Broken Mirror Reflection

The mirror showed a reflection that wasn't my own.

So…

I broke it.

Yep, sure did. Seven years of bad luck now loomed before me. But did it? What is worse, a phantom staring at me from the looking glass, or seven years of possible bad luck, (if you were superstitious)?

Year One

A squatter set my garage on fire and the neighbors put it out. It was a total loss, but my insurance paid my claim. I opted for a rebuild the same size but had one half built out as an ADU (accessory dwelling unit), and I rented it to Leo, an ER male nurse studying for his master's. Ding ding, the money made a nice profit in my stock portfolio.

He and I played cards several times a week and took turns making munchies. He admired my svelte figure and healthy snacks of fresh fruit and nuts; I loved his sense of humor and how much knowledge was packed into his crew-cut blond head.

“You are crazy, girl,” Leo said to me.

I was dancing around in my bikini bottoms and a shirt tied into a knot at my waist. I had gotten my Publishers Clearing House entry in the mail and I was flipping the ads for items to buy into various piles, looking for the stickers that had to be attached to the exact place to win. My long auburn hair was tied up on top of my hair.

“You look like the old photos of Ann-Margret!” Leo told me. I looked at him quizzically.

“Who?”

“Oh, never mind. We will watch an old Elvis movie later that she starred in with him.”

***

A backed-up sewer due to his negligence, which cost me three hundred dollars was quickly forgiven when he hooked me up with the anesthesiologist he worked with. Ed was four years older and divorced. The long hours of becoming a doctor and subsequent jockeying for the best positions made his wife leave him.

…and we didn’t last long. Ed’s ego was as big as Montana and my parents raised me not to take any crap. Ding, ding good riddance.

Year Two

My thirteen-year-old dog Jamison died while I was at work on Monday. Jamie was the sweetest Irish Setter ever and I couldn’t believe he just stroked out. There would be no more jogging with him or watching a tearjerker movie with the curtains drawn. No more rides in the car or visits to the vet. I was in shock, and it didn’t help that Leo moved out the next day, while I was deep in grief for Jamie, waiting for the cremation remains to arrive at the vet's office. Wednesday, I laid in bed all day crying. On Thursday my car was sideswiped while parked at Safeway, with Jamie’s ashes in the trunk and no suspects found; it cost me my $500 deductible.

Four months later, still grieving for Jamie, I was sent by my employer to visit a client five states away. After the meeting, I got stranded there because I decided to stay over for the weekend. Come Monday morning all flights were canceled due to massive thunderstorms and high winds. That cost me $1200 for the hotel and meals that couldn’t be expensed. Ding ding, not in my favor.

My boss figured out a way to let me expense another $300 and told me I was getting a quarterly bonus. Ding, ding, $prosperity$ in my corner!

Year Three

I was fired from my job and used one-half of my savings before I was re-employed six- and one-half months later. The renters in the ADU were now on month-to-month agreements, spotty and few. I was beginning to wonder if I wanted anyone living in that unit or if I just wanted it to be my private place.

The tires on my car had to be replaced; then I found a leak under the kitchen sink.

Arghhh, ding, ding, ding-o, jokes on you!

Mom and Dad took me on a ski trip to Courchevel, France for a December family trip. It was here that I met my French boyfriend Etienne, a well-muscled dude with black hair and laughing blue eyes, six foot four in his socks. Étienne had dimples so large, they divided his cheeks like the Continental Divide; he smelled like fresh rain and wooed me slowly. We have since skied together in Canada, Italy, France, and the United States, with Dad coordinating the trips through his contacts. Ding, ding, I’m in heaven, thanks, Daddy!

Year Four

While skiing with my love, an avalanche barreled down the side of the mountain, dragging me with it. I swam in the snow and stuck my arm up when it dropped me at the edge of the woods. Remembering what to do if caught in one, I spat and when it fell onto my face I knew that I was upside down. Moving my arms to create air pockets, I tried to dig out but couldn’t. My arm was not sticking upward, and no one would find me. Étienne, Étienne, Étienne, where are you, my love? I’m here, under deep snow, please find me! Don’t let me die!

Then I remembered my transponder and prayed Étienne had his receiver on. Rescuers found me just in time, but my leg and three ribs were broken, keeping me from work for several months. I rested for a few weeks in Étienne’s Paris apartment, he and his mother feeding me well, nursing me back to health.

