The Magic Mirror

by Michael Gemignani

Yes, I need money to pay for my indulgences, but I work so hard I have little time to enjoy them. Don=t you see, it=s the game that is important? Winning the game involves making money. How much money I make is how I keep score.@

  AAnd this is what the game has brought you to,@ David said sharply. AYou want our help, but only so you can continue the life you were living without the penalty that the mirror tells you is coming. What you are telling us is that you do not want to change your ways. You just want us to help you avoid the future that your ways will bring on you.

  APerhaps the future cannot change. You can run from those who would destroy you by returning to your parents. But if you go back to your parents unwillingly, you will live out the rest of your life in sorrow and bitterness. You will always be longing for what you gave up. Eventually, you will believe that if you had stayed, everything would have turned out all right. The mirror misled you. You could have successfully defended yourself against the lies that your superiors told about you. Your regret will ultimately destroy both you and those around you. If you are to return home, it must be because you choose freely to return home. Otherwise, stay and face whatever the future may bring.@

  AI don=t have to go back to my parents,@ Robin said softly. AI could go somewhere else, somewhere where I am not known and start a business of my own. I know enough to be successful. I don=t have to work at the bank anymore. I can make it on my own.@

  ADo you want to test the mirror again?@ I asked. AWhy don=t you look into the mirror and tell it what you plan to do. Then let it show you the future again. Will it be a different future? Is it a future that you want? Go, you still have the mirror. Look into it, if you dare.@

  Robin was still holding the mirror in his left hand. He glanced down at it, and then looked directly at me. ADo you think I=m frightened of this trick mirror? I can plan my own future. I have no need of this mirror to tell me anything.@

  AThen go back to the bank,@ I countered. AIf the mirror is just playing tricks on you, then nothing will happen. You=ll just keep making more money.

  ABut if the mirror is telling the truth . . . Well, you know the rest. Let the mirror show what will happen if you run away. Are you afraid? Don=t you want to know?@

  AMaybe I=ll see a different future,@ Robin said hopefully.

  APerhaps you will,@ said David, AAnd if it=s a future you still don=t like, will you try again and again until you find a future you can live with?@

  Robin stared long and hard at the mirror. AI=m so confused. I don=t dare test the mirror again. Could the mirror show me anything but what I=ve already seen if the future can=t be changed?@

  AWho are you, Robin?@ I asked. AYour parents didn=t teach you your love of money. Still, you have more money now than anyone needs in a lifetime. You could go back to your parents and build their farm into a prosperous enterprise. You could take care of both them and the farm so they could live comfortably in their last years. There=s more there to do than even you could do.

  AIs it only money that you want? Money, you told us, is just the way you keep score. So what score do you need to win the game? Does the game control you, or do you control the game?@

  Robin handed the mirror back to me. AHere is your mirror. Last night it showed me a future in which I am destroyed. I can only hope that the future can be changed. Otherwise, I must return to the bank and accept my fate.@

  ANo, come with us back to your parents and you=ll be safe,@ I said as I took the mirror from Robin. AThe future can be changed if we want it to change. The mirror cannot have the last word.@

  I held the mirror up and looked into it. AMirror, you have spoken concerning Robin=s future. But we reject that future for Robin. You showed Robin what would happen if he stayed at the bank, but he will work there no longer. May those at the bank who wanted to destroy Robin be themselves destroyed.@

  I felt the mirror begin to vibrate in my hand. It was growing increasingly warm. Soon it became so hot that I could not hold on to it any longer. The mirror fell to the floor and shattered into a hundred pieces.

  All three of us stood momentarily stunned staring at the shards of glass scattered at my feet.

  AWhat will we do now?@ I felt like crying. The mirror that had guided us to this point was no more. I was sure we were now, in some inexplicable way, lost.

  It was David who realized what had happened. AThe mirror told Robin his future, but he refused to accept it. He decided to change his future, and the mirror could not accept his decision. The mirror could see the future in only one way. When that one way failed, the mirror itself failed. Now we and Robin must take responsibility for our own futures.@

  Again, the three of us stood silently looking at the glittering pieces of glass that were once the mirror. AWe are responsible now for our own futures,@ I repeated softly David=s words. AThen let us get on with it.@

  On Our Own

  AWhat am I going to do now?@ Robin wailed, staring down at the shattered pieces. AHow will I know what is going to happen?@

  I, too, was shaken by the mirror=s destruction. The mirror had, after all, guided us reliably on our quest to find Robin. What were we to do now?

  David remained calm. AWe don=t have to worry about what to do. We found Robin, and we know how we got here, so we can retrace our route and go back. We won=t have to have the mirror to tell us the way.

