A Story (written 28/3/08)

Today I broke a mirror. Not just any 'ole mirror. A HUGE mirror. You may recall it from the virtual tours of my home, or from my account of trying to move it out of my bedroom last summer. I'm not good with estimating, but this mirror was taller than my door frame, nearly floor to ceiling (so perhaps about 8 feet tall?) and wide enough to be seriously cumbersome, nearly the length of my wingspan (1. maybe 4-5 feet wide? 2. do humans have a wingspan?).

So I'm packing this morning for my weekend trip, plugged into my ipod- Radiohead- and I think I must have bumped the drying rack that has been located in front of the mirror for ages. With that, there is a tremendous crash, followed by the soft twinkling sound of shattering glass. All I can do is listen (I can't even recall if I watched). And then I assess the damage. Yes, the mirror is so very far beyond repair. Yes, there are a few small gouges in the hallway wall, since the mirror is taller than the hallway is wide. Yes, those are my just-dry socks on the rack that is wedged under the mirror and the shower of glass shreds.

All I can do is slowly retreat and drink my tea with honey.

The story has a happy ending (simply because I am not superstitious, although, I believe that staring at a mirror broken into so many large and small bits has the capacity to make one doubt her lack of superstitiousness). I slowly and carefully removed the large pieces, praying constantly that I would not trip down the steps (God is good, I did not slip and fall and scrap my hand until the very last trip, when I was not carrying glass, but only a tall, not so dangerous segment of the plastic framing) and as I opened my front door with the intent to ask my neighbor if such large pieces of glass were acceptable for our black rubbish bin, who drove up but Belfast City Council Waste Removal! I chatted with a bin man and he said, sure, no problem as long as the glass is IN the bin. And I said, well, mostly, it is, let me go get my bin.

And the bin was dumped into the truck, which will be dumped into the landfill, and therefore we have no large, treacherous glass pieces in our garden and I can learn to stop being so vain!