A decision was made that I must fly home to my parents to finish recovery. Again, my savings slowly depleted. Thankfully my boss allowed me to do Zoom calls with clients and work while recuperating.

“Stella, do you still not believe that it’s seven years of bad luck to break a mirror?” Carlotta was concerned and watching me closely. “Look at all these things that have happened.”

“What difference does it make, Carlotta? I met Étienne and now the ADU is rented again with a lovely young student who is responsible and a great cook. My boss lets me work remotely. It’s not all bad things! I had some bad and some good ones since then. Besides, what will be, will be, and I can’t change that I broke the mirror! Would I do it again? YES! It was creepy and haunted.”

Year Five

At the beginning of November, Étienne called me and told me he had found someone else. He was happy to continue meeting me on ski trips and we could continue our histoire d’armour.

“Étienne, vous êtes sérieux ? Non, je ne suis pas intéressé par une histoire d’amour! Sous merde!”

I slammed the phone down. My fourteen-pound Angora cat, Mojo, licked the tears from my cheeks, chirping as cats do. I scratched his head and he purred. Étienne and I never spoke again, and I didn’t grieve the relationship. It was over the minute I slammed the phone down, what a piece of shit he was, typical Frenchman. Mojo gave me comfort. I would stick with cats.

***

In April, Carlotta married, and I was her maiden of honor. She looked gorgeous at her beach wedding in her pale-yellow sundress, Tommy’s favorite. He wore his turquoise and white board shorts and a Tommy Bahama dress shirt; both were barefoot.

Sitting on a Maui beach, sipping Bahama Mama drinks while planning whale-watching dinner cruises and snorkeling, she surprised me. Carlotta was holding my hands and staring at me intently with her caramel eyes outlined in black kohl. “Are you sure you feel safe snorkeling? You know your bad luck years aren’t over yet!” Carlotta was still on her kick about the bad luck mirror; it was tiresome, but I knew she meant well.

“Won’t we have chaperones and the charter boat people watching us? Aren’t you and Tommy going to stay close to me, the buddy system and all?” She nodded, then smiled, realizing I would be safe with them.

***

Only I wasn’t.

The day was beautiful with blue skies and calm seas. Our snorkeling boat had taken us out into the deep seas by a coral reef and dropped anchor. The schools of fish were breathtaking, and the water was warm. Overhead a few high clouds were gathering, yet the seas were calm. I pointed out that I was going back out, and Carlotta nodded, so I thought she was behind me. Unbeknownst to me, Tommy had distracted her, so when she looked for me, I was hidden in the waves, and neither of them could see me, even with the snorkel on my head. As I became tired, I pushed the mask off my face and treaded water, looking around. Nothing.

Nothing? Where was everybody; where was the boat?? I squinted in the brightness in between cloud shadows and saw a boat far in the distance. It had to be the boat Carlotta and Tommy were on and there was no way I could swim to it. I shoved my panic down and talked myself into calmness, continuing to tread water. As the waves became choppier, I had to fight to keep my head above them. I looked to my right at a manta ray weaving back and forth next to a small flotilla of jellyfish. The clouds were thickening, and I heard thunder in the distance. Don’t panic, remain calm. Carlotta will come and get you, it’s OK. Treading water had fatigued me, so put my mask back on, face in the water, looking downward. It was easier to float on my stomach although I would be harder to spot. Seven years, how many more years of bad luck? I was counting them down in my head now, I was becoming Carlotta.

I heard a strange noise and spotted a Coast Guard helicopter flying low over the waves. I stuck my arm upward to the sky and waved furiously. The chopper swung over me, circled, then did a small heli-jig in the air to acknowledge me.

When the rescue swimmer had me in his arms with the rope pulling us upward, I passed out from the exertion of treading water and my overwhelming emotions of being found.

“Stella, Stella, it’s OK, you are safe. We’re here. I’m so sorry.” Carlotta was speaking but Tommy interrupted to say it was his fault. I didn’t care about any of the reasons; I was in a warm cushy bed, my friends next to me. The room smelled like a florist shop.

Year Six

Well, this year is wonderful. I married the rescue swimmer, and we live in Maui in a small house on the Coast Guard (CG) station. I had rented my house on the mainland, and the ADU was still occupied. We are expecting our first child in five months, and I’ve been doing consulting work for small businesses, as well as remote work for my employer. We planned to move back to my house if Mason could get transferred out of Hawaii. He and I dated long-distance for a few months after my snorkeling fiasco until he surprised me with a midnight proposal when I picked him up at LAX. Carlotta and Tommy were in on it and had a jazz trio playing in the corner near the Alaska Airlines desk as he exited the plane. The airport crowd erupted into cheers as he swung me around.