  AWe don=t need the mirror to tell us the future either. The mirror gave us a future that we could choose to accept, and, up until now, we accepted what the mirror showed us. Once Robin rejected the future the mirror predicted for him, the mirror broke. It could no longer show Robin his future because he decided to take his future in his own hands.@

  ABut I wanted the mirror to show me the future,@ Robin stammered. AI could have made a fortune with the mirror.@

  AThe mirror did show you the future, Robin,@ I answered, Abut it wasn=t a future you wanted. Now it is up to you to decide what you want to do. You must make the decision yourself with no help from the mirror.

  ABut you know that you cannot go back to the bank, because the future the mirror showed you what awaits you there. You could try to start your own business, but the people at the bank will track you down eventually if they want to blame you for their own failures.

  AOr you could go back to your parents and help them. You could take charge of their farm and use your knowledge to improve and expand it, perhaps creating the kind of business that you dream of. You would be safer there, and, best of all, you would be loved.@

  Robin stared thoughtfully at the floor. ATo be loved. I wonder what that means. I was so absorbed in my work that I had no time for anyone or anything else. I met many people, but I saw them only as business clients, people who I could make richer, and who, in turn, would help me become richer. I never loved any of them. I hardly even knew them. I identified them by what they owned and by what I sold them.

  AAnd they didn=t care about me either. I thought that at least my business associates would care about me. We were all working together for the same bank to bring in wealth both to the bank and ourselves, weren=t we?

  AMy superiors complimented me often about the great job I was doing, but the now the mirror has shown me how they really feel. To them, I was someone to be used. And maybe I felt the same way toward my clients. They were pieces to be played in a game in which I kept score by the amount of money I made.@

  Robin paused for a moment before continuing. AWhen I was a boy still living with my parents, I felt that they cared about me. Even when I made mistakes, even when I did things I knew I shouldn=t, even when I made them angry or disappointed them, they still cared about me. I made no money for them. At most, I helped them with work around the farm, but I never really took much interest in the farm, so what I did, I often did poorly. This disappointed my father who hoped I would keep up the farm when he died, but he still cared about me.

  APerhaps this is what love is a
bout: to care for someone even when they disappoint you. I remember a day when I had been especially bad. I had not only not done my chores well; in my carelessness I had damaged the tractor, and my father had to spend several hours repairing it. But he still tucked me in bed, and he still kissed me goodnight. And he told me, AI hope tomorrow you will take more care in what you do. What you do affects others, you know? You are not only hurting yourself, but hurting me and your mother. Still, we love you and we care about you, and we always will. We love you, son.

  A>We love you, son.= Sometimes, particularly when I had trouble falling asleep, I remembered that. And the odd thing is that I think I missed my father and my mother. But I tried not to let myself think about such things. I was a successful business man making more money than my father and mother had seen in their entire lives. I thought they should be proud of me, but I knew if I ever went back to them, they would be disappointed in what I had become. This wasn=t because I had no interest in the farm, or even because I had left them, but because what I had become was opposed to all they held valuable in their own lives. Money was not the measure of my parents= lives. Their love for one another and for me was what was important to them.

  AAll right, I will go back to my parents. I don=t know yet if I will be able to be happy there, but I have more than enough money to make my parents comfortable and to improve the farm. I can take care of them in their old age as they took care of me in my youth. But I suppose most of all I want re-experience the love they had for me. I may find that love is more important to me than money. My memory of love is dim now. Going home may revive it. I hope it will. Perhaps there is more meaning to my life than making money.@

  I took Robin=s hand. AThank you, Robin, for agreeing to go home. Thank you for saying what you did. The purpose of my journey was to learn how to love. I am not sure whether I=ve learned yet how to love, but what you said helped me. Love, as you said, includes caring for someone even if that person disappoints you. I must learn to care for my parents, even though I feel they disappointed me. I guess, in my own way, I must have disappointed them. When I go back to them, I suspect we will both have learned much since I left them.

  AThe mirror was given to me to help me to learn what I needed to know. It may be that the mirror broke because its work was finished and not just because you rejected the future it showed you. In any event, we are on our own now. We have no mirror to guide us. We must make our own decisions.@

  Then David spoke. ARobin, do you need some time to take care of matters here before we leave?@

  Robin thought for a moment. AI certainly have a lot that I could do. But I can access my accounts through a bank or broker almost anywhere. For the moment, I do not want to sell my apartment. I will arrange for the manager of my building to take care of it until I decide what to do with it.

  AThere are so many possessions I would like to bring with me, but I suppose I can=t unless you=re willing to wait until I can arrange for packing and moving. But that will take a week or more. We may not have that much time.

  AI will also contact my superiors at the bank and tell them that I am resigning, effective immediately. But I have to give some reason, or they may use my sudden resignation as an excuse to accuse me of wrongdoing.@

  AYou might honestly tell them that the pressures of work have caused problems with you health,@ I suggested.

  AHow so?@ asked Robin.

  AWhat the mirror told you made you realize that you are in grave danger if you remain at the bank,@ I answered. AWe don=t know how far in the future the mirror was looking. It was probably