by Jason Letts
“No,” Mary protested, unconsciously casting her eyes onto Vern. “She doesn’t understand how to play yet. This is her first time. You can pass if you don’t want to do it,” she said to Mira. Vern didn’t look at all opposed to the proposal. Mira looked down at the arrow and the little fish. Her heart beat rapidly. How did they get kissing out of a fish? Her mind strained over the impossibility of actually going through with it. She felt all ten eyes upon her.
***
Downstairs, Jeana and Kevin had been listening to the rattling through the ceiling as they reclined in a love seat.
“You know what they’re doing up there, don’t you?” Kevin asked.
“Yes,” Jeana sighed.
“And you’re not worried something will go wrong and it’ll turn out bad?”
“Actually, I’m hoping for it,” Jeana whispered, pulling closer to Kevin. The fire blazed nearby and they felt the heat on their skin.
“What are you scheming now?”
“She’s going to have to rely on them when we’re not around. She’s got to have a chance with them,” Jeana said, trailing off.
“She’ll be fine. We’ll keep watch over her,” Kevin said.
“But it’s not just Mira’s birthday,” Jeana said, changing topic and breaking into tears suddenly.
“There, there, this is our life, and we’ve got to carry on for her.”
“I know. Just today. It only gets to me today,” she said.
“Come on. Let’s go get some rest. The kids can do what they will.”
***
Time stopped and raced simultaneously for Mira. Everything seemed to hang in the stillness of extreme emotion. She never thought this game would give her such a terrifying rush.
“Either do it or say no so we can move on,” Will said. She heard those words again and again in her head, this time coaxing and this time antagonizing. Did everyone else feel the same pressure she did?
“I’m going to do it,” she said, biting her lip and looking at Vern. In an instant, she leaned forward onto one hand, snatched Vern’s hand with the other, and pressed her lips to it.
“One point! Ha!” she said, mimicking Roselyn and gloating with satisfaction. The rest of the group howled.
“I told you she played this game before!” Will said to the others. “Nobody else would know to twist a challenge like that. Ok, Chucky, make it happen.”
Grabbing the pouch and giving it a single, harsh shake, Chucky wore a confident, determined look that Mira had never seen on him before. He rolled a spider, fireworks, a man, a mouth, a nose, and two blanks.
“Make him eat a spider! Eww. But the fireworks, he should drink his own sweat. No. How about he closes his mouth around his toes?” After a consensus formed around that last suggestion, Chucky took off his sock and seconds later had his foot in his mouth. The laughter of the sight met with disgust at the odious new smell.
“This guy means business! We should’ve had him eat a spider,” Vern said. He spilled the bag across the floor, rolling a woman, wind, a chair, a knife, a pen, a star, and the number three. No one immediately voiced any suggestions. They stared at the dice but the connections didn’t come easily. Mira wondered what they would do if no one thought of anything, but then she saw something herself. Though she hadn’t said anything during the previous deliberations, she drew out her command with intensity and relish.
“You have to cut your hair three times,” she said. Gasps from the others followed her as she got up to get the scissors on her dresser. Noticing the dirt on them, she wiped them off with a hand towel and then handed them over to Vern. He took them without saying a word. Fondling them in his hand, he turned to the mirror and took a long look at his stylish hair. A few jaws dropped when he turned back and set the scissors on the floor.
“That’s not a good start for you, Vern. Looks like she’s got your number. It’s my turn next. I hope you’ve got something good,” Will said. He turned over a star, lightning, a heart, a woman, a snake, a question mark, and a blank. Some mumbling ensued from different parts of the circle, but Roselyn cut in with a sharp tone and a furtive glance.
“A heart, a woman, and a question mark: tell us, Will, which of the girls in our class do you like the most?” She coyly drank in his hesitation, reveling in his conflicted trepidation. “You’re not about to pass, are you? Let’s see, maybe you’re not talking because she is in this room and you’re too afraid to say it. Better just give up.”
“You,” he said, but this was obviously not the right answer for Roselyn because all of the enjoyment drained out of her. She leaned back and sighed.
“Fine. Give him the point. Let’s move on,” she said. The deflated feeling stayed with her though, and she passed her turn even though it was the easiest challenge yet. Mira rolled a star, a fish, a question mark, lightning, swans, fireworks, and a blank.
“What are you going to make me do now, kiss a swan?”
“No, you’ve got to tell us something, a secret. It better be a good one or it won’t count.”
Feeling like she had just the thing, she told them to wait there until she came back. She slipped out of the room into the dark hall, leaving her friends in silence. She returned, evidently excited, and snuck through the doorway with her right side first. When they could see her plainly, they caught sight of something long and gray that Mira wore around her left forearm. She showed it off, waving.
“What is that thing?” sounded astonished and perplexed voices before her. Their jaws hung open and their brows scrunched. She silenced them with the flipping of a tiny switch that started a barely audible whirring. They listened and looked, and they became more puzzled.
“Who wants to see?” she asked, extending her right index finger for them to touch. Nobody moved, unsure and wary. She pointed to all of them, and none of them stood up to her. She had Vern in mind for this demonstration, and she told him to get up. She wasn’t finished with his hand yet, she said. She looked him straight in the eyes as he put out his hand because she wanted to make sure he would not forget it.
