and came to a dead stop. Hanging from the man’s rear view mirror, was a huge red mushroom air freshener! And behind the car was a house number painted on a huge piece of plywood, there to indicate a new residence in progress- the number 3344. Dread kicked in and what the mirror had shown all rushed back to her. The baby, the bike, the number, the car and the mushroom. While Kayla wasn’t a baby, she was still young and the mirror did seem to ‘talk’ in symbols overall. But how was she to know it would be Kayla? She wracked her brain trying to recall other symbols that had flashed across the mirror, and the memory of Kayla and the butterfly farm connected, sending a bold almost electrified image into Jordan’s brain, there had been a symbol of a butterfly. Several actually, all floating aimlessly for the micro seconds that they were revealed.

Jordan picked up her pace and her feet slammed on the pavement in anger. How? How was she supposed to know what all those symbols meant? For crying out loud, the mushroom and number could’ve meant anything! And god! If only she had been able to catch all the symbols, the butterfly should’ve made sense! And the time? How was she to know when it would happen? Glancing at her watch, she realized that the accident occurred about 13 hours after it revealed its deadly forewarning in the attic the night before. She marked the time in her mind, realizing that if the mirror were to show the future again, Jordan would know how much time she actually had- IF it remained constant.

     Realizing that she could’ve saved yet another life, Jordan purposed in her heart to get to the root of this. She would have to master the mirror if she were to stop such things from happening again. Even worse, she would have to come up with some way to actually help… before it was too late.