Robert's Mirror, Chapter 20, www.jeannesbottle.com

In a sudden plunge the limb of the oak slammed to the ground. I was reminded of a nail in the way that my being was hammered into the hardened surface. I halted as tree roots meshed into my spirit. I became trapped inside, wedged in somewhat of a puzzling limbo.

I could hear a disturbing voice urging me to reappear. I recognized it as Thelma Burnett except her tone was a deep masculine projection in Carl Anderson's encasement.

I had left her in Carl's form and now I was powerless. Her moment to reenter her former self had passed and she was suspended there until I could figure out the proper pathway for return.

"Think surf, sand and beach." I announced concentrating hard, figuring it best to find my advisor for guidance.

My powers seemed of little use since no matter how I would focus my thoughts, one word came to mind and threw off my concentration. "Elizabeth." I mumbled feeling for the first time that our love was more of a curse than a blessing.

There were two planes tugging me in a opposing directions. Elizabeth teamed with Lucas concealed somewhere in the shadows of the dark realm and then there was Granny standing at the majestic gate motioning me to enter the wonderful pathway leading to everything illuminated in blinding sun. Somehow I realized Granny was looking after Thelma Burnett during this troubled time.

It then dawned on me why the rules specifically stated that a genie was never to leave a wish without completing the task. After the passage of time, return was nearly impossible.

"Oh, rats!" I spat angry at myself considering the gravity of my error.

From the layer above, a brisk chill burst onto my exposed feet. I then remembered something specific about the crack in the mirror. A powerful voice overtook all thoughts and the tree roots within view crystallized transforming into veins of broken glass.

The mirror itself became enormous with various miniature channels for the possibility of travel. There were many paths to consider, a world wide map of sorts with expressways and streets yielding hundreds upon thousands of possibilities.

"Where is Thelma Burnett?" I asked aloud.

Nothing in the form of a sign was posted, no unusual lights illuminated the specific direction and all instincts were absent from my senses.

I realized I was in a predicament. I was swimming against a current of impossible strength and the chances that I would return to the exact spot where I exited from was highly unlikely.

I closed my eyes and tuned into the past. "THELMA, Thelma Burnett!" I beckoned.

The dimension surrounding me became filled with the clutter of a massive wind. The din reminded me of a ghostly voice howling in the midnight hour. Chills overtook my spirit. I was spooked.

"THELMA, where are you?" I questioned.

Again distorted breezes filled the crevices presented for travel.

I began to twist my legs shifting the soil from above. Sand grains spilled and fell away. At any given moment I would become dislodged. It was time to move on, to push off from the dock. Sink or swim I was willing to try.

Without hesitation my body released. My appearance shifted into a drop of water as I slid throughout the ornate web of possibilities.

In a flash, a pin tip pointed me to a specific destination. I twisted then pulled, but my strength had diminished and my being was cast down an opposite path. I slammed to a halt, my face wedged between a mirror and the painted backing. I was in a sterile room gazing at a figure, not Thelma Burnett as Carl Anderson, but someone unfamiliar to me.

It was then I realized the magnitude of my failure. Thelma Burnett was now trapped within her own nightmare. She wanted to be in the shoe of a man for a day to see what a man's life would be like. I had no idea that by snoozing a bit on the job, her very future was in jeopardy. A great sense of distress filled my being in the form of regret.

I had behaved selfishly, my quest for Elizabeth Fenmore and the truth had rendered me careless. Granny and the elders were right to do what they did. I needed erasure and this fact could never have been more apparent as in the realization that I messed with two family's lives by allowing a half hearted wish. How could I not take wish giving seriously? This was a war and without my entire focus, such mistakes were inevitable.

"I'm so sorry." I said to the silence around me.

"Sorry?" The woman huffed from the other side as she gazed at me from her corner. She sat sprawled on a kitchen chair painted white, in fact most of the room was decorated in white or gray and the bright from the sun made gazing within painful. "If you want to know what sorry is mister, you should walk one day in my place! I could show you first hand what sorry is...until you are willing, I suggest you keep your big mouth shut!"

I didn't know how to respond. Since the glare had such an intensity it was impossible to surmise anything about the female other than her slumped over posture.

"Where am I?" I questioned breaking the silence.

I watched with interest as she shifted her weight. "Have you ever been to hell mister? Welcome to hell on earth, my own private misery...my own private doom!"

"Watch yourself!" She snapped tilting her face from side to side as if disturbed by my presence.

Everything about the way she moved reminded me of a massive serpent, her tongue sharp not with the forks of the animal itself, but sharp in the tone and demeanor of a person disillusioned.

