by R. L. Austin
“I found it outside the museum, on the ground.” The old vendor shifted in his chair and jutted his chin out defensively. “That’s finder’s keepers, fair and square.”
Tyler had no idea why his question would bother the old man. “Okay, I was just curious.”
With no money left, Tyler headed for home. The nearest trolley station was on Taylor Avenue, at least a dozen blocks away, so he walked in that direction. He used the opportunity to examine his prize from every angle. The time on the watch was 11:05, which was wrong, so Tyler gave the timepiece a few taps and put it to his ear. He was surprised to hear it ticking. He tried to adjust the time, but the hands wouldn’t move. Tyler fidgeted with it for a while longer before he looked up to see where he was. The shops had been replaced by expensive-looking houses, so he knew he’d taken a wrong turn. The only person near him was a lanky old man with thick gray hair and black clothes. He was standing in front of a large house with a wrought-iron fence, and he was staring at the watch.
Tyler felt uncomfortable under the man’s gaze, so he turned and walked back the way he had come. He was beginning to recognize where he was when the same old man stepped in front of him.
What the hell?
The man moved closer than a stranger should, forcing Tyler to take a step back. He noticed the older man’s clothes were wrinkled, as if he had slept in them, and he had a white scar over his right eye. Tyler was about to tell him to back off, when he noticed the triad in the man’s hand. The sight of it made his eyes bulge.
“Where did you get that watch?” the man demanded.
Tyler took another defensive step back and slipped the watch behind him. “I bought it. It’s mine.”
“Why would you buy that watch? Did you see it before today?”
“What? That’s none of your business, but no.” He had never spoken so sharply to an adult, but he had never been so forcefully challenged before.
“You’re a liar. I know you’ve seen it before. Now give it to me. It’s mine!” The man lunged at Tyler and grabbed for the watch.
Tyler was stunned by the man’s aggressive move, but he was quick enough to twist to the side and duck away.
“Stop!” the man snarled, but Tyler was already running. His training with the track team, along with a good dose of adrenaline, allowed him to easily outdistance the older man. He safely reached Chestnut Street where the sidewalks were crowded with people, so he slowed to a brisk walk and tried not to look nervous. He figured the man had given up the chase, but he maintained his quick pace until he reached the trolley station on Taylor Avenue.
Tyler checked the trolley schedule. “Damn!” The next trolley wasn’t scheduled to arrive for ten minutes, so he slipped into the station bathroom.
Tyler was washing his hands when he looked up at his reflection with a crooked smile. “Just wait till I tell everyone about this,” he said out loud. He could already imagine his friends’ wide-eyed expressions and hear their excited questions about his escape from the man who attacked him.
Weren’t you afraid? They would ask, but he would be cool with his answer. Heck no, I wasn’t afraid. I knew I could outrun the old guy. If he was lucky, he could play up this incident for weeks.
Tyler was reaching for a paper towel when the old man in black stepped into the bathroom. Oh, shit! Tyler shook the water from his hands while trying not to panic. The bathroom had only one door, and there was no way to reach it without going past the man. Tyler glanced around; hoping the small room had a window, but all he saw was wall mirror of polished metal and a single toilet stall without a door. The old man reached behind him and Tyler heard the click of the lock. There was no way out.
The man grabbed Tyler by the arm, his fingers pressing into flesh. “You shouldn’t have run, boy.”
Tyler tried to pull his arm away, but the man’s grip was too strong. “Let me go!”
The man gave Tyler a jerk, pulling him close enough to smell stale coffee on the man’s breath.
“Give me the watch.”
Tyler looked into the old man’s eyes and was startled by their cruel dispassion. This man would not hesitate to hurt him. Every hair on Tyler’s arms stood on end, but as frightened as he was, Tyler was even more determined not to give up the evidence that could lead the police to his missing father. “No!”
