The Two Fairest in the Mirror
Knees down and set, crumpled, and folded in the dirt under the willow trees in the backyard after mom told us to clean our shit up since dad’s kaibigans were coming over they were to fill the air around the house with vapours of beer and talk of the country we knew so out we went to clean our toys up and thats when the mirror shone out from the ground crooked in the grass and we saw our faces yours too round and small to comprehend anything other than it was clean up time mine just past the age where I knew shit was a bad word and that a moustache was a big deal though dad never had one fully and we had argued about if I actually had one then mom nodding that it was just peach fuzz nothing to write home about the mirror shone and it was framed red all around oval and sinister you would use it to paint make-up on your barbies always angling the mirror at the spots it needed to show and I thought they were royalty beautiful even if their hair was entangled it was still golden and ken was the perfect man I made him drive all around in his pink VW crushing the grass in its wake and the only guy he fought was my godzilla figurine who was not actually a worthy rival because he was too scaly and we both knew this barbie would never date godzilla so ken didn’t have to worry anyway though barbie was a tease to godzilla a complete flirt and godzilla would roar for a date but ken would kick his ass mightily with a straight leg kick and a mouthful of explosion sounds from me that was my favourite part you just liked to have barbie dress up for the occasion which right now is how the mirror is shining I bend to pick it up and you stop me seeing something interesting you say that you see us both in the mirror and our faces looked funny so we looked in the mirror and I didn’t know who I saw our hair was black and our skin was darker than I thought our eyes were brown and under-magnified and were hiding beneath our hair under our mushroom cuts which had the gall to make us look so imprecise and unlike anyone we knew in our neighbourhood it was the haircutters fault since mom was blameless and dad was too for bringing us across two oceans and having us forget what we really looked like when we played L. N. Ostonal is in his fourth year of a Film Studies degree and a Minor in Creative Writing. He recently screened a short film at the Cannes Short Film Corner and does other things outside, rarely. He writes and likes Kafka. |