Watching Her

With the mascara applied she shuffled back on the stool and looked her Reflection either side to ensure her eyes looked good as she turned her head, she couldn't see her eyes, as the smoke rising from the cigarette, she touched her lips, and the reflection removed the cigarette. They smiled at each other Lucy then repeated looking closely at her makeup.

With the gentle pink lipstick applied Lucy waved goodbye to her Reflection as she got up and tutted to herself for waving at her own reflection as she glanced at the butt in the reflected ashtray. However, on her side of the dressing table the ashtray was very much clean. There was no ash or cigarette butt in the empty ashtray. The room had no smell of cigarettes. But she had just watched her reflection smoke a whole cigarette as if it were a YouTube video on her mirror.

With the button on her black work trousers done up and her white work blouse tucked in, Lucy threw some of her makeup from the dressing table into handbag and slipped it over her arm and headed down the stairs. The bag swinging off her arm. She was completely baffled by what had just happened.

***

Lucy sang to herself as drove home from work in her little second-hand red Mini, she had to remind herself to turn off at the correct junction. As for the last five years she had been going the opposite way. She turned off the main road, she slowed down and started indicating to pull in as she clocked a corner shop up ahead. She been thinking about stopping on the way home to pick up some rice to go with the chicken dinner her mum had kindly left yesterday, but at first glance she could not see an empty parking spot. Then with a peek in the rear-view mirror there was car close behind, so with a shake of her head she flicked the stork the other way and reluctantly carried on to her new home.

She was faced with her bare living room with four large cardboard boxes taking up most of the space in middle of the lounge. She sighed loudly dropped her black work jacket on the sofa and thought about the boxes before shaking her head and leaving them there and heading up the stairs unbuttoning her blouse as she went.

Lucy smiled at her finished bedroom, the dressing table, bed, curtains all looked good. She pulled open the mahogany chest of drawers that matched the dressing table and pulled out a large green t shirt to wear whilst cooking as not to ruin her work blouse, so she could get away with wearing it again tomorrow.

She dropped her white blouse on the edge of the bed and pulled the t-shirt over her head and tugged it down over her white lacy bra. Then glanced to the side, and her bright blue eyes studied the mirror then they widened. She couldn't see her own reflection in the glass, but she could see from the angle on the right-hand mirror that she was looking at a golden yellow pack of Benson and Hedges on the dressing tabletop next to the ashtray. She bit her lip, her Granny smoked those. She knew it wasn't there in reality, as it was a clean top other than the perfume bottle, gold lighter, empty glass ashtray and a blue box of tampons that she had picked up off the kitchen table, carried up the stairs and forgotten to take to the further five steps to bathroom, there was nothing else on top. Certainly, no pack of cigarettes, was the mirror confusing the boxes sanitary products and cigarettes. She did a double check, but the Reflection definitely showed a golden yellow pack of Benson and Hedges cigarettes.

Lucy ran her tongue across her lips and worriedly bit her bottom one. This was whole thing was really starting to freak her out.

Chapter 4

With both her bedtime and morning routine over the next week, it drove her mad they all followed the same pattern as before. Lucy would sit there with growing confusion and anticipation of her Reflection calmly sitting in front of her smoking. The smoke dancing out of her lips and nose, her face muscles clearly showed how much she enjoyed the cigarette whilst Lucy busily got herself ready for bed and then again in the morning putting the make up on getting ready for work.

Sleeping at night was hard, as all she could think of was her Reflection and of the smoke drifting out her mouth, every time she rolled over. She could see a waterfall of smoke pouring out of her own lips. She was petrified. She knew that she did not smoke.

Lucy was surprised how much older her face looked in the mirror, she had double checked in both the mirror in her bathroom and the mirror in the toilets at work, she definitely hasn't aged ten years in the week since she moved in. She may have felt knackered carrying the furniture around, but it was not real. She pondered if it was something like a circus mirror.

Talking of mirrors, she couldn't think of anything else, other than her new annoying mirror. On the following Wednesday she was sitting outside on the bricked wall surrounding some poorly looking plants in the courtyard at work as she was enjoying a brief dose of sun on her face at lunch before heading back inside. Her long-term friend and colleague Tammy clicked her fingers and brough Lucy out of her mirror-filled daydream.