“We’ll see about that.” The old man pushed him, causing Tyler to stumble backward. He twisted far enough to see the wall mirror behind him and braced for the impact. But instead of the expected collision, he fell backward and the lights went out.
Tyler sprawled in pitch darkness, too startled to scream, until he felt the man trying to pull the watch from his hand. He frantically clutched at the watch, but it was snatched away, leaving him with only the small stem used to wind it. Tyler could see nothing in the inky blackness, but even without being able to see, he knew the man had taken what he wanted and was gone.
Tyler stood and turned around, but could see nothing. That old bastard must have turned off the light. The darkness made him uneasy, but a few deep breaths steadied his nerves and he looked around again. Everything remained black. He stumbled around, waving his hands before him, while his unease grew. “Get a grip. This is no worse than being in the fun house,” he insisted. He clenched his jaw and groped his way forward trying to find a light switch.
He stumbled around much longer than it should have taken to find a wall in the small bathroom, but he finally glimpsed a light. There was nothing but that light, so he continued to grope his way toward it. What he found wasn’t the bathroom door, but a window. He was sure the bathroom didn’t have one.
Tyler looked through the window and saw a hallway. The stylish design of the wallpaper and an antique table made him think of a house that was old but expensive. “What the…? How did I get out of the bathroom? And where in the heck am I?” Confused, he stepped back and looked around. He could feel no breeze, and there were no stars. “This is totally weird.” He pressed his hand against the glass. It felt as solid as a wall. He gave a couple of raps with his knuckles, followed by a few thumps using the heel of his fist, but the window didn’t even vibrate. “Wow, that’s some thick glass.” He really needed to get inside, so he decided to take a drastic measure and gave the window a flat-footed kick. The window didn’t break, but a shockwave ran up his leg.
“Damn!”
He might as well have kicked a concrete wall. Tyler grabbed his ankle to make sure nothing was broken and was relieved to find no pain.
Still confused, but not discouraged, he returned to exploring the glass surface with his hands, following it to its edge. The window wasn’t attached to a frame, and there was no wall supporting it. He stepped around to the other side of the glass, only to see the same hallway from the opposite direction. “Whoa, cool trick.” He stretched around the edge of the glass to look through one side while he waved his hand on the other, but all he saw was the hallway.
Finally convinced he wasn’t getting through the window, Tyler dug his hand into his pocket for his cell phone. “Damn!” He remembered trading it to the old man for the pocket watch. “Now what am I gonna do.”
With no other options, he returned his attention to the window. Escaping wherever this was on his own didn’t appear likely, so he needed to attract the attention of someone inside the house.
“Somebody, help me!” he yelled at the window. At least he tried to yell, but his voice sounded no louder than when he was talking. Tyler looked around in surprise before he screamed again. “Help!” He could feel the strain in his throat, but his voice wasn’t any louder than before. If I can’t yell, how will anyone in the house hear me?
The thought was sobering, and it brought an appalling realization; no one, not even his mother, knew where he was. Tyler stood in the dark and resisted a growing panic that made him quiver. Despite his attempt to stay calm, his shaking intensified and tears filled his eyes. He didn’t want to cry, so his first sob triggered a stubborn refusal that made him cl
ench his jaw.
“I’m too old to cry, and things like this don’t happen to me,” he insisted, “They just don’t. Mom expects me home for dinner, and I’m supposed to meet up with Brian on the Internet to do some gaming.”
Thinking about everyday things was enough to settle Tyler’s nerves and keep the tears from flowing.
“Geez, what a day!” He sniffed and wiped his eyes before he turned back to the window with renewed determination. Somebody had to come by sooner or later.
Tyler remained at the window, the only place that wasn’t pitch dark, and waited. It was difficult to estimate time, but it felt like hours before a woman, tall and dark-haired, walked by. Tyler pounded on the window and screamed for help, but she didn’t hear him.
Later, he was sitting with his back to the window when he heard a faint noise. He looked over his shoulder and saw a girl, close to his age, at the window. She was pretty, with dark hair and green eyes. She stood in front of the window fussing with her dress and checking her teeth like she was looking in a mirror.
