words and space, selected and arranged
Saturday was Becky Lynn's most exciting day this week, for it was her cousin April's wedding in the city, and after the ceremony she would get to play with her two favorite cousins--April's brothers Tommy and Skootch.
The city was a three hour drive--even for Becky Lynn's dad--so the family had to get ready right away. Since she wanted to impress Tommy and Skootch, who hadn't seen her for two months, Becky Lynn decided to wear her best clothes: new blue jeans and a bright red Rosco T-shirt.
After she was dressed, Becky Lynn stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom. In these clothes, she'd easily be faster than Skootch! Tommy was two years older, though, so he'd probably be fastest of all.
Becky Lynn made a serious face and gazed at herself in the mirror. "I wonder if I really look like that? How do I know the mirror can be trusted?" She glanced away, at her real arms and legs, to see if the clothes were as neat as they looked in the reflection. Sure enough, they were. But no matter how she twisted her nose and mouth, Becky Lynn could not get a direct look at her face. "Oh, I wish I could see my face just once! Not that copy in the mirror, but my real face!"
She focused her attention once more on the image in the mirror: there's her tennis shoes, blue jeans, T-shirt, mouth, nose. Becky Lynn looked directly into her eyes. Her jaw suddenly dropped as her eyes grew big and round. The reflection looked like Becky Lynn, but the eyes belonged to somebody else! "Who is she?" whispered the little girl as she blinked, opened her eyes wide, and found herself trapped inside the mirror looking out at her body!
Becky Lynn's mom came into the room. "You can't wear that to the wedding! Why do you think we bought the pretty pink dress with the frills?" Her body nodded with a smile, and Becky Lynn watched helplessly from inside the mirror as her mom helped her into the dress, slipped on shiny new shoes, and finished by tying a pink ribbon in her hair. "I've got to get myself ready now," said Becky Lynn's mom as she stepped out of the room.
"I can't let Tommy and Skootch see me like that!" thought Becky Lynn. "I have to change back into the blue jeans and T-shirt now!" She stared at her body's face. "Don't smile like that! You look ridiculous! I have to do something!"
Becky Lynn went directly to work on the inside surface of the mirror, erasing the shiny shoes, pink dress, hair ribbon, and smile--everything except her two round, surprised eyes. "Now I'm going to set things right!" Then Becky Lynn re-drew her body with tennis shoes, jeans, Rosco T-shirt, and finally a new face. She took a break and looked over her work.
"Oh no!" Because she was so young, Becky Lynn didn't have much practice drawing yet. Her arms and legs looked like branches on a tree, she had a nose like a carrot, hair like a wheat field, and each ear was as large as the rest of her head. Only the eyes were from Becky Lynn's original body, and they looked back with a worried expression.
"Ahhhh!" Becky Lynn's mom had come back in to check on her daughter. For a moment she was too stunned to move, but then turned toward the mirror and shook her finger at Becky Lynn. "I might have known you'd pull something like this, young lady! We've got to leave in five minutes, so I'll have to fix this the quickest way possible."
Her mom erased Becky Lynn's body until only the worried eyes remained, then re-drew her daughter with the frilly new dress, shiny shoes, and pink hair ribbon. "There! Now take a look at yourself!"
Becky Lynn's body stepped up to the mirror: there's her shiny shoes, new dress, frills, hair ribbon, mouth, nose. She looked directly into Becky Lynn's eyes. Suddenly her jaw dropped, eyes grew big and round, and Becky Lynn had escaped from the mirror!
"You'll be the prettiest girl there!" said her mom.
Becky Lynn gazed curiously at herself in the mirror. "I guess so." Maybe she'd be faster than Skootch, even in this dress. "Mom?"
"Yes?"
"Will there be any mirrors at the wedding? You know: in case I want to comb my hair or something?"