When the blue bolt of static electricity passed from her finger to his, everyone watching jumped as though they themselves had been shocked. Vern, of course, yowled in pain, though Mira knew it couldn’t be that bad and would only last a second. In that instant, they all looked at her in a new light, all trying to take stock of her. They didn’t know what this meant, but it clearly meant something.
She flipped off the switch and put her knuckle to the window to discharge the rest of the electrons she’d built up. No one said anything when she sat down in her spot, causing Chucky and Roselyn to scoot away. She didn’t mean to freak them out, and so she tried to get their minds back on the game.
“So is that worth a point?” she asked. They all nodded ominously. Mira felt excited about being one point away from winning, and she handed the pouch of dice to Chucky. He looked at it and set it down. Something had changed. They looked at each other and at her critically. She felt the tension between them, but it had nothing to do with the game anymore.
“Do you know what order you’re going to put us in?” Will asked Roselyn. Sheepishly, she shook her head.
“Other than putting Jeremy first, I haven’t decided. Maybe I should go next after him,” she said.
Mary gave Mira a serious nod and turned to speak to Roselyn. “I think I can take him. He’s a little smaller than me, and I’m not afraid of a few bug bites. Let me go next,” she said. Roselyn contemplated it for a moment and consented.
“Then let me go,” Will spoke up. “Jeremy’s got a lot coming to him.” He grazed the red marks on his face with his hand.
“If you insist. That means either Gerald or I will round out our group.” Vern snorted and shook his head in disgust.
“You’re a fool if you don’t put yourself last. What if you finish in the bottom third? You’d have to live with the stupidity of your mistake for the rest of your life!” Vern snickered.
His scowl found a c
ounterpart on Roselyn’s face. Her pretty blonde curls looked like they would catch fire from the flush of anger that swept over her.
“You would do that, wouldn’t you? Put yourself last just so that you can avoid actually having to compete. Being a leader isn’t about sacrificing your friends so that you can protect yourself, it’s about making things happen instead of letting things happen,” Roselyn retorted.
Vern laughed boisterously. He looked to see if anyone shared in his amusement, but the others were stoic. This didn’t stop him from looking down on her though.
“How else do you expect to become leader? This isn’t a beauty contest. It’s every man for himself! And that starts with this list, not when we step on the field. Only you would think you have friends in a competition where everyone is out to get you. And here’s a prediction: it’s going to land you on your back faster than Chucky trying to walk on ice.”
“A beauty contest?” Furious and insulted, Roselyn rose to her feet, and Vern followed suit. The others got up too, hoping to calm them down.
“That’s it. I’m done with this,” Roselyn said. “Thank you for the party, Mira. I had a nice time.” She turned to leave, but Vern’s parting shot stopped her cold.
“I bet the Final will turn out the same way. She quits as soon as it gets tough. Walking off now will be good practice.”
A fury gripped her that absorbed her completely. She turned her head to him with an excruciating slowness. The words that escaped from her lips came straight from her unconscious.
“I’ll make you regret that.”
She took a forceful step forward, and the others crowded in to prevent her from getting to him. Mira wondered what devastating effect would come out of Roselyn’s mouth next. But Vern took a defensive step back, and his heel clipped the mirror against the wall. It shattered and the shards slid down to the floor with a heart-stopping crash.
Mira gasped as the pieces settled around Vern’s feet. Everyone stopped moving. She knelt down and stared through the frame at the wall. That mirror had been there as long as she had been.
“I’m sorry, Mira. I didn’t mean to,” Vern said. Mira stood up and everyone could see the pain in her eyes as she looked at them. She didn’t need to say anything; everyone understood that the party had come to an end. They grabbed their things from around the room, and Mira escorted them downstairs. They walked silently in single file to the front door. Grabbing their coats and preparing for a somber walk home in the cold dark, they offered words of appreciation to Mira for a great party and words of regret about how it ended.
Her guests departed just as they’d come, in ones and twos, disappearing into the deep shadows of a moonless night. Mira returned to her room to survey the damage. On the way, she glanced at her parents’ door, surprised the noise hadn’t woken them up. She saw it was late and doing anything other than going to sleep seemed impossible. Wearily, she inspected the wreckage on the floor of her room. Picking up the pieces wouldn’t undo the damage, and so she let them lie and went to sleep.
***
“How could you be so irresponsible?!” The harsh note of Jeana’s voice rang in Mira’s ear. Together, they looked down at the slivers on the floor that shimmered in the light from the window. Hearing her mother reprimand her, a tear rolled off her cheek and landed on the glass at her feet.
“I’m so sorry, mom. It was an accident,” she muttered.
“Was it that game that you wanted to play? Is that how this happened?” But Mira shook her lowered head.
“That game, it’s not really even about the dice. It’s just about testing limits and crossing boundaries.”
“Well this is one boundary you should not have crossed. That mirror was a gift to you from my mother, may she rest in peace, when we moved here and built this house. And now it’s gone forever.”
