Mirror

I have to be honest with you. I've been having an affair for over four years. My husband, Irving, is aware of my affair and he's down with it even though he can't share it with me. It's my affair and mine alone but he encourages it. We've made a lot of money from it.

No, it's not something illegal or blackmail. It's not like any affair you might imagine. It's not even a reflection of the usual affair. You see, the affair is with my mirror.

Let me explain as it happened. It began in January 2016.

I'm Ginny. I'm forty-six years old and married for twenty-seven of those years to Irving. We have two beautiful daughters, both already married and Maris, our oldest, has almost four-year-old twin girls.

Irv and I have been enjoying rediscovering the relaxation and freedom of our empty nest lifestyle since Janis, our youngest, got married last summer. Many of our friends have mourned their children leaving home and some of them have had bouts of depression over the separations. For Irv and me, it has been exactly the opposite. We revel in the return of the freedoms we had before the children arrived, especially the sex.

For the last twenty-three years we've been moderating our sexual activity concerned that we might wake the children when they were younger or cause them to ask questions about the noise when they were older. Now that every room in the house is available to us without fear of attracting attention or interruption, we've returned to the active sex life we shared before Maris was born. No room is safe from Irv's interest in my body or my willingness to entertain him. No room has been spared our energetic and frequently loud sexual unions and neither of the girls have a house key so we're not apt to have a surprise visitor.

All the activity has also renewed my interest in my body. I want to keep Irv's interest and my body is the best thing I have to lure him. While raising the girls, I admit to losing some of the muscle tone I had during the early years of our marriage. Not that I didn't think about it often and wasn't concerned about the changes but I just didn't have the time.

Now, I pay more attention to my diet and I've joined a gym and exercise five or six times a week. The results have been obvious. I've lost weight, my tummy is flatter, my breasts firmer and I'm convinced Irv's increasing interest is a related consequence. Another consequence is I spend more time in front of the mirror. I deny becoming more vain. I'm just trying to evaluate the changes and identify where I need to focus my efforts.

The only useful mirror in the house is a large one above the sink in the master bathroom. It is difficult to fully evaluate my body, especially below my waist, in a mirror designed to ease shaving and combing our hair. I could only observe my lower body by stepping back from the mirror and the distance made detailed examination impossible. I managed but I was not satisfied with the results.

I am always on the lookout for a bargain. I regularly peruse Facebook Marketplace for local sale items from nearby neighbors and I frequently find items listed so cheaply that I can't resist. I've found and bought everything from art for our home to toys for our grandchildren.

My affair started on January 6th when I came across the stand-alone, full-length mirror for sale on Facebook, I almost dropped my laptop in my haste to message the seller. Within the hour, I was in my car on the way to the seller's home to see the mirror.

The mirror was six feet high, oval framed in walnut with a wide, stable stand also made of walnut. It swiveled on its base and could be tilted to any angle from a pivot at its center. The design was simple and would complement almost any interior design. I immediately inquired about what the owned wanted for it.

When she suggested twenty dollars, I had trouble containing my amazement. I quickly pulled a bill from my purse and bought the mirror. With the former owner's help I wrapped the mirror with a blanket I found in the trunk and managed to get it into my car by lowering the passenger seat all the way back and setting it diagonally across the seat into the back of the car.

As I shook her hand and prepared to get into my car, I couldn't resist asking her about the low price. She tried to explain how the mirror didn't work properly and she admitted that, if I had questioned the price she was prepared to give it to me free.

I pondered her statements about the mirror all the way home. How could a mirror "not work properly?" It had no moving parts save a swivel and a pivot that seemed to move effortlessly. A mirror just reflected what was in front of it. How could that not work properly? I put the question out of my mind before I reached home.

At home, I enlisted the aid of Irene, my next-door neighbor, to move it into our bedroom. I repositioned a chair and a small table and set it into a corner between the bed and the bathroom. I removed the blanket so Irene could admire my coup before I thanked her and sent her home. I wanted to be alone with my new mirror.

