The Magic Mirror

by Michael Gemignani

will try to do better by him now that he=s back.

  ABut I also think he owes us an apology for running away.@

  I felt sheepish and ashamed that I had treated my parents as I did, and I apologized to them then and there, promising never to leave again unless I first talked with them and explained my action. They, in turn, promised that they would try to show me greater affection than they had before I left.

  But our apologies and David=s wise reflections on good and evil did not cure my parents= abject poverty. They possessed no more on my return than they did when I left. Perhaps I could help them by earning money, fixing up the house, cleaning up the yard, giving them some of the good things of life that could not afford. Once I had settled down again, I would surely discuss this with them.

  Alone

  I was profoundly sad as I said goodbye to David. We had had an eventful journey together and I thought of him now as my brother and companion, as well as my mentor. He was the one who had introduced me to the city, and without his knowledge of business and the ways of the world, not to mention his automobile, I would have been hopelessly lost. My quest to find Robin would, no doubt, have proven futile, and I might not have even found my way back to Martha and Samuel.

  Now Robin was with his parents, and David was leaving, and I would be alone with my parents and my thoughts. David promised me that he would return in a few months to let me know what had happened with his own family, and the two of us together would visit Robin to learn whatever decision he had made: to stay with his parents or to venture out on his own. And how his parents had fared react if he had decided to leave them again.

  But if Robin left them a second time, I had no doubt that his leaving would be of a different nature than when he ran off unannounced and left his parents wondering about his fate. He would, I was sure, provide them with enough money so they could be comfortable for as long as they lived, and he would from henceforth make sure that they knew where and how he was.

  I say I was sure, but I knew that neither I nor anyone else could ever be completely sure of anything. We all live in a world that is filled with people like Daniel and those at the bank who would have betrayed Robin in order to deflect blame from themselves. We live in a world in which each human being is made of both good and evil, and these two aspects struggle with one another. It is only the fool who assures himself that the good will triumph in the end.

  But what was I to do now that I was back home My parents and I had no more money than we had when I ran away. The house was in greater disrepair than ever. The back yard was still littered with discarded, broken junk, and the forest was still threatening to envelop it. And now that David was gone, I had no means of transportation, nor did I know how to drive, even I had had a car.

  If I had had the mirror now, I could have learned what the future held for me. As it was, I had to make my own future. As Robin resisted the fate the mirror conjured up for him, I recognized that I was responsible for my own fate, even if I still had possessed the mirror. My future was now in my own hands.

  I stood in the backyard and surveyed the junk, the meager grass, and the trees. Ah, the mighty trees that stood sentinel at the edge of the forest. Their seedlings sprouted throughout the yard, and if we had not been diligent about pulling them up by the roots, the forest would long ago have marched up to the back of our house, and, ultimately, destroyed it as it completely took over our land.

  Of course, the forest. It suddenly struck me that the forest which posed its constant threat to our home, could also become the source of our well-being. The trees themselves were valuable. Our land ran well into the forest, and we could sell timber to better our condition.

  Yes, I looked upon the trees as living beings. I had grown up with them. They were my childhood companions. But now they could help me and my parents rise out of our grinding poverty and build a better future for ourselves, and with their wood build a future for others as well. The seedlings that I saw throughout our yard gave witness that the forest would renew itself if we were wise enough to allow it to do so. If the resources of the forest were used wisely, they could last for centuries.

  But being so isolated and without transportation or business experience, how was I to arrange to sell the timber? As if in answer to my question, a truck stopped in front of our house, and out of it stepped none other than Robin.

  I ran over to greet him. ARobin, I hadn=t expected to see you for awhile. But I=m so glad you=re here. How are your parents?@

  Robin clasped my hand and stood silently for a moment trying to grasp the strangeness of my house and its grounds. AAdam, I just had to come to see you. After all, it only takes less than half an hour to drive here from my parents= place. It would take even less if we built a road through the forest. Maybe someday . . .@

  He paused. I had no doubt that he was embarrassed by the evident poverty in which my parents and I lived. Even though Martha and Samuel=s farm was not as large as many of the farms near them, it was a comfortable size, and Adam had never lacked for anything in his youth. AI didn=t realize,@ he blurted out. AI=m sorry@

  AYou didn=t realize what my home was like,@ I replied. AThere is no need to apologize. This is my home. This is where I grew up and where my parents have lived almost from the day they married. This is where I live now, even though I know how shabby it must look and much work needs to be done to fix it up.