Finally, I can get out of here. Tyler scrambled to his feet. “Hey, nice teeth, but I need some help.”
The girl slammed her mouth shut and cringed, so she must have heard him, but instead of responding, she averted her gaze.
“I’m right here, at the window.” He waved both arms. “Right here.”
Her gaze wandered everywhere but the window, and Tyler wondered if she didn’t hear him or was ignoring him. Frustrated, he hit the glass as hard as he could, which drew her attention back to the window. “Yes, I’m right here. Can’t you see me?” There was no response, and he began to think the pretty girl wasn’t very bright. “I’m riiiiiight heeeeere!”
The girl cocked her head and looked more closely at the window.
“Finally!” Tyler was swept with relief. “I was beginning to think I was invisible. And where the heck am I?” Instead of the expected response, Tyler was surprised to see the girl turn angry.
“Not again,” she growled at him. “And you’re not real.” She crossed her arms and turned away with a sour look.
Again? What the heck is she talking about? “Wait, I need your help,” Tyler called. “Please!”
The girl stalked away without looking back.
“Crap! I didn’t even get to ask her to call Mom.” He slumped against the window and the tears of frustration returned, except this time he couldn’t stop them. Crying helped release his built-up tension, but it did nothing to ease his fears.
Tyler didn’t look up again until he noticed the light in the hallway had faded. He could not see a clock, but he guessed it was well past dinnertime. His mother would already have called Billy’s house and left a carefully worded message, one that didn’t sound overly concerned. Her next call would be to the Walnut Creek police chief. A worried call from the new mayor would have the entire department on alert, and when the police couldn’t find him, the real panic would set in.
“I’m gonna be in so much trouble.”
CHAPTER 3
Emily was skirting the edge of a golf course in Presidio Park when she noticed a group of four girls who were close to her age. They were sitting in a tight circle beneath a large tree. Before she could approach, one of the girls got a phone call. Emily didn’t want to interrupt, so she stopped and watched the girls pass the phone back and forth while they shrieked with laughter at a joke she wished she was in on. One of the girls, a tall redhead, noticed Emily and whispered something to her friends that made them all look. Emily didn’t know what she said, but decided it was better to wait until the call was finished before she approached.
The phone call lasted much longer than Emily expected, so she was relieved when it was over. Finally! She walked up and smiled. “Hi, I’m Emily. Do any of you live around here?”
The tall girl with red hair, the group’s obvious leader, got to her feet. “We saw you spying on us. That’s perverted, so take a hike.”
The unexpectedly rude response caught Emily by surprise. “What?”
The tall girl crossed her arms and gave Emily a forbidding glare. “I said take a hike, perv.”
“Huh?” The other three girls giggled at Emily’s open-mouthed expression, so she backed away, stunned. How can they think I’m a pervert? She wanted to go back and explain, but the four girls were huddled together, laughing. There was no way to approach them now, so she gave up and turned away, wondering how such a disaster could have happened.
Another pair of girls was approaching, and Emily felt a resurgence of hope. Maybe they lived nearby and wanted a new friend. But Emily’s moment of hope crumbled when one of the two girls waved to the other four, and she immediately thought about school. Emily didn’t know which high school she would be attending in the fall, but she hoped it wasn’t the one these girls attended. If they remembered her, she would have a reputation as a pervert from day one. “Great, just what I need.”
A gloom settled over Emily as she walked home. Her attempt to make friends at the park had tanked in a big way, and she saw a long and lonely summer looming ahead. At the edge of the park a group of boys raced toward her on skateboards. They were coming fast, so she stepped off the sidewalk to let them pass. One of them purposefully swerved toward her, making her flatten against a tree to avoid being hit. The prank drew a round of laughter.
“Just kidding,” the boy yelled back as the group continued down the sidewalk.
