The City of Shadow in the Land of Dark Lyght
Julie woke that morning to another day of overcast skies. She stood at the window in the half-light looking down at her city, the City of Shadow, and tried to remember when she had last seen a few rays of Sun or a brief hint of blue sky.
Turning away, time to get ready for work, she caught sight of herself in that big old mirror Uncle Federico had insisted it was her turn to babysit. This mirror was from long ago, passed down through her family as an heirloom and a reminder of another time. No one remembered this other time, but there was the mirror, too large and heavy to hang on the wall, it had almost not fit coming up the stairs and into her apartment.
This mirror had a mystery about it – where had it come from, really? Sometimes, when looked at suddenly, the mirror’s surface would show strange and unknown images. These images seemed to come from within the mirror as if, perhaps, the mirror wasn’t reflecting but more being a window on another, or several other, worlds. These ‘other worlds’ always showed color, blessed rich, intense color. Their skies were not constantly damp with grey. The buildings seemed to be made of golden stone. The people looked at each other and smiled.
Just now, as she turned, Julie seemed to see herself differently, in a flowing garment of red and gold. But then, just a blink, and it was gone. All that showed now was her lithe and red-headed self as she was right then, the room she was in, the grey sky and the grey cement buildings across the way.
Julie had heard a rumor of a Paradise, a walled garden where all is as it seemed to be and not reversed at all. The rumor went on that this happy land was not occluded with not-Truth, but all was limpid as the clearest water, a place where no defenses were needed, as no hurt was ever delivered.
Julie had heard a rumor about another life, a life that included color and love, but knew the rumor wasn’t about anything real, for just look around! It could only be a dream, a wish, a dream of Life, of real Life, not this half-life that lay on every side, and nothing more. Nothing more to be seen. Except in the mirror, in those occasional eye blinks of Somewhere Else.