7. Evangeline
Evangeline
Evangeline had heard a number of fairytales involving magic mirrors, but this was the first time she’d encountered one herself.
And already she thought it was wonderful.
She’d read about mirrors that could show the future or people living far away, and she wondered just what this mirror might reveal today.
The mirror took up nearly half the wall, stretching from the misty fog on the floor all the way up to the ceiling.
The frame was thick, ash-white wood, and the center was mercury glass speckled with silver, lovely and old and in possession of a quality that made Evangeline feel as if it would vanish were she to look away from it.
Her reflection filled the mirror: flowing rose-gold hair, pastel day dress whose hem disappeared into the fog. Then the image shifted, and she was wearing a different dress. A wedding dress.
Evangeline’s breath caught in her throat. This was not at all what she’d expected to see. She almost felt as if she should look away, but she couldn’t.
Evangeline didn’t like to think about the fact that she’d been married before.
It was such a disaster that she couldn’t even call it a mistake.
Even the dress she’d worn had been all wrong.
Apollo had picked out a gold-and-white dress with massive feather wings that had made her feel more spectacle than special.
But the dress in this reflection was absolutely lovely. It made her think of romance and love notes and bouquets of wildflowers.
The sleeves were delicate little half-moons with tiny embroidered flowers that curved below her shoulders.
The skirt was slender, overlaid with intricate lace that went just to the floor, leaving a tiny pool of fabric that seemed to melt into the fog at her feet.
It was a dress that looked like fairytale love, and it made her think of a simple garden wedding where people tossed flower petals and ate sweet cake while the couple only had eyes for each other.
And Evangeline felt a sharp pang in her chest as she continued to look at herself wearing it.
She and Jacks had never spoken about getting married. Just as they never talked about how Evangeline would grow older and Jacks would not.
Evangeline always told herself these were questions for the future and they didn’t really matter now; all that mattered was that she and Jacks loved each other.
And yet the longer Evangeline looked in the mirror and watched herself in the wedding dress, the more she felt as if this pang inside her wasn’t just something she was feeling now.
It felt as if maybe this pang was always there, and she was just very good at pretending it was not.
The image began to fade then, and words appeared in the center of the mirror:
Congratulations! You have found the mythic Mirror of Infinite Endings.
One at a time, lines of silver script appeared across the mercury glass. The writing was both elegant and playful, and Evangeline could imagine the cheerful voice that would have gone with it:
Have you ever wondered what else could have been?
Have you ever asked yourself if there are other paths your life could have taken? Other ways your story might end?
Well then, my new friend, this mirror is for you.…
Simply touch the tips of your fingers to the glass, say, “I’d like to see what else could be,” and you will get the rare opportunity to live one day in a different life, perhaps with a happier ending than the one you’re currently in.
And if you don’t like it, well, you can always return!
The fog swirled higher, covering the words. Not that they mattered.
Evangeline was not going to step into the mirror.
She was already happy with the way her story had ended. She loved Jacks. She loved the Hollow. She loved that her story was one of hope and love overcoming the impossible. She didn’t want a different ending.
But now that the idea was presented, it was difficult not to feel curious about what other possible endings were out there …
With her soft spirals of rose-gold hair and her sweet pastel dresses, Evangeline looked like the opposite of a girl who might be attracted to trouble.
And yet, she had been inescapably pulled toward Jacks.
She’d fallen like a star out of the sky, so captivated by him that she’d chosen to believe in the possibility of them rather than the impossibility.
Evangeline was many things, but one could not call her practical or sensible. She was kindling in love with a spark. A moth to a flame. A mortal drawn to immortal things. And in this moment, she was feeling drawn to the magic and the mystery of the mirror.
“No, this is a bad idea.”
Evangeline told herself to step back. But instead, she felt something like an invisible hand pressing against the small of her back, urging her to take a step closer.
Her heart raced with a speed it hadn’t reached in a while. Not since the early days of falling in love with Jacks, when stepping toward him had always felt like a mistake.
Mirror-Evangeline turned and smiled at someone else, someone just outside of Evangeline’s view. She must have been smiling at Jacks.
But then, Evangeline thought, if this mirror showed alternate endings, did that mean that Evangeline’s current ending wasn’t going to involve marrying Jacks?
She tried to erase the thought as soon as she had it. But this was difficult when she was staring at a version of herself who was about to get married.
Then Evangeline was thinking about Jacks’s strange behavior earlier that day, and the letter and the berries and the feeling that he was keeping something from her.
And suddenly she was too curious to stop herself. All she wanted was a peek. She just wanted to see what this other version of her had done differently.
Evangeline pressed her hands against the glass and said, “I’d like to see what else could be.”