Shay's Pov
My mum thought me crazy.
Well, I did agree with her.
I thought I was crazy.
I sat back on my hands, looking up at her.
"Where is it?" She repeated.
I grudgingly stood up, "maybe, I left it somewhere else," I said to her, rampaging over my bedside and the wardrobe.
"You leave letters now in wardrobes?" She asked, watching me.
"Ma, I...just think I left it somewhere," I told her.
After a while, I was thoroughly exhausted. My mother was grinning at me from ear to ear. "Tell me, are you making this up?"
I sighed, "No, ma. I ain't making this up. The letter read out grandma's names in full," I demonstrated.
"You shouldn't go about receiving gifts from unknown strangers. Who knows where this mirror came from," my mother frowned.
"You should believe me, ma. Grandma must have kept this mirror a secret for a specific reason," I explained.
"My mother never kept such ancient things even as relics. I wonder who would have sent such a thing in her name,"
"You need to believe me......,"
My mother raised a hand to stop me, hugging her handbag close to her, "Of course, I believe you," she said to me.
"Finally," I heaved.
"I believe that someone stupid must have sent this in my mother's name."
I shut my eyes sadly when I heard that and sighed as I gave up. Should I give her the details about what had transpired the previous day?
Would she even believe me?
"Come on, brew some tea for me, would you?"
"Ok mum," I said to her, pushing the thoughts away.
That night, I finally had to force myself to sleep in my room. All that was just a mere figment of my imagination. All that never happened, I tried to assure myself.
My mother couldn't spend the night like I'd thought but her presence earlier on had thrown all fears out the window.
I was barely clothed while I slept in bed, covered merely by layers of my sheets. I stirred when my alarm rang. I stretched out a hand towards my phone to switch it off.
My eyes slowly opened, and my blurred vision was directed at the mirror when I tossed myself to another position.
Two pairs of eyes were staring at me!
Wide-eyed, I startled, staring back at the eyes. Those were not my eyes!
As I startled, he jerked backwards. The side-scrapped-haired man! He was here, watching me sleep!
I sat up slowly, pulling the sheets to cover my near-naked body. Did he see me toss around cause I knew I had bad sleeping postures?
He was dressed in the exact way of yesterday's but today had a different color and style of drab clothes.
His eyes.....
His eyelids were colored with dark ink. What was that?
I tried not to guffaw but he noticed. A thin smile spread across his face...
He was smiling?
He looked spectacularly handsome. He sat back too watching me. But I felt uneasy. I needed to get out of bed, dash to the bathroom, and prepare for work.
Doesn't he have anything to do? I asked myself.
I motioned him away, I needed him to excuse me. I was naked under the sheets. He didn't seem to understand of course.
He stood up, looking around him. I slapped a head to my forehead.
No, this cannot be happening. I had to do the needful. I wrapped the bedsheet around me, stood up from the bed then watched as the bedsheet splayed down around me.
He seemed to have understood instantly, he turned around standing still. I thought he wanted to do something aside from that.
I was pleased, maybe he wasn't as ancient as I'd hoped he was.
When I returned from the bathroom, he wasn't there anymore. In his place was a cowry from his head.
I scoffed at that. Was I to pick it up and keep it in my keep, awaiting his return? I asked myself. It felt foolish that I actually tried to reach out to it but my hand was only touching the mirror.
Finally, I had to leave for work having waited endlessly for him. While I was at work, I was busy chortling to myself as that incident played through my mind.
"Are you okay?" Jennifer, my colleague asked me.
She was much closer to me than the rest of my colleagues at work.
"Yes," I nodded at her.
"I noticed that you have been smiling all day, laughing like a hyena to yourself. I'd thought you were laughing at the manager's shoes while we were at the meeting." Jennifer explained.
"No, I wasn't. A thought fleeted through my mind and I couldn't help it."
"You should be careful," Lola chipped in, "So, the manager wouldn't make something out of it."
"I will," I smiled, strongly waving the notion to tell her.
She would never understand, she would not understand. I'd stop myself at mid-thought if this was how love began. Starting like a glow, then a consuming fire.......
Nah!!
I can never be in love with such a "thing". That mirror could pass as a television. What other name would you tie to the man from the mirror?
It was certainly out of curiosity. I was curious to know him and probably meet him. There were no strings attached to a silly thought of him.
Meeting him would surely be ecstatic, I told myself.
I hurried home late at dusk and rushed to my bedroom to have a sight of him. He wasn't there of course but I could picture the surroundings including the cowry which was still left untouched.
Had he waited for me too? I asked myself.
I showered, made dinner, and sat in front of the mirror awaiting his return.
Yeah, you can call me crazy. I was beginning to wonder why he hadn't returned to see me. Soon, I fell asleep.
When I woke up, the mirror was still picturing the surroundings. Shouldn't it have changed back to showing my reflection? I pushed myself up and moved to touch the mirror.
Slowly, my hand reached out. Instead of touching a solid surface, my hand went through it.
I gasped, pulling back my hand at once.