"Hey you, hello?" She giggled as she annoyingly waved her hand in front of Lucy's face. "You look possessed!" she grinned.

"Oh, don't you start" she grinned and then chewed on her sandwich. Tammy raised an inquisitive eyebrow and then took a gulp from her bottle of Iced Tea.

"Go on?"

"You know my new house?"

"Yeah, you have spoken of little else for the last six months, yeah?"

"Well...actually its...it's my...." she looked around and then nervously bit her cheek...actually...I am just thinking about my boiler. Boring hey?" She replied as the words 'my mirror is possessed' sounded ridiculous in her head.

"How difficult is the boiler?"

"Err, my Dad says its old, and I need to rip it out and replace it soon with a modern Combi boiler. Apparently!" she rolled her eyes.

"Oh...I see."

"Yeah, tell me about it. I think the manual was written in Chinese and then translated in German and then into English. I just can't understand how to get hot water."

Tammy with her eyebrow still raised shook her head in disbelief "So when are we going to get to see the house?" Changing the topic away from things beyond both their knowledge and then taking a gulp of her can of Lipton Iced Tea.

Lucy bit her bottom lip "Oh not for a couple of weeks, it's really not fit for a housewarming party yet."

"Oh, okay, I was looking forward to having a nosy around!" Tammy replied.

"Yeah, got lots of work, painting and stuff!"

"Oh right" she glanced at her silver watch on her wrist. "We better get back in, or we will start of smell of Liam and Simons, ciggies if we are not careful!" she said glancing across at the two of them sitting on the other matching brick planter inhaling on their cigarettes, the smoke was drifting their way.

"Yeah..." Lucy said as she shuffled off the wall and turned her head and paused for a couple of fascinating seconds and watched as her two male colleagues both hurriedly pulled on their cigarettes.

She hovered by the wall as she dug in her handbag, flipped open her compact and reapplied her lipstick and then followed Tammy in.

***

Lucy slowly drove home in her now quasi-permanent induced daydream. She tried to shake herself out of it as she knew she had to wake up soon when she started driving home in the wrong direction, her old routine had kicked in. She was on autopilot heading towards her parents' house. That made the commute home even more irritable than normal, especially as there was a yellow campervan tailgating her most of the way. She eventually got to drive past the corner shop there was a convenient and drive-in parking spot, she quickly made the decision to stop.

She was proud of herself as she manged to reverse park and as she put the hand break on, she turned the rear-view mirror and intensively studied her face, her makeup was fine, she lifted her lips clear of the teeth and they were free of lipstick. She was only going into the corner shop to buy a bottle of wine for the evening. But still appearance was everything. She thought after a successful day, she deserved the wine.

Lucy mooched down the aisles of the small supermarket keeping an eye out for yellow sticker offers, living on her own again she got the feeling it was like being at university, that where she could, she must cut costs at every opportunity. Soon her little basket was loaded with rice, peppers, chicken, a bottle of white wine and a large chocolate bar.

As she made her way to the checkout she stopped. She looked at the tobacconist and lottery counter to the side. All she could think about was the goldy-yellow pack of Benson and Hedges on the reflected dressing table in the mirror, that wasn't actually there. She just couldn't get the picture out of her head. She twisted to the left and right on her heels as to which checkout to head to. The image implanted on the back of her brain jumped to that of the mysterious smoke enticingly pouring out of her mouth and nose that was pulling at her, she flipped her toes to the left and headed to the tobacco counter.

The shop assistant zapped her goods and dropped them in a bag, "Anything else for you?"

"Err," she looked around her and saw a bright yellow advert beside her for the latest Bee themed scratch card "Two lucky dips on tonight?" Lucy asked trying to delay the inevitable.

"Sorry love, there is a draw on tomorrow?"

Lucy shook her head "Oh, yes that will be fine, not that I will win!" She frowned and then nervously smiled as she shifted her weight from foot to foot.

"Anything else for you today Love?"

Lucy knocked her toes together in her shoe as she actively thought of an answer "Err, a pack of... B&H" she asked nervously, doubting if that was what she was meant to say.

"Golds love?"

"Err, yeah of course, sorry!" She admonished herself and tapped her hand on her forehead.

