Broken Mirror

Broken Mirror

The first day we went to the dentist. I was six or seven at the time. My brother Michael was two years older and my sister Ann was just over one year younger. It was only a check-up. That was the time they started to introduce the idea of a regular visit to the dentist. All three of us were extremely excited, having someone root around in our mouths, give our teeth a good scrubbing. When he finished poking around in my mouth, he told me “there you go the shiniest teeth you’ll ever see!” Of course I was extremely proud. I assumed he meant my teeth were the best in the whole world; something I was quick to divulge to my siblings on the journey home. But f course our dear dentist had told each of us that our teeth were the shiniest he’d seen. Of course we had to decide for certain which of us had the best teeth; which of us had the greatest teeth in the world! Our mother refused to tell us claiming we all had equally good teeth; but we knew that couldn’t be! There was only one way to decide for certain, we needed a mirror.

There was only one mirror in our house, and no it wasn’t in the toilet! No, our solitary mirror was hanging over the ire place in the sitting room. A room locked away from us children! A room held specially, in perfect order in the case of an emergency; important visitors. Inside that room was all our greatest treasures! The good china and the best glasses placed perfectly on the sparkling, polished cabinet, and the comfortable suite of furniture, which was void of any stray, prodding springs.  The fluffy brown carpet which almost massaged your feet as you walked on it.

It was locked at all times against our intrusion! However, my mother failed to appreciate how clever and sneaky my older brother was. He had discovered the where-about of the key to the sitting room. He had never taken it before, because though he was always in trouble, he thought entering the forbidden room might be a step too far. However this was an emergency.

On arriving home after our visit to the dentist, our mother left us to visit a neighbour. Quite normal those days! Not so much fear in parents about kidnapping and such. Of course that was perfect in our eyes. My brother raced away as soon as she was out the door and returned beaming with the key to the door. We took our time entering the room, appreciating our first moments on the hallowed ground. We were in awe of the place. We gathered ourselves and got on with the job at hand.

The mirror was too high for us so together we moved the table from under the window to in front of the fire and climbed up. We were still a little short and had to grab the side of the mirror and reach on our tippy-toes. We had barely time to smile are new white smiles into the huge glass oracle, when the table toppled forward and we all slipped off, tugging the mirror with us.

It crashed into the fire place into a thousand pieces. Ann and I froze stiff in panic. Michael, however, paused only for a breath before racing from the room. I didn’t know what to do! We were going to be in so much trouble, and I was sure Michael was going to deny his part in the whole affair. I was considering doing the same, blaming the whole thing on the youngest of us. However before I could do anything, Michael had returned with a shovel from the shed. He proceeded to punch it at the ceiling over the fireplace where a small crack had already appeared. After a few moments the ceiling gave way and down came a chunk of ceiling along with a shower of dust.

Michael then grabbed my sister and the shovel and told me to “come on.” He locked the door, hid the key and returned the shovel to the shed. “Don’t say a word to anyone.” We didn’t.

A few weeks later my mother entered the sitting room to discover a piece of ceiling sitting on top of the broken mirror. She nearly had a heart attack.

 “My God! Oh, thank goodness none of you were in here when that happened!” she exclaimed.

She never suspected a thing, and we never enlightened her. How my brother had the wit’s to think up such a plan I’ll never know, but I was forever grateful to him for saving me from would surely have been a terrible spanking!