Parties

He was famous for putting on the most lavish parties; money no object.

Always looking for a different theme, he found himself perusing the second-hand shops, party hire stores and even the occult emporiums. In fact, it was while looking around in one of these last places, that he came across the mirror. He couldn’t see why such an ordinary looking thing was there, among all the surrounding really bizarre paraphernalia that was on offer. A small label stuck on the corner of the ancient-looking frame read; Travel Mirror (5C). This made him even more curious. He couldn’t imagine anybody wanting to take something like this when they were travelling. As he looked around for assistance, he became aware of the fact that he was the only person there. He went to the counter and rang the bell.

After a short wait, a very old woman, dressed in black and moving very slowly, parted the curtain. She gave him a weak smile an asked, “Can I help you?”

“Yes. I’m curious about the small mirror over there.” He pointed.

“Oh! The travel mirror, you mean?”

“Yes. I can’t see how it could be used.”

“I can explain, if you like, it’s only for the inquisitive, really. However, I should tell you; it is rather expensive.”

He shrugged. “If I like it, I’ll buy it.”

She smiled. “It’s a 5C. It’ll only go back five-hundred years.”

“Go back? What do you mean?”

At this point, the old woman came out from behind the counter and made her way to the mirror. She said that a person could travel back to see what they were like in a past life! He was told how it was used in great detail. He thought it would be really great at parties. Despite the exorbitant price tag, He bought it.

When he got home, he put the mirror up and stood in front of it. The old woman’s instructions were very clear. Once positioned on a wall at face-level, the traveller needed to stand before it, then closing their eyes, they needed to call out a year. Any year within the last five hundred. On opening them, the traveller would see themselves as the person they were during that lifetime. This would definitely be a showstopper at the next party he threw.

He started to calculate. He was 25, the current year was 2020, with him being born in 1995… anything before that would do. He did some quick maths in his head again to confirm it, then, wondering about his life immediately before, he came up with the year 1990. He called out the number, “1990”.

Opening his eyes, he found himself looking at an elderly Chinese woman.

After the initial shock of seeing this, he relaxed a little and began calling out numbers in a random fashion. Apart from the occasional repeats, the whole thing was truly fascinating. So many different images; reflections of himself in past lives. Yes, this was going to be the party to top all parties!

This went on for a while until he called out, “1936”.

At this point, Adolf Hitler stared back at him!

He thought, OK, I’ll have to come up with another theme, as he smashed the mirror and dropped the pieces into the dustbin.