Member-only story
The Times They Are A-Shatterin’
Mirror, Mirror, on the Ground
Billy loved living in this part of town. Mom hated it and his sisters were afraid to go out after dark. Too bad Dad hadn’t come with them. Billy bet Dad would have dug it here, too, especially the sounds of what had to be gunshots late at night.
The very best thing around here was all the trash.
There were mountains of it, spilling out of rat-chewed bags. Old furniture rotting in the rain. And mirrors. Mirrors and window frames with the glass still in them. True, most were broken by the time Billy saw them, but every once in a while he’d come across something that he’d get to be the first one to break. Glass was ok but mirrors were the best.
Even though he was only eleven and had moved here from the suburbs where both his parents had their own cars and everything, he wasn’t some softie. He knew the score.
Which is why he was all set to obliterate a huge fancy mirror he’d found lying flat on the ground just in time for a certain three high school dropouts to see. As Mace, Andy, and Juicehead were turning the corner, Billy raised the bent tire iron he had for the job.
Looking up at him was his reflection, but in the reflection he was wearing glasses. And behind him were trees, not walls of tenements.
