Through the Looking Glass

 

There is a boy living in my mirror. Not any normal Boy of course. Normal Boys don't do things like play in the mud or get perfect scores on tests or live in mirrors. He's a strange, beautiful, enchanting boy. The type of boy who is found in a fairy tale. When he laughs it's as if the world laughs with him.

No one else seems to see the boy. My mother’s too busy. My father, don’t see him often. The other kids believe such a strange boy like him could ever be anything but, strange. It's like I'm the only one who cares at all. I wish they would see how amazing he really is. The Boy is extremely talented. He gets straight A's and can play three instruments. Algebra is a piece of cake and he reads Keats and Gibran for fun. No one cares about that either.

"Hey Dad! He can spell cytoplasm!"

"That's nice."

"Look, he wrote a poem Mom!"

"um hmm."

No one will listen. The boy is lonely because I'm his only friend. I told him that it doesn't matter because the other people aren't worthy of being his friends. He's still sad. He never smiles any more. I wish he would.

The Boy isn't the same any more. He won’t talk to me or anyone else. He's stopped studying or being creative. It's not worth the trouble if no one notices. All his stories and poems have been thrown away. Shakespeare was flung into the fire. His grades have gone downhill. The instruments have corroded away.

He's started being sarcastic and uncaring. He makes fun of the kids that were like the old mirror Boy. Everyone loves him now. Everyone but me. I hate the Boy in the mirror. He's ugly and stupid with his group of superficial "friends." He's not worth being my friend anymore. Too bad I'm stuck with him, because every time I look in the mirror he's there. Staring back at me.

I broke the mirror today. He's still there.

---------

To the Looking-Glass world it was Alice that said

"I've a sceptre in hand, I've a crown on my head.

Let the Looking-Glass creatures, whatever they be

Come dine with the Red Queen, the White Queen and Me!"