  AAnyway, I was thinking about selling some of the timber on our land so I could raise enough money to make the house look new again. Of course, I=d also want to clean up the yard and do some landscaping.@

  Robin looked at the ground, as if he could not bear to look at the sorry state of my home. AActually, I drove over not just to see how you were doing. I have a job to offer you. I would like you to help me run the farm. My parents are too frail to do all that needs to be done, and I have some ideas to improve the business and make it more profitable than it is now. There=s a lot of good land there, but my parents weren=t using it to its full potential. But I need some time to develop my ideas, and that will involve a business trip or two. My parents like you, so I thought of you at once as someone who might take care of matters at home while I was developing my business plan.@

  Robin paused and looked up at the forest behind my house. ASo you own some of the forest. That is interesting. I think you=re right that there=s the potential for making a fair amount of money from the timber.@

  He paused a moment. AI=ll tell you what I=ll do. I lend you $10,000 right now at no interest, if you let me help you sell the timber for a small commission. You=ll pay me back when the trees are sold. If you own enough of these woods, we might be able to make some real money. Your parents could buy a nice house in town and not have to live out here all by themselves.

  AIn the meantime, I still want you to help with the farm and caring for my parents. If your parents want to help you out, we could set them up in a mobile home on the farm. If loggers start cutting down trees here, they wouldn=t want to be around. It would be noisy and dangerous. If they moved to the farm, then we could just tear their house down and have a clear path for the loggers. Then you wouldn=t have to worry about repairing their house, and you could keep all the money you got for the trees yourself.@

  Robin made it sound so easy. My parents and I should just move to his farm, and let our own land be taken over by a company who would cut down the forest, the forest that had been my refuge as long as I can remember. Our home would be paved over for a road, and all we would have left of the place would be memories.

  And yet, it seemed like the perfect solution. I would have a real job, and my parents would be lifted out of the poverty in which they had been mired so long. In helping Robin, I would be helping them, and I would again be close to Martha and Samuel who I thought of as my second parents. I told Robin that I was truly grateful for his offer, but that I would have to talk to my parents so they could decide for themselves if they were will
ing to move, or even if they were willing to sell the trees on their land.

  Robin and I shook hands, and he agreed to return in the morning to get our decision. As he drove off, I turned and walked slowly back to the house to present his offer to my parents.

  Another Difficult Conversation

  My parents were both seated at opposite ends of the kitchen table finishing a meager, but adequate lunch. I approached and sat down so that my father was on my right and my mother on my left. They both turned their faces toward me and smiled.

  ADon=t you want to eat lunch with us?@ my father asked.

  AI=m sorry I=m late,@ I said, Abut a good friend stopped by and we=ve been talking out front for awhile. In fact, he is the one that David and I went looking for. You remember David, don=t you? He=s the one who drove me home.@

  AYes, we recall your friend David,@ my mother said. AThe one you were talking to is this Robin you told us about?@

  AYes, that=s the one. He=s living with this parents now on a farm about 30 minutes by car from here. His parents are the ones I stayed with after I left the forest.@

  My mother frowned briefly, but her smile soon returned. AIt=s somewhat odd for your friend to seek you out again so soon, isn=t it? What did he want?@

  AActually . . .,@ I stammered, Ahe came to offer me a job. He wants me to run his parents= farm while he works on plans to increase the income from the farm. I=m not sure what his plans include, but I would like to have a real job. I would have a salary, and I could help you fix up this place.@

  I could sense disappointment in my father=s expression, but I hurried on. AHe also wants to help me sell timber from our land in the forest. That would provide even more money. You might even be able to afford a nice house in town. He told me that if you wanted to move while the trees were being cut, he would put a mobile home on the farm for you to live in. That way we could still be close to one another. I=m sure there would be work for both of you, if you wanted it, with taking care of Martha and Samuel and the farm animals and the crops. A job would give you even more money.@

  I had thought that my parents would be thrilled at this opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty at last, but I also knew that they had lived at the edge of the forest for more years than I had been alive. This house, this battered house, and the forest were what they knew. They understood the forest in all its moods, and they had fought a continuing battle to preserve what little they had against the attempts of the forest to claim it as its own.

  When someone has lived with trees that tower over her house, that shade it in the noonday heat, that sing to it on a windy day, that harbor the birds and the animals that venture forth to provide free entertainment when she cannot afford to go to the theater, the trees become more than trees. They become friends. They are an integral part of the environment within which she lives. And certainly this was so with my parents.

  Now to ask them to leave their house, even for a better one, and, worst of all, to ask them not only to leave behind the forest, but to consign it to the woodsmen=s saw, . . . well, I could sense their pain.

  Perhaps, too, though they would not admit it, moving would be a sign that they had failed to provide properly for me, that what they had given me was not enough. Moving would be an acknowledgment of their poverty. I would have thought that they would have rejoiced to put such poverty behind them, but they were proud, and they, I am sure, believed they had done the best they could, both for me and for themselves.

  They sat silently for a time, staring at the table. Several