Emily shook her head. It was a juvenile attempt to get her attention, she knew that, but she wasn’t in the mood to be the butt of anyone’s joke. “Boys!” she scoffed. “Why do they have to be like that?” Seeing the skateboarders also made her think of the boy who had spoken to her from the hallway mirror. Could he be real? If he wasn’t, then she was officially crazy. And what if he is? She asked herself. That’s impossible, isn’t it? People can’t be inside a mirror. They just can’t.
The lack of an explanation for the other voices she was hearing troubled her. If they weren’t real, then she was losing her mind. “No, I’m not insane, and I do hear voices.” Despite her attempt at certainty, she continued to question herself until her thoughts drifted back to the boy in the mirror; at least he had been friendly.
“Great.” She laughed to herself when she realized that the friendliest person she had talked to was an invisible boy inside a mirror, and he might be nothing but a figment of her imagination. “Maybe I am crazy.” Emily walked back to her uncle’s house with a determination to find out.
“Hi, sweetheart. Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes, so please wash up,” Jean called from the kitchen as Emily passed.
“Okay, Mom,” Emily shouted back, but instead of climbing the stairs to her bedroom, she went to the mirror in the back hallway. She had to know if the boy was real or if she had imagined the whole thing.
The hallway was almost dark so Emily switched on a lamp. She stood in front of the mirror and heard, “Hi,” but she ignored it while she inspected the mirror. It looked normal in every way.
“Can you at least tell me where I am?” the boy asked. “I don’t have my phone, and my mom is gonna freak if I don’t get home soon.”
Emily’s nerves made her jump. He was still there, and it was obvious he was talking directly to her. If he could see and talk to her, she wondered if she could talk back to him. At least there was no harm in trying. “How old are you?”
“Today’s my birthday,” he proudly announced. “I’m fifteen.”
The boy’s response was the proof Emily needed. She was talking to an invisible person, an invisible person inside a mirror. “Oh. Um…happy birthday.” She was also glad they were the same age. It felt like a good omen. “By the way, how did you get in the mirror?”
“What are you talking about?” The boy scoffed. “I can see you through the window.”
How can he not know? She also wondered how he would react if she told him. Emily hesitated, but the choice was obvious. If she were inside a mirror, she would want someone to tell h
er. “This isn’t a window,” she explained, “It’s a mirror.”
“A mirror? What are you talking about?”
“You are inside a mirror.” Emily put her hand on the glass to show him it was solid. “I can hear you, but I can’t see you.” She hesitated again before she asked, “Are you a ghost?”
“Heck, no.”
The response was immediate, and Emily was wondering if she should apologize when the boy muttered, “At least I don’t think so. My name’s Tyler, Tyler Andrews, and I live in Walnut Creek. I came into the city this morning on the BART. Am I still in San Francisco?”
“Yes, this is San Francisco, and today is the twentieth of June.” Emily spoke slowly, trying not to spook the boy who didn’t know if he was a ghost or not.
“I know the date. Geez.”
There was that attitude again. “Okay, so what’s the last thing you remember?” Emily edged a little closer to the mirror. “And how did you get where you are?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Emily’s hands shifted to her hips. “You’re kidding me, right? I’m talking to a voice coming out of a mirror, so try me!” She didn’t try to soften her sarcasm.
“Oh, right. I guess I deserved that.”
Emily smiled. This boy, Tyler, didn’t seem to mind getting as good as he gave. She hoped he wasn’t a ghost, because he seemed kind of cool.
“Hm, where do I start? I bought a watch, a strange one, and then an old man in black clothes tried to grab it, so I ran. I thought I had gotten away, but the same dude caught me in the bathroom. He pushed me into the mirror, and now everything around me is dark. The light from this window, or mirror, is the only thing I can see.”
Emily stood frozen. She had missed everything after “old man in black clothes.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” Emily wished she hadn’t reacted. It was probably nothing, but she had to know for sure. “What did the old man look like?”
