Genre: Absurdist fiction
Rating: 13+
Word Count: ~1400
The
bedroom was not entirely dark, but dimly lit only by the screen of the
computer. A young man in his late twenties sat in front of it. The
facebook page on the firefox browser refreshed itself, showing some new
updates from his friends. A friend of his got married and had uploaded
his wedding pics. He clicked on the pics and browsed through the album,
liking each one of them at the same time. He stopped at one of the pics
that showed the groom. His friend looked handsome, smart, thin, with a
bright smile, in that picture. He ran his palm around his cheeks,
feeling the thin layer of beard on his face. His hands then slided over
his tummy grabbing his love handles. He tried to smile, but the faint
reflection on his computer screen disagreed with his own sense of
aesthetics. He proceeded to like the picture in the album and move on.
Just then rays of light broke through the curtain on the window. The
time was 6 AM. He stood up sluggishly, and he moved his body without any
real sense of purpose towards the large mirror kept in his bedroom.
The
reflection was thin, handsome looking and he gave a bright smile. The
reflection even waved at him, but he wouldn't acknowledge it. He simply
walked into the mirror and the reflection copied his actions and came
out. After they switched their positions, the mirror began to show
cracks in many places. The reflection began to stretch its hands and
legs. Then it moved to the bathroom, brushed its teeth, shaved and had a
bath. After it came out, it made some breakfast for itself and ate it,
before it went to work. The reflection came back home at 7.
"Yo! Hows your day been inside the mirror?", the reflection asked.
He came near the mirror but did not respond.
"Do you want to know how awesome a day I had today?", the reflection continued.
He stood there motionless, expressionless.
"Well,
let me tell you anyway. The project that I have been working on for the
past 5 months, well, its finally launching tomorrow. Not only that, I
am also expected to give an investor presentation of the project
tomorrow. If all goes well, we could be seeing promotion both in title
and salary. How cool is that? By the way, do you remember Susie from
finance. I think she is a little bit interested in us, as she asked me
out for coffee today. She is smart, bright and was fun to talk to. We
discussed about the latest novel from ..."
"Can we just switch places already?", he interrupted, his face still expressionless.
The
reflection gave up and stepped inside the mirror, and he came out.
After they switched, the cracks in the mirror disappeared. He went back
to the computer, and placed an order for pizza online. He went to his
company site as he waited for his pizza. He searched for the employee
named Susie. Susie from finance was first on the list. She was cute and
from the picture he guessed that she was quite well endowed. His pizza
arrived and he had a specific routine with the delivery boy. The
delivery boy would place the pizza on the doorstep and collect his tip
from jar kept beside the door. After the delivery boy left, he would
come out and grab both the jar and the pizza. Both him and the delivery
boy went through this routine. He opened the pizza box beside his
computer and began eating, as he continued to read Susie's profile on
the company website. Then, he searched her on facebook, twitter and
other social media websites. He found several of her pictures online and
also several posts and blogs that she had written.
After dinner,
he went to youporn, browsed through the many genres in the selection
list and finally chose one. Among the many videos, he selected one that
had a female who looked quite like Susie. He went on the grab the
tissue, as he played the video while imagining an interaction with
Susie. After the deed, he washed up and began browsing netflix to binge
watch some tv shows. And another night spent. At 5.30 in the morning, he
heard some children being noisy outside. He peeked outside to see some
children playing cricket early in the morning. He went to his computer
and clicked on his calendar to find out that it was state holiday but
not a national holiday. This meant that the schools were closed but its
not a company holiday. Just then, a cricket ball came through the window
and smashed into the mirror. The mirror cracked. He jumped out of his
chair and moved quickly towards the mirror. The reflection in the mirror
looked chubby with a beard, a bad hair and a gloomy face. He tried to
get inside the mirror but couldn't. He slumped down in complete shock.
Before he realized it was already 7 AM and he was going to be late for
office. He quickly put on some clothes and went to office.
As he
walked around, he could feel stares all around. The stares that wondered
who this person was. As he went and sat down in his cubicle, his
neighbour slid his chair towards him.
"Dude, is that really you? God! you look awful, what happened?"
"N.. Nothing", he responds with his face down and trying to start his computer up.
"Nothing?
You look way worse than when you began to work here. I thought you had
really brightened up in the past few months. This is a complete reversal
in just a day. Wait! Don't tell me! BREAK-UP!", the neighbour began
nudging him with a smile as he asked, "Did some one turn you down or
something? Dude, you shouldn't get so serious about such things".
Just then the manager swung by, the neighbour took that as a cue to return to his cubicle.
"Hey! How are you?", the manager asked. "You don't look so good. Are you ok?"
"Y.. yes, I am fine", he responds again with his face down.
"I
hope you are. By the way, you better clean yourself up before the
presentation, I don't want the investors looking at you like that", the
manager warned.
"P...presentation?", he had a puzzled look on his face.
"Don't
tell me you forgot! Today's the big day, you will be in line for
promotion so better not mess it up! I will see you at the conference
room later" and the manager walked away.
The conversation with
the reflection yesterday slowly dawned upon him and he realized what the
manager was talking about. He continued to feel the stares from around
the room. It felt uncomfortable, stuffy and it was increasingly becoming
harder to breathe. He ran out to the corridor. As soon as he reached
the corridor, an elevator opened and he jumped into the elevator. He
felt far more secure in that narrow elevator than he did inside his
office. The elevator stopped at the roof top. The door opened to an
empty roof. He stepped out. The loneliness at the roof top, away from
all the gazes and expectations had the cold warmth that he sought. He
also knew however that this won't stay for long, as he will be soon
found out and pried away from this heaven back to that hell. He pulled
out a small paper out of his pocket and wrote something on it with a
pen. Then, he walked close to the rails, climbed over them. He took a
look below. He could see the mirror there down below without any cracks
and his reflection waving at him. He was elated and he jumped towards
that mirror.
For the better half of the day, the area outside the
company building was abuzz with sadness and confusion. Police had
cordoned off the area near the body. The chalk outline on the floor
marked the spot, while the body was already taken towards the morgue.
The police waited for the autopsy report, but they were fairly certain
that it was a suicide. However, the interview with the colleagues was
strange. Everyone of them thought that the victim was doing quite well
within the company and was up for promotion. And even stranger was the
suicide note that they discovered that simply said, "I can't be Me."