Year Six, mid-point

“Mr. Randolph, I understand, yes. I will get right on that.” I was talking to a client but was distracted by some small pains in my lower back. “Um, I’m not feeling well, is all right if I call you tomorrow? Great, tomorrow then.” I hung up and lay down. The pains were nagging ones, but I fell asleep until Mason arrived home.

“Babe, you must be tired to be in bed so early. Are you OK?”

“NO! It hurts, it hurts, help!”

The clinic for the Coast Guard was a few blocks away and a nurse came right away. “We need to have her seen by an OB doc, Mason. Let’s go.”

I was admitted to the hospital for monitoring; it appeared I had a severe UTI and a possible kidney stone. Arrghh - it was a painful kidney stone bout with bleeding, giving me screaming pain for six days until it passed out of my body. Baby A-OK. DING! Mama so relieved to no longer be in pain and my baby was all right. Ding, ding!

Giselle was born without incident two days after my due date, au naturel, and shortly afterward Mason was approved to go to the CG station nearest my home on the mainland.

Ding, ding, a baby girl, and back to my house and neighborhood! Kidney stone be damned, if that was the only bad luck for this year, I’ll take it!

Year Seven

The ADU was currently rented to a lovely older woman who had been there since the previous November, before our arrival. We did a Zoom call to interview her before agreeing to her leasing the unit. On this sunny spring weekend, I was surprised to see that many, I mean many, visitors were arriving. How could she possibly crowd eleven visitors into the small rental unit? Oh well, not my concern, if they didn’t disturb anyone.

Only. They did. Me. Disturb me, today.

Eleven plus one equals twelve. What is twelve? A dozen. Yes, I’ll have a dozen donuts, please! Oh no, I couldn’t possibly eat a dozen cupcakes!

Twelve is a bevy – also the name for a group of birds, or twelve British women in a cluster. So yeah, Renee maybe had a bevy visiting; however, none of them appeared or sounded British. Each of them came with goods –food, gemstones, a dark book, candles. I didn’t see all the entries or hand-carried items, but the spectacle was quite curious.

I sat down with a cup of tea, watching the comings and goings from my kitchen window. Renee was average height with well-manicured hands; her hair fell to her waist but mostly she kept it wrapped in a French twist. Today, that long golden hair was loose, teasing the waist of her black capris and she kept pushing it behind her ears.

There was no fireplace in the ADU, yet I saw a wisp of smoke wafting over the building. I opened the window and smelled sage and smoke. The women moved out to the area behind the dwelling. They sat in a circle on small wooden folding chairs (where did she store those I wondered) and Renee set a tall white candle in a circle of stones. The candle had wax drippings on its sides from previous burnings and glimmered in the middle of a large clear dish filled with gemstones of a colorful spectrum.

Wait, what is that? Ah, I could smell weed mixed with the sage - legal here - guess they were having a ‘green day,’ but perhaps I needed to add a weediquette clause to the lease?

I snapped to attention at Renee’s next move. She had glass pieces of my broken mirror in her hand and was tossing them into the middle of their sitting circle. Each piece was blackened as if burned yet sparkled immediately upon landing in their midst. Renee was wearing fire gloves as she pushed a small metal fire pit into the middle of the circle, hard cedar chunks of wood slowly burning and glowing. She dripped some of the candle wax into the fire and gently placed a small smoky quartz onto the melting wax. She slowly made her way around the bevy of women, cleansing each with sage using a white seagull feather to fan the sage smoke.

The tallest of the bevy, or coven, if you will, went to the side of the ADU and returned. She now wore a sky-blue cape that fell to her ankles, the hood laid back on her shoulders. The broken mirror’s frame was hooked over her right arm, her left arm tucked behind her waist. Awkward. Gently handing the frame to my renter, she bowed deeply and stepped behind her, placing a sapphire and amethyst chain around Renee’s neck.

I glanced at my watch and saw that it was the exact time of the spring equinox in our time zone. Renee said something unintelligible while the bevy all rose, palms facing the fire, as she placed the broken frame on the fire.

