Page 63 - GINGER

It was embedded beautifully with pebbles and sea shells, encircling pearls and ringlets.

The mirror was so beautiful that it would have made the mermaids cry.

He impatiently removed the anemone leaves wrapped curled all around it, turned it front
and back, up and down.

“A mirror?” He finally scowled, and turned around.

“You think this is a joke? You have clearly underestimated my power!”

“No!” She said, and threw her hands in the air.

When he was about to throw and smash it, the mirror gave him a last glance, and the
reflection struck him. The reflection of a face that was so old yet felt so new to him,
something he hadn’t seen in years.

Worn out, cold, and bruised with open edges and deep ridges, just like an old tree trunk’s
bark.

Ginger looked at him with glassy eyes as he stood there frozen, same as Ginger was some
time ago.

“No..”, he said, walking with it slowly to find ground to his feet. “No…” He exhaled, and
fell to the ground on his knees.

He stared at the powerful piece in his hand and then stared in space.

One by one, the mermaids: Rage, Fear and Deceit evaporated like mist in air. Envy
followed them.

The friends reached the key bearing wall, and they could now see Ginger from a distance.

“I always knew you were different. She was too.” He finally murmured, his back still turned
to her.

“Both of you were like this mirror to me, too kind, too beautiful inside, made me hate
myself.”

“But..”, his voice broke.

“Father.” A hand touched his shoulder with small delicate fingers, “Let’s go home”, she
said.

The only mermaid that was left behind, Woe, evaporated.