I stood in front of the mirror, adjusted the tilt to reflect my full body and immediately noticed that something was wrong. It was me reflected in the mirror. I was wearing my little black dress and three inch heels. The problem was that I was actually wearing jeans and a plaid flannel shirt. In the mirror, I raised my arm to move my hair aside as I examined the back of my dress near my neck although I hadn't moved a muscle since standing in front of the mirror.

I gasped, raised my hand to my mouth and backed up until I collided with the bed and sat down on it. In the mirror, I was still examining how I looked in my little black dress. "Shit," I thought to myself. "This is not possible. What the hell was going on?" I stood up, threw the blanket over the mirror again and went into the kitchen to make myself a drink.

I was on my third strong lime cosmopolitan when Irv came home. It didn't take him long to ask me what was bothering me. He could taste it on my lips and see my nearly inebriated state. I tried to explain the workings of my new mirror but between my slurred words and the impossibility of what I was trying to tell him, I'm sure he began to doubt my sanity. I decided to show him instead.

I led him into the bedroom and showed him the mirror in the corner with the blanket over it. He removed the blanket and admired the mirror's workmanship. He was equally impressed when I told him I'd only paid twenty dollars for it.

I had him stand in front of the mirror and asked him what he saw.

"Myself," he told me.

"What are you wearing?" I asked.

He must have thought I was balmy. I could clearly see what he was wearing. "A light blue shirt, a tie with a dark blue stripe and gray suit pants," he answered.

His description was right on. He was wearing a light blue shirt, a tie with a dark blue stripe and gray suit pants. "No. No," I said. "In the mirror. What are you wearing in the mirror?" I emphasized.

I'm sure he knew I was insane or at least drunk. "A light blue shirt, a tie with a dark blue stripe and gray suit pants," he answered. "What else?" he asked.

I went up next to him and looked in the mirror. He was wearing a light blue shirt, a tie with a dark blue stripe and gray suit pants as reflected in the mirror. Only this time I was wearing just my bra and white panties.

"What am I wearing?" I demanded.

"A plaid flannel shirt and jeans," he answered.

"No. No. In the mirror," I pressed.

"A plaid flannel shirt and jeans," he answered again.

I threw the blanket back over the mirror and raced out of the room. When Irv caught up to me, I was seated again in the kitchen with my unfinished lime cosmopolitan in hand.

"Ginny," he said. "What's going on? What's the deal with the mirror?" he asked.

"Irv," I answered. "I haven't got a clue. I just know that there's something with that mirror that's freakin' weird. Either that or I've lost my mind. I don't know which but I need time to think it over."

"Fine. Take whatever time you need," he said as I got up to fix another drink.

Irv found enough leftovers to cobble together dinner for himself. I was in no condition to cook or eat. He went to bed after the early news as he usually did. I stayed up half the night sitting in the living room perplexing over the damn mirror. I slept sitting upright in the chair and Irv found me that way in the morning.

I had a splitting headache and I had to pee something awful. I peed a gallon and Irv gave me a couple of tablets for my headache. He was clearly concerned. I told him I'd be fine. He wished me well and hoped I'd figure it out before he got home and went to work. I have no idea what he expected to find when he got home.

Some of my sanity returned with the dawn. I scrambled some eggs, put together a bowl of fruit and ate breakfast. "There has to be a rational explanation," I kept telling myself.

I walked through the bedroom and into the bathroom. I brushed my teeth, combed my hair and put drops in my weary eyes. I striped off my shirt and jeans. I returned to the bedroom, sat on the bed and considered the covered mirror. I was determined to figure out the workings of the mirror without losing my composure. I stood up and uncovered the mirror.

I stood in front of the mirror in my underwear with my hair neatly parted. However, that's where the similarity ended. In the mirror, I was wearing my usual sleeping attire, a short, semitransparent, nightie and my hair was a mess. Pretty much the same as I looked upon waking up each morning.