A shrill scream emitted from the fire, so loud that I covered my ears, yet none of the women seemed to have noticed. The frame was moving in the fire, twisting on its own accord. It was melting away visually just as the movie makers of the Wizard of Oz had done to the Wicked Witch of the West when Dorothy threw water on her.

I ran outside, shouting to Renee, but no sound came out of me. As I reached the group, they turned in unison toward me, seeing me pointing to the burning frame. The frame gave a final attempt at escaping the fire, twisting out toward me, sending sparks into my long hair. The tall one threw her blue cape over me and pushed me backward with her large man-like hands.

Mason appeared with a garden hose and put out their little witchy fire, glaring at Renee.

“Renee, your guests must leave, and we need to talk.” She smiled at him, giving her bevy a hand signal to leave.

“You almost had my wife injured by fire, Renee. What the hell is going on? You can’t have pit fires in our backyard!”

I was silent, waiting to see how she responded. After all, it was the damned haunted mirror that caused the problem. I believed Renee was trying to rid our home of the spell and evil it emanated, causing me to break it.

“Mason, you are right. Normally I wouldn’t do that. And it was a metal fire pit, not a pit fire. In this case, burning was necessary. A haunting occurred here, long before you met Stella. We were clearing it.”

“Clearing... Bullshit, Renee! You just wanted to have a witch coven meeting on our property because no one would stop you!”

“No, Mason, that is not it at all.” She looked at me, to see if I was going to intervene. When I didn’t, she continued. “Stella had a lovely mirror.” She looked at me, and I nodded. “She saw a face that wasn’t hers in it. It was an evil face. A man.” Again, I nodded. “She couldn’t see her reflection, only this evil man so she broke the mirror.”

“Mason, that is all true! I broke it - years ago. Carlotta used to tease me about seven years of bad luck for breaking a mirror. You know…all those stories I told you. The face in the mirror – I have no idea who it was. The mirror was in the garage when I bought this place. After I purposely broke the mirror, I wrapped it in an old blanket and stored it in the garage. When the squatter burned the garage, he took the mirror out first, so it didn’t burn. Then it stayed outside under a small tree, but that tree died. Then the grass turned brown, and I noticed birds and squirrels didn’t want to be anywhere near it. When Renee moved in, she felt it immediately and offered to cleanse the area but said it would be best to wait until the equinox.

Renee interrupted. “The reflection in the mirror was of a murderer. He had killed women on this land; one in the original garage, and one in the woods nearby. He watched Stella move in and quietly spied on her for months. Stella is gifted, Mason with power, and has a strong circle of protection around her. That man couldn’t get to Stella but when he died of a drug overdose, his spirit was attached to these grounds. His strongest desire was to continue watching your wife, so he used the mirror. When she broke the mirror, she broke his spell of desire, but not of trying to harm people. Some of the events that transpired which Carlotta says due to breaking the mirror, were caused by him. The ceremony ended this, but the frame tried to pull Stella into the fire, to him. We stopped all of it, for good. The seven years is up. You, Mason, and Giselle are safe now.”

Mason understood. “Will you stay in the ADU, Renee? We want you to stay if you want to.” Mason’s sincerity made her smile.

“I will stay as long as you continue to renew my lease. I won’t have any rituals unless you approve. Mainly we like to do the equinox ones; we conduct protection ones if something is amiss.” She regarded us both solemnly.

“Agreed,” said Mason. “One more thing.” Her eyebrows rose, as did mine. “We are decreasing your rent by twenty percent; will that work for you?”

Year Eleven

“Renee, Renee, where are you?” called Giselle. She giggled uproariously when she spied Renee sitting on the tree branch over her head. Holding her hand upward, she laughed loudly as she was pulled skyward. Renee sat the child in her lap, arms holding her tightly. They were only four feet off the ground but to Giselle, it seemed much higher. “This is fun!” she exclaimed. Renee shushed her and pointed out the ladybug on the branch and the black ants busily carting their goods back to their home high in the leaves.

“I love you, little one!” Renee whispered in her ear. “I LOVE YOU, Auntie Renee!” Giselle whispered back, loudly.

Stella heard this exchange from her spot in the swaying hammock, hands on her swelling belly, her pregnancy making her drowsy, and she napped.

“Auntie Renee, my brother is excited to meet all of us. His name will be Gilbert. He can hear us.”

Renee squeezed this child of her heart close. “I know, Baby, I know.”