Mirror
an excerpt

The thin silvery wire started in Rose’s tight back jeans pocket, right below the waistline, below the black belt with tiny silver mirror studs, and snaked up her side. It passed the end of her scarf, the one with the frizzy red edge, up past the blue stripe, past the black stripe with aqua sequins, past the aqua stripe with silver sequins and disappeared under her black, red-tipped shoulder length hair.

Rose’s hair was naturally curly but every day she brushed it as it dried so it stayed straight. Her hair didn’t like being forced straight and by the end of the day it had a slight wildness to it. But in the morning, you could see the wire that curled over her shoulder and up under her hair and ended in the small ear bud she wore.

Rose started every day the same, slipping her ipod in a back pocket, popping in the ear bud and listening to the same songs in the same order. That was her life’s theme song. Rose believed everyone should have a theme song. Or two. Or a couple dozen. A theme song was something you could walk in time to. A theme song was something that played in the background while you looked in a mirror and put on makeup. A theme song helped you move smoothly, a secret metronome that said “Don’t slow down. Don’t speed up.” It was only between songs that the tiny silent moment said “Wait.”

Right now, Rose was waiting. The wind blew across the water and the surface sparkled. Rose watched intently from the shore. She reached down into her pocket and hit the pause button so her music stopped. The wind seemed to die down and a child nearby chased away a flock of birds. There was silence. Silence was good for waiting, especially when you had to hold so still.

Minutes went by and Rose never looked away from the sparkling surface. The water made small lapping sounds against the stony bank.

A couple passed by, talking softly, the woman’s head leaning on the man’s shoulder. An old man shuffled by, poking at the ground with his cane. People passed by on the park walkway but Rose paid no attention. She was watching for something. Something on the sparkling surface. A church bell far away chimed the hour. It was two o’clock.

As the sun slowly crept across the sky, Rose stared at the water, not daring to look away less she miss.