An Ethereal Encounter

She wanted to invent her perfect self. She would rise up each morning, look at herself in the mirror and hate what she saw. Her reflection was certainly not what she had dreamt of becoming. Yet, she couldn’t break the mirror. That would lead to seven years of back luck and little else. She needed a different strategy, one that would make a more permanent impact. She would wander the streets aimlessly, with cars honking at her careless and distracted walk along the edge of the pavement. She would flirt with death like that, day after day, as if it were the only thing that excited her. When she felt that death was not close enough, she would take the elevator to the top floor of one of the skyscrapers in the downtown and gaze into the abyss below. She would close her eyes and picture herself falling and her face hitting the pavement in great speed. It doesn’t matter what she imagined following this collision. Some things should be kept private. Having given vent to her self-destructive impulse, she would go back to her daily errands. She would exercise, cook, and then polish the mirror, keeping her eyes closed throughout this routine assignment. She wanted to dance a waltz, but she hated her lack of grace, so she never bothered.

He wanted to invent the perfect mirror. He would rise up each morning, look at his reflection in the myriad of curved mirrors hanging on the walls of his apartment and hate what he saw. He needed a distinct mirror. His apartment was clogged up with mirrors of various shapes and sizes. Everywhere he looked, he saw a different version of himself, all of which he disliked. The reflections were making him tired, but he could not dispose of the mirrors. He was afraid of the seven years of bad luck he could bring onto himself. He would wander the streets thinking of the perfect mirror. He felt that he was only an inch away of attaining it. He would look at reflections of passers-by in the façades of the glass skyscrapers in the downtown, but he found none of them inspirational. Each one had a curve at a wrong place and none of them moved graciously. He felt like dancing a waltz, but he did not want any of those people to join him, so he never bothered.

One day they met. He looked up from the crevice the skyscrapers in the downtown created, and instead of the sky, he saw her, graciously tumbling down towards him. He spread his arms to catch her and they began dancing their long-awaited waltz, while their ethereal reflection imposed itself onto the façade of a nearby skyscraper. As that moment turned into eternity, she got her perfect self, and he got his perfect mirror.