Mirrors and Realities | Teen Ink

Mirrors and Realities

January 4, 2016
By EmmaMayWang GOLD, Pelham, Alabama
EmmaMayWang GOLD, Pelham, Alabama
10 articles 0 photos 18 comments

Favorite Quote:
"It is art, and art only, that reveals us to ourselves."
- Oscar Wilde


There were nothing but junk in the depository.
  I had been working as a lab assistant for a few months now, and my latest job was to clean up the labs. Waste equipment, unsuccessful experiments and hunger had created a whole lot a rubbish. I sighed discontentedly as I dumped the waste in a big blue box and carried the box to the depository.
  It was a huge kind of place, with nothing but rubbish. I dragged the blue box through all the debris and finally settled it in a corner of the junk yard. When I first got the job as junior lab assistant, I was sure that had meant helping out with lab equipment or conducting useful experiment, not buying drinks for the others or cleaning the labs.
  Just as I was about to leave, something glinted in the corner. I turned and found myself facing a huge majestic mirror. Okay. I thought to myself, that’s weird.
  Why would anyone use and then deposit a mirror this size?
  I stepped slowly and cautiously towards the mirror, working in lab tend to increase you guard. My reflection rippled in the mirror, and disappeared. Okay.
I thought, that is extremely weird.
  Perhaps it’s just glass, a part of my sub consciousness murmured, it’s not supposed to have a reflection.
  But what’s that? The other part argued, if it’s just glass, then why is the rest of the junk yard reflected?
  Everything in the depository was reflected except me.
  I touched the mirror. A small electrical shock went through me. “Ouch!” I cried out loud, immediately withdrawing my hand. Still, no reflection.
  I guess I kind of lost it, I shouted at the mirror for about a minute, then realizing my stupidity, I glowered and turned my back on the mirror. I made my way back to the lift and got to my floor.
  It was late afternoon, usually there would be lots of people bustling around, making crude remarks and doing “experiments”. However, there were no one.
  “Hello?”I asked. No answer. “Guys, I’m back!” I shouted, “guys?” I waited in my chair for several minutes, twirling the equipment around me. Then I noticed something, a piece of newspaper was lying on the desk in front of me. It wasn’t there when I left.
  I picked it up and glanced at the headline:
  “NEW HAMPSHIRE LOST.”
  I frowned, thinking about the headline, pondering the meaning. I was in New Hampshire, what does it mean taken? I thought for a moment, and decided. Stuffing the newspaper into my jeans pocket, I raced out the door.
  The scene that followed nearly scared me to hell.
  Fires were burning everywhere, flames dancing through trees, engulfing countless people; it was hard to breathe, the air-I only realized later- was toxic; clouds of smog billowed past, choking the people who crossed it; the ocean, dear god, rose high above the normal level, waves dragging people inside.
  It was an apocalypse. Right now. Right here. In New Hampshire.
  The sensible part of my brain whispered it’s a trick, it can’t be an actual apocalypse. It doesn’t work like this, it just doesn’t. I pulled out the crumpled piece of newspaper, it featured New Hampshire in chaos and the date was...July 14, 2015. How could that be? Today was July 15 so it was like this since yesterday? But I would have known if my city was collapsing, surely this can’t be reality...
  But then I thought back upon the mirror with no reflection, I thought back to the guys talking about physics and alternate realities...I flipped the newspaper to the page of the deceased and scanned frantically, my name was listed on it. I was dead among countless others. But no, not in my world. In an alternate reality. I quickly wiped the tears off my face. Honestly, why would I cry over my own death?
  I ran back into the building, surprised that no one had thought of it as a refuse, or maybe they simply can’t in here without dying. There was a huge stack of newspapers stacked in a corner of the room and I grabbed them, glancing at the headlines and throwing them away. Phrases drifted through my head. “OIL SPILL IN MANHATTAN.” “SMOG INCREASES IN NORTHERN CHINA.” “NEW YORK LOST.” I flipped through them feverishly, mind working fast. These cities were “lost” because of the ever decaying environment! And there was no way to reverse it!
  “Oh God...” I muttered, “oh my God, oh my God!” News articles popped out to me, hundreds upon hundreds cites burned down, while others suffered from hunger... The technological advances of this reality was far more advanced than mine, still, what good have that done?
  Humans have been digging up resources for as long as history could remember; we have polluted the environment and never thought about the consequences; we have been killing off wild animals for the sake of glory and respect. And where did we end up?
  How were we repaid?
  Exactly the same way we have been treating the environment. Exactly the same. Now it occurred to me how badly humans have been destroying the ecosystem, as it was happening, only in reverse, in front of my own eyes.
  I fought back the urge to cry like a baby. What use was it now? What good can I do?
  Thinking back upon that particular day, I would never say I regret it. Now I am traveling through realities, witnessing the different development of my own kind. Just to stop, occasionally, to tell them that humans were an ever-changing race, and nature too changes alongside the actions of human beings, and humans would eventually be changed the exact way we changed nature. Just to leave them there, bewildered, thinking what on earth was this girl talking about. Hopefully, they would come to realize the truth of my words.
  Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to see what I have seen.
  Hopefully, they would realize their wrongs and correct them.
  Before it’s too late.


The author's comments:

I've always been a concerned citizen about China's environment, and I'm not the kind of person to come up with a huge smog-sucking air machine. This little sci-fi piece is the best I can do.


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