It took all my conviction not to let what was reflected derail my determination to solve the puzzle of the mirror. I moved closer to the mirror and knelt down. I tried to focus, not on what the mirror reflected but on how it did it. I looked closely at the other things visible in the mirror. They were all things in my bedroom except they all seemed out of place somehow. Skewed is how I would describe it. I looked back over my shoulder several times and compared it to what the mirror reflected.

I realized the mirror wasn't reflecting exactly what was directly in front of it. Instead, it was several degrees off, pointing at the opposite corner of the room, over the bed and toward the nearby window. The reflected view was more to the left, showing my dresser and the wall next to it.

I rotated the mirror until I was sure the direction and reflection were perfectly aligned. The image in the mirror did not change as I adjusted the position. I continued to compare the reflection with the reality of the room. I don't know how I missed it for so long, but the mirror showed a calendar pinned to the wall to the left of my dresser. I looked behind me and there was no calendar. Not only was the mirror reflecting things differently than they actually were, it was now showing things that weren't there at all. There had to be a single explanation for both phenomena.

I stared at the reflection of the calendar. It had a photo of what looked like a national park, maybe Zion or Yosemite. Under the photo was the usual matrix of dates. I looked at the printed lower half of the calendar. I was sure the calendar was displaying the month of April. The year looked correct but the month clearly said April and this was only January.

I had to think about what that meant. Meanwhile, I got dressed, another flannel shirt and clean jeans, and went out to buy a calendar. I found what I was looking for in a local chain pharmacy. It was a calendar with impressive pictures of national parks and the picture for April was of Zion National Park in Utah. I took it home and hung it next to my bureau using the mirror as a guide, in exactly the correct place and open to January.

The refection in the mirror never changed. I looked again at the calendar reflected in the mirror. There were large red X's in the squares of the first five days. The first unmarked square was Wednesday, the sixth of April. Today was Thursday, January seventh. I tried to mentally calculate the number of days between the current date and the date on the calendar in the mirror. Accounting for leap year confused me. In frustration, I manually counted the days using the calendar. It was exactly ninety days.

I was beginning to form a theory about the mirror but I still needed another day to be sure. I went into our home office and found a red felt marker with a wide pointed tip. Back in the bedroom, I drew X's over the first six days of January. The reflection in the mirror never changed. I threw the blanket back over the mirror and spent the rest of the day catching up on the household items I'd let slip since I bought the mirror.

When Irv came home, I was in a buoyant mode. I was pretty sure I had decoded the mirror. I just needed tomorrow morning to be sure. He was relieved but he didn't ask any questions. We had a special dinner including a rare bottle of wine. That night we skipped the Thursday night television shows and went to bed early. Both Irv and I fell asleep smiling, tired and sticky.

In the morning, I had breakfast with Irv and sent him to work. In the bedroom, I crossed off another January date on the calendar and uncovered the mirror. The calendar in the mirror had a sixth X. Both calendars had advanced one day. They were still exactly ninety days apart.

In our home office, I checked our commitment calendar. We had a semi-formal event with Irv's partners in the office on Saturday, April ninth. I was now sure I could explain every observation I had about the mirror although I hadn't the foggiest notion about why it was happening.

I took out a sheet of paper and began to write. I had the following conclusions.

1. The mirror was reflecting, not what was in front of it today,

but what would be in front of it in ninety days. It was

predicting the future.

2. Yesterday, when it reflected me in my little black dress, it

was showing me trying it on and evaluating it prior to the

event on the following Saturday. It was something I did

often before an important event.

3. Only I could see the future in the mirror. Irv only saw an

ordinary mirror. He saw today in the mirror, not the future.

4. I thought I could use the mirror to my advantage since it

revealed the future. I needed to find a way to have it tell

me something about the future I could profit from today.

Maybe stock prices or the results of championship sports

events.

I got online and began to research the daily winners in the stock market. I tried to find stocks that appreciated in the last three months. I found a web site where I could download a database of a stock exchange for any given date. I paid the membership fee and downloaded the NYSE closing prices for yesterday and ninety days ago. I used some office software to calculate the change in price for every stock listed over the ninety-day period. It took a couple of hours but I finished with a list of the largest gainers at the top and the biggest losers at the bottom.