"What is your story?" I demanded knowing better than to fear her bitter attitude.

"My story." She said releasing a tsk sound from between her teeth. "My story is one of regret, my story is one of emotional imprisonment. I sit now and wait... I am in wait of the end of my life for death is the only hope that I carry...and until my time in this world has expired, I will relive what it is that brought me to the brink of solitude."

As the day progressed and the morning sun lifted in the sky, life from the surrounding neighborhood trickled in. A siren began to blare. The vehicle passed in an accelerated pace filling the room in shrill echoes.

"I want to know your story, maybe I can help."

The woman began to chuckle as if my offer was not a consideration.

"You think you are the first to offer such help? No sir. There has been another before you, I went along with the idea believing it to be for the best, but I realize no one should tamper with fate. Human or not, we all need to live life as it was intended."

"I can grant you a wish." I said with a sureness to my tone.

"As could the other...a wish, a temporary change, you are all the same and I have no use for either one of you.... Ya see the door there? Don't let it hit ya in the backside on your way out!"

"What is your name?" I demanded.

"My name is Carl except everyone calls me Thelma... and I've been stuck like this for thirty years. I haven't family any longer. They abandoned me, they believed I had lost my sanity and yet, I know better. I've been trapped like this for what seems like forever. No single wish will ever correct the time that I've lost. I have a wife Agnes that died many years ago, Thelma's husband stole away her kids not allowing any visitation. The only company I get, the only tie I have with the past is in a neighbor, a man, my old self. He brings me groceries and helps me maintain this rented space here in the city."

"It's a waste this life, a waste that my world was pulled out from beneath me, whisked away for some master plan unknown to me."
"I have the power to fix this!" I said feeling the horror of my error.

"How can you fix anything?"

"I am Robert. The wish man in the mirror, the wish man that left you in this state for hundreds of days too long."

In a sudden movement, the figure stood from the chair and hobbled over to the mirror. As she neared I realized Thelma Burnett had become slovenly, a woman (or man trapped) that had long ago lost hope.

"Thelma believed you'd return one day! You tell me this you selfish idiot, why now? Why after so long? My life has been in ruin and there is nothing you can do to salvage what's left!"

"I...I...I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't change the reality here buster! You've destroyed my life and I demand restitution!"

"I will fix everything." I said uncertain exactly how to go about doing such a thing.

"I'll phone Thelma and get her to bring my old self over here. Not that I'm particularly happy about returning into a 68 year old body. My prime has long ago passed and my son has grown into a man with a family of his own. I've been an outsider in both world's Mister Wish man! I've lived in solitude because I didn't fit in with either family."

Carl in Thelma's body scampered away. From an adjoining kitchen I listened as my arrival was explained in short words on the telephone.

"She'll be here in a few minutes. Carl lives in an apartment just down the street, I'm afraid we've been in the same boat, the same drudgery for all this time."

"I can fix everything." I said with false confidence. The truth remained I was uncertain if it was possible to deliver on my promise.

"That's what the therapists claimed all along, they could fix everything... Fix nothing they did! No one wanted to listen to the truth...even Thelma denied the fantastic story of how Carl Anderson took residence within the encasement of Thelma Burnett. You see, she was the smart one...she sat back and watched as the doctor's did not believe my plight. The thing that really upsets me is on the day that she confided in my Agnes, the very same day we were supposed to switch back and return to life as we knew it, my Aggie dropped dead of a heart attack. Obviously, the reality was too much for her, especially when the clock struck midnight and we had given up hope that you'd ever showed up to switch us back. Her heart broke that night, broke from the weight of your simple wish."

"Oh my..." I said falling from the mirror and onto the floor. I was on my hands and knees begging Carl for forgiveness.

"Please..." I whimpered.

"Do you realize how painful it's been to sit back and watch my son grow up not recognizing his own father. Oh Thelma did all right by him. She really devoted herself to raising my boy, but it wasn't fair... it should've never been played out in that way."

A metallic sound resonated from the hallway. Carl Anderson suddenly entered the room carrying a ring of keys. His face was wrinkled from years of living and I slowly stood from the floor.

"What took you so long mirror man? What didn't you understand about a twenty four hour wish?" Thelma said from Carl's encasement.

"I was detained." I said with embarrassment.

"Totally unacceptable." Thelma spat as she began to pace the room.

"You've got to believe me." I whispered.

"Just change us back and leave us alone!" Carl announced in a sing song way.

"I've had enough of living as a man to last me forever." Thelma said with bitterness.

With a lack of confidence, I pulled Thelma's hand into my left then Carl's hand into my right.