With an audible gulp at the additional cost, Lucy paid up and made her way back to the car. She dumped the bag on the passenger side seat and then breathing deeply struggled to get the key in the ignition as she stared at it the plain white box with a dark awful picture of lung with a cancerous cell looking back at her. Contrasting to the juicy healthy yellow pepper it was leaning against. She bit her lip 'The one in the reflection was golden yellow, shite!' She contemplated that it would be wrong.

***

Lucy got home, bent down, and picked up the post addressed to the previous occupant off the thick horsehair matt. Kicked her heels off and pottered into the kitchen to put the food in the fridge, and then poured herself a glass of wine. She held the pack of cigarettes firmly in her hand as she headed up stairs and attempted to get herself sorted. She sat at the dressing table, with the now half full glass of wine in her hand and stared at the mirror, and her normal reflection stared back. She had spent what felt like ten minutes after moving the tampons box to the bathroom trying to guess where the cigarette pack had been previously in the reflection. The mirror now was just being a mirror, whatever she moved, the reflection was normal. She turned off the lamp and with a shake of the head and defiant snort Lucy got up, unbuttoned her blouse, dropped it on the bed and picked up the large grey t-shirt and as she put it on, she headed back downstairs to continue getting her stir fry ready for dinner leaving everything in place on the dressing table.

Chapter 5

She had struggled to focus on watching television all evening because she kept glancing at the living room ceiling trying to work out what to do. When does she try the mirror again?

At nine o'clock, after spending an hour being wound up on the phone to her mum, and there being nothing good on television, she couldn't hold out any longer. Lucy clicked the light switch and tutted as she climbed the stairs in the dark with trepidation, as she looked up in the darkness and her shoulders sank, she was sure the switch worked this morning as her Dad had triumphantly put a new bulb in only the other day.

She climbed got to the top of the stairs and was about to head into the bathroom when she checked in on her room, she had to take a double take as the lamp on the dressing table was now remarkably on. She couldn't remember physically turning it on when she came up to go to the toilet half an hour ago. She scratched her hair and then shook her head as she picked her pyjamas off edge of the bed and headed into the bathroom to start her bedtime routine.

Thirty minutes later she came back out of the bathroom smelling sweetly after showering and shaving, wearing her light blue strappy pyjama top and winceyette bottoms carrying her clothes and underwear and placed them on the end of the bed. Her long hair was up as a turban in the towel. She growled as her green knickers fell on the floor, she bent down and picked them up and put them on the bed. She looked over her shoulder at her cotton covered bottom wobbling in the mirror and wobbled her pert ass again and frowned, the mirror was being normal again.

She turned around and sat down opened the drawer and pulled out her hair dryer and untangled the cable and tutted, the plug was behind the mirror, she climbed down on to the floor and plugged the drier in.

Lucy unravelled her long, dank hair from the towel, it instantly splattered turning her light blue top dark with the moisture in her hair. She then jumped proving her nerves are on edge when she turned the noisy blower on, she used her grandmothers comb to slowly make her way through untangling and drying the layers of her hair, watching the mirror intently to see what her reflection did, as she was halfway through, she glanced up, and then turned off the hair dryer and placed it on the floor, and leant forward on her arms on the dressing table and smiled closely at the mirror, her reflection smiled back and as it glanced down at the pack.

'Bingo' she smiled as she thought as she sat there holding her comb halfway up between her index and middle fingers.

Lucy and her Reflection nodded and smiled at each other as their hands moved in synchronicity towards the cigarette pack. As Lucy's fingers touched the pack they recoiled in fear. She really did not smoke, she glared at her Reflection.

"Mirror, I am not a smoker, I do not smoke, nor should my Reflection!" She almost chanted as she broke the silence as she shouted at the mirror, as her Reflection sat calmly, and stone faced.

Her Reflection ignored her and picked up the pack and gently tapped it on the desk and then flipped open the lid and looked at Lucy inviting her to do the same. Lucy snubbed the pack and picked up the comb and tapped it on the table in the same rhythm of the reflection had just done.

