The Mirror
The Liminanas
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My mother once worked at the most celebrated mirror factory in all
Of the world, founded by Colbert way back in 1666 after he'd smuggled
The secret of making mirrors out of Italy and evaded poisoning by
Venetian death squads. It began as just a tiny workshop hidden in
A valley just inside the French border. For centuries this place
Supplied mirrors to royalty, to presidents and as my mother often
Claimed, to all the mermaids that ever combed their hair, to Beauty
And the Beast, and to Snow White's evil queen. She proudly told me
That the last thing Count Sanders saw before he put a bullet in his
Head was his reflection in one of her mirrors, and maybe the fact
That he saw himself truly for the first time was what gave him the
Strength to pull the trigger, and wasn't that a favour to the world?
Eventually, such is the way with these kind of things, the workshop
Grew into a factory. Generations of workers lived right there in
Small apartments in a three story building with a tiny communal room
In the attic that they decorated with all the mirrors rejected by
The factory. Any slight distortion, the slightest haze, and the
Mirrors were supposed to be shattered and buried, but the workers
Who loved every one of their mirrors so much, could never bring
Themselves to destroy them. Instead, they constructed their own
Impoverished Palace of Versailles. This room was like a funhouse, an
Infinite ballroom, and it was here they spent their nights
A gramophone played and they danced in rippling planes until
Their feet ached, a slow waltz, a tango, a tarantella, and they
Laughed until dawn, or at least until it was time to begin
Another shift. And then the factory burned down, collateral
Damage sometime in 1944, the secret of the magical mirrors lost
Forever. The friends departed, spread out across Europe, homeless
Jobless, wandering, from Vienna to Valderrama, from Prague to
Paris, lost and lonely. Nothing could recapture those nights
In a cafe on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, Sartre once told
My mother, "People who live in society have learned how to
See themselves in mirrors as they appear to their friends."
But she simply replied that it was impossible to really see
Yourself unless you've looked in the right kind of mirror
And that sadly, they don't make those kind of mirrors anymore