"Envision a time when things were as they should be...a moment before I meddled into your affairs...were you happy? Were you with those that you loved? Let's fall away from the present, shed the years like the skin of a reptile. Allow your true destiny to erase what never should have been."

I closed my eyes and concentrated. Thelma and Carl lifted from the present and entered the mirror from the center along with me. We were a single beam of light that instantly meshed into a stream of water. Following the crevasses within the shards of mirror we trailed in reverse, often times flowing in a stream uphill or in a gravity of opposite rising.

At the end of the path we struck a hidden flap of glass, trickling through we became three single drops plunging from a table's edge. I gazed with amazement as we fell into Thelma's former sitting room. It appeared as if we were back in the time when their lives held a promising future.

The only problem was as Thelma and Carl rose from the point of liquid, they arose in the age that they currently were thirty years into the future. Wrinkles lined their faces and Thelma appeared to have rounded considerably.

"I see we're back to who we were." Thelma said as herself once again.

Carl stood, straightening his clothes with a steady hand. It was then he gazed at the weather worn hands that were now his.

"Thelma!" He managed gazing at her appearance.

"A lot of good this did." Thelma snapped with anger.

Both sets of eyes gazed at me with disappointment.

"I...um...I.." I stammered not knowing what the solution should be.

Just then a school bus stopped in front of Thelma's home and her children appeared hurrying towards the house.

"We can't be seen like this! Do something wish man!"

"Join hands." I commanded with desperation. I hurried to the mirror hanging among the gaudy ribbons on the wall. I pulled the oval and slammed it to the ground crunching the glass under my weight. I then lifted the dust and pinched it between my fingers. Larger pieces pulverized to grit as I hustled over and cast numerous flecks above their heads. "THINK YOUNG." I commanded as the front door knob began to twist.

Thelma and Carl's appearance bubbled, aging skin became moist and the elasticity firmed. Their shapes rejuvenated to the time when they had begun the wish, the time when everything was in proper alignment.

As the door opened, Thelma stood within the embrace of her neighbor. Imagine everyone's surprise when Troy hurried into the room his face reflecting an accusation. "Just what in the world is going on here?"

Thelma and Carl separated as Agnes stepped into the room from the direction of the garage.

"I couldn't find the box marked costumes." She said gazing at her friends who had suddenly appeared statue still.

"Who is that?" She questioned pointing at me.

"I'm Robert, Robert Wright. I'm an old friend of Thelma's, right Thelma?"

"Yes." She said gazing at her husband.

"You're a fine one to think such a thing about me Troy!"

"What is that supposed to mean?" He said guilt lining his brow.

"The sooner you pack your things and get out, the happier we will all be around here."

"You're kicking me out?" He snapped with disbelief.

"I realized something many years ago. We only have one opportunity in this world to live and to love. If only one person is giving, if only one light is burning in a relationship, then it needs to be corrected otherwise we might wake up someday thirty years in the future and wonder why we didn't change what we could."

Troy gazed at Thelma nodding in agreement

"You're going to regret this!" Troy spat.

"Regret booting you out? Nope, not now, not ever." Thelma said with a steadiness to her tone.

"Can I at least say goodbye to the kids?"

"By all means." Thelma said gazing out into the yard as her son and daughter began to play basketball.

Carl then spoke in a sweet voice directed towards his wife. "Aggie. I think we should take you to the hospital for some medical tests...right now, as a matter of fact."

"Have you completely lost your mind dear?" Agnes whispered.

"It's your heart, you haven't been feeling well recently have you?"

Agnes' smile shifted to serious. "I've had a bit of indigestion is all, it's nothing to get worked up about."

Thelma gazed at her friend. "Aggie, you'd better go and get checked out, I agree with Carl, why take any chances?"

Aggie nodded as Carl escorted her to the door. There was a brief pause as he gazed back in my direction. With a simple nod he absolved my guilt.

Thelma sauntered to the window and peered out. Carl and Agnes drove off to live a promising future and Troy bid his farewell to his children.

"Can you forgive me for messing up the wish?" I asked.

"You didn't mess up mirror man. You just gave us more than we bargained for. In truth, without your wish, Carl would have lost Agnes and I would have lived my life with lies blinding my path. I suppose eventually Carl and I will feel some sort of gratitude..."

"Have a good life." I said as I melted into the scraps of mirror broken on the floor. Thelma waved farewell as her children entered the room. They hurried to her side and she grinned at them with an overflowing warmth and appreciation. My last view was of the embrace she shared with her kids. It was a human gesture that indicated everything was righted in her present day world.