Tears trickled down Mira’s face. Jeana sympathized with her, and she regretted making her feel as bad as she did it. She pursed her lips and shook her head at her daughter with her hands on her hips. The mirror would not be a great loss if it made Mira more independent.
“It wasn’t because of the game. They got into an argument about the Final Trial. It looked like they were going to have a fight over it, but then Vern stepped back into the mirror and everyone stopped. They all left after that. I just wish it hadn’t happened.”
“It didn’t have to,” Jeana said, putting her hand on Mira’s shoulder. “They were in your house, your very room, and you are responsible for them. I know you’re not afraid to speak your mind, but you can’t be afraid to confront your friends, even though that can be a very hard thing to do. Letting them know what they were doing was unacceptable would be the best thing a friend could do. You have to be able to take control of them.”
Mira, still sniffling, struggled with her mother’s words.
“But what if they don’t listen to me?” she asked.
“It seems like that’s up to them, but it’s really up to you. If you speak clearly, directly, and seriously, they will respect your wishes and accept your commands. And then if they don’t, you have to show them there are consequences for that, like asking them to leave. This doesn’t mean you can’t be their friend or you shouldn’t listen to them, just that you have to help them do what’s right even when they can’t see it.”
“Ok, mom. I should have done that. I’m sorry,” she said with her eyes closed. After one last look, Jeana left her to clean up the mess. She told her to be careful but that she should think about how she let this happen. Mira carefully picked up the large pieces with her fingers. She saw her shattered reflection in the fragile shards. It pained her to look at herself in this moment. She had to be better.
***
Descending to the ground floor, Jeana met her husband, who worked at stripping the walls of paper and decorations. Jeana collapsed into a nearby chair and put her hand to her face.
“How did it go?” Kevin asked.
“It was hard. I can’t imagine having to do that more often,” she said.
“Mira’s a good girl. She wouldn’t ever do anything to upset us on purpose.”
“After she finishes at the academy, she’ll have to leave and we’ll have to come to terms with that. There’s a difference out in the world between doing what you need to do to get by and doing what your parents would like.”
“She’ll find a way to do the right thing. She’s smart like that.”
After sulking for another moment, Jeana shook off her melancholy and started removing the black paper from the walls. It surprised her to find the same wooden walls that had always been there underneath. Those flat sheets covered so well that they could have hidden anything.
Chapter 11: Paint and Pencil
Fortst brought the class to order with a thump on the lectern. Surveying the group before him, he noticed an empty desk near the back wall. He strained himself to remember who sat there and started counting the other students to arrive at it by process of elimination. As soon as he’d given up on remembering and resigned himself to starting class anyway, it dawned on him.
“Where’s Mira?”
The students turned to look back, only now noticing the empty seat. Those who had been at the birthday party contemplated if there was a connection between the empty seat and how the party ended. The rest just assumed she skipped.
***
“I don’t know,” mumbled a voice to the teacher, who seemed to wait for an answer. Fortst became incensed, and a surly grimace soured his face. But he glanced up through the open door and then just shook his head with disappointment. He saw Mira tiptoeing around the water-covered stone path and through the clearing’s mushy, marshy surface. She navigated around puddles with such precision that it seemed she wouldn’t make it to the schoolhouse until lunchtime.
“I wish you took as much care not to be late as you do to keep your feet dry,” Fortst said once she could hear him. Her foot making a splash, Mira leapt to the steps and entered the building.
“I’m sorry I’m late, but I have something important to say. Is that ok?”
As impatient and irritated as he appeared to be, Fortst never passed up an opportunity to waste time in class. He begrudgingly assented.
“I think today could be a very special day in the life of someone in this room, and a great mystery will finally be solved.”
“I thought your birthday was over the weekend,” interjected a voice.
“No, that’s not what I’m talking about,” Mira said, shaking her head. “I’m talking about Mary. I think I’ve figured out what her power is.”
A few gasps escaped from around the room, and the blood seemed to drain from Mary’s face. Her mouth hung open and she answered her neighbors’ hushed inquiries with signs of bewilderment and confusion. Daring to believe that Mira spoke with sincerity and cause, she hesitantly bought into her proposal.
“What…what is it?” she asked. Mira answered quickly.
“Well, I don’t know exactly what it is yet, but I have an idea and an experiment that I think will get us there. What do you think, sounds like a productive use of class time, doesn’t it?” Mira said, turning her attention to Fortst.
“Absolutely. I think we should exhaust every single possibility that exists if it will help us get to the bottom of this. Mary has been in the dark about herself for far too long. It’s intolerable!”
“Exactly,” Mira said, a little surprised that she had convinced him so easily.
“So what is your experiment,” Mary asked. “I hope you don’t have to cut me open or anything.”
“Not at all. Let me start by asking you something. Do you recall what you said to me the first time we spoke way back in the fall?”
“No,” Mary answered, after spending a moment trying to remember.
“You said that I felt different to you. And you reminded me of that when I was speaking with you at the party—we all had such a great time, didn’t we? Yeah, it was unforgettable—when I walked up behind you and you knew it was me.”