The Reflection wryly smiled and then pouted her pink lips as pulled out the long white cylinder from the pack and placed the orange-coloured filter between her pouted lips. Lucy tilted her head as she studied herself in the mirror it looked so natural, yet Lucy was sitting there with a plastic comb between her fingers whilst her Reflection had a cigarette between its lips.

Lucy instinctively brought her hand to her mouth as her Reflection lit the cigarette. She watched as the face in the mirror's cheeks collapsed hard twice in quick succession to get the cigarette alight and to pull smoke into its lungs. The Reflection then removed the cigarette and pop there was explosion of smoke between the end of the cigarette and her lips, but it seemed like she waited an age before tilting her head up to the side and expelled large quantities of smoke from the lungs. The smoke drifted towards the light above her head. Lucy wiggled her frame on her buttocks to stay comfortable as she was mesmerised. The Reflection repeated the double drag and then exhaled directly at the mirror. She disappeared behind a thick cloud of exhaled smoke. As the cloud slowly dissipated Lucy was left sitting there watching herself gripping a black plastic comb handle pensively between her teeth.

Chapter 6

Lucy yawned as carried her McDonald's coffee cup into her open plan office a few seconds late as ever and shuffled down the hall to her cubicle and noisily swung her handbag down on the floor. Tammy's brunette hair and then her stylishly made-up face popped up like a Meerkat from behind the office divider.

"Morning you!" she smiled.

Lucy grunted and then gulped from the yellow paper cup "Morning!" she replied after swallowing.

"Oh, what's up Hon?" Tammy asked as she leaned on the glass office divider between their desks.

Lucy looked both ways "Oh just a shite night of sleep."

"Noisy pipes again?"

Lucy chuckled and gulped from her coffee. "Yeah, something like that. Just can't get comfortable and It's a brand-new mattress. It was the one thing Dad let me buy new, and I stupidly went cheap!" she shook her head as she sat down.

"It's difficult living on your own, you need to find yourself a replacement for Chris. It has been like a year or so now?"

Lucy tutted her head "Not now, I am too busy and got far too much house stuff on my mind."

"Fair enough, we have a meeting with Mr Simpson at ten, apart from that it's all good fun."

Lucy clutched her coffee mug at the dread of the meeting. "Great."

"It will be fine; he was in a good mood this morning."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I am!" she chuckled finished off her coffee and then took off her coat.

***

Lucy squinted at her face in the mirror of the toilets as the cistern behind her flushed and the door flung open, she smiled and gave Tammy through the mirror the once over from head to toe and did a double take as she walked out of the cubicle fiddling with her dark hair, then straightened her white blouse and finally tugged on light orange coloured pencil skirt as she approached the sinks. "Hey Hon, having fun with the mirror, don't get too close or you will head butt yourself!" she chuckled as she turned the taps on and squirted the soap and started to wash her hand as Lucy stepped back away from the mirror.

"Yeah, think the mirror at home is warped or something."

"Why is that?"

"Oh, it is just playing games with me and my head, just like the ones at the fair, you know the one that makes you look fat!"

"But you're definitely not Hon!"

"I know, but the crazy mirror at home is making me look a little older, but I can come in here and I'm back to being thirty, the one at home I'm scarily forty or something." She frowned and then leaned against the sink and pulled at her skin around her eyes.

"That's just silly Lucy, a mirror can't age you. Come on, how much sleep have you missed?"

"A bit, I tossed and turned till about three." Lucy said as she leaned forward, so close that her breath steamed and clouded up the mirror.

"It's Friday tomorrow, you going to come out with all? We are thinking of heading for a drink in the Kings and dancing in Shades. You can then sleep it off all weekend!"

"Hmmm, I still have the garden to look at, I think Simba is out there somewhere in the wilds." She stated smearing the water droplets on the mirror with the palm of her hand.

"Rome wasn't built in a day."

"I know, I know"

Both girls jumped as the door opened "Right better get back to it!" Lucy stated as she wiped her hands down on her skirt.

Chapter 7

Lucy again drove home in silence and between changing gears her fingers where tapping incessantly on the top of the black pleather steering wheel. She was nervous to get home, every single set of traffic light's that she encountered were just changing orange to red as she came up to them, the car in front was making a conscious effort to stop early, it made the journey frustratingly slow. She was never quite at the point of no return and had to stop.