Big sports winners were more difficult. I was looking for things I could bet on now that would happen in April. The basketball and hockey playoffs wouldn't happen soon and wouldn't end until early June. The best opportunities were the Super Bowl, which was in thirty days, and the Masters Golf tournament in early April.

I wrote the symbol for the best performing stock I could find over the last three months on a blank piece of paper along with the last winners of the Super Bowl and Masters Golf Tournament and took it back into the bedroom. I uncovered the mirror and stood in front of it. I was wearing a flannel shirt and jeans. My image was dressed more lightly in a t-shirt and shorts. I slowly lifted the sheet of paper with the writing facing the mirror. My image held up a similar sheet of paper only the symbols on it were different.

I memorized them and went back to the office to write them down. I believed I had a sure winner stock pick and inside information about the next Super Bowl and Masters. Just for giggles, I printed out the headline for the biggest sports story of the day and went back to the mirror to hold it up. I got the headline of the sports story of the day ninety days from now in return. Nothing I could bet on now.

Somehow, I needed to convince Irv to buy stock today. Betting on the sports could wait until the last moment. We wouldn't really know the outcome of the stock picks for three months but the Super Bowl and the Masters had more immediate returns. I started a dated list of what I learned so I wouldn't forget them when the time came.

That evening I explained what I thought about the mirror to Irv. I think he thought I was going daffy but he listened attentively. I explained my plan to Irv. Every ten days I would download and compare the current stock prices and the prices ninety days earlier and stand in front of the mirror with the largest gainer written on a sheet of paper. I expected to see me holding a sheet of paper with the same information from the research I would do in three months. I also told Irv that I already knew the outcome of the Super Bowl and the Masters Golf Tournament. When I told him Denver would win the Super Bowl, he laughed and told me I was insane. Everyone knew the Patriots would repeat. Denver didn't have a prayer.

Danny Willett winning the Masters was also laughable. "Who the hell is Danny Willett?" he asked.

For the next six days, I cooled my jets. I worked on automating the stock research as much as I could. On the seventh day, I downloaded the databases and did the research. The next day, January 16th, I stood in front of the mirror holding my researched stock symbol and the winner of last year's Super Bowl. Future me held the next ninety-day stock winner and the Denver Broncos again.

I expended some effort convincing Irv to invest in the stock pick. The Denver Broncos was still laughable since the Patriots had won the day before and he was already convinced they would repeat. I talked him into playing my "hunch" and we had our broker buy a thousand shares of a company neither of us had ever heard of. The only hitch I saw was when to sell the stocks we bought. I couldn't figure out how to get my reflection to warn me if they fell in value after I learned about them. Irv and I agreed to sell them in ninety days and not wait for further increases.

I was feeling good about my twenty-dollar purchase. It was useless for the purpose I originally intended it for but I could still use it to evaluate my physical progress even if I had to wait three months to actually feel the results. I was standing in front of the mirror early on Sunday morning, the twenty fourth of January reviewing my body as it would be on Saturday, April twenty third. Irv had an early golf date and was already gone.

I was naked and looking closely at my breasts and stomach. I saw something move behind me. I looked back reflexively and nothing was there. I laughed self consciously at reacting to something that wouldn't happen until April twenty third. I watched curiously as a pair of men's hands moved from behind me to my waist. They moved slowly up my chest until they were holding my breasts, one in each hand. I imagined the feel of the slight scratch of the man's beard stubble against my shoulder. I saw my eyes close as I leaned back into him, enjoying his gentle touch.

When he moved up and began kissing my shoulders, neck and earlobe I saw his face. It wasn't Irv. IT WASN'T IRVING!

I backed up and fell back on the bed in horror. Not only wasn't it Irv, I knew who it was. It was Phil, our next door neighbor and he was as naked as I was. It was obvious that we had spent the night together in my bed. Based on how I was reacting, I had willingly engaged sexually with him. I had two very important questions, how the hell did I end up fucking Phil and where were Irv and Irene, Phil's wife?