Unikum 02 Februar NETT

GLASS
SHORT AK KULTUR TUELT STORY
Tobias Klausen
Writer
I’ve heard so many fears regarding the mirror.
They fear that another person will be in their
place. They fear that someone will come out
of it, or perhaps drag them into it. They fear
what they see, they fear the truth. But I’ve never
encountered someone who shares my fear.
Perhaps I’m ludicrous, or mad as a hatter. But I
know what is real, I can feel it. That fear which
makes your heart skip the occasional beat, the
fear which sends sporadic shivers down your
back, the fear like a tapestry of terror, covering
one’s mind in a blanket of madness.
There is no one like me, not that I can see.
Instead, I attempt to get as close to those fantastical
beings, hoping to catch a glimmer of
their magnificence in my reflection. Perhaps
their reflection could become my own? His
arms were perfectly shaped, his muscles like
a string of pearls. I would love arms like that.
Her face, each feature a gem in a deposit of riches.
I would love to have a face like that. His
body, shaped like a gorgeous diamond, each
angle more perfect than the next. I would love
a body like that.
I look in the mirror, and I see my fear.
Emptiness.
Nothing to greet me, no one to affirm my existence.
I guess it makes sense. Why would glass reflect
glass? It doesn’t, and my entire body was made
of it. All I desired, was for something to reflect
back, something to reassure me that all of this
isn’t for naught.
But it’s empty.
I walk amongst diamonds, sapphires, emeralds,
the entire spectrum of gemstones, all
dazzling and radiating with confidence and
presence. Some gemstones lose their gleam,
but they add polish to keep up their appearances
or recut themselves in hopes of combating
the tides of time. Some learn to live with it,
their wornness becoming part of their beauty.
But no matter how often I attempt to absorb
their reflection, loan their parts, I never obtain
them. Instead, I’m an empty shell without shape
or form.
And so, I live in fear, of the mirror, of myself.
Perhaps I did fear the truth? The truth of my
being.
I am nothing.
No one.
Everyone else, is a breathtaking gemstone.
And I lack everything they are.
They say, diamonds are made under pressure,
but what about glass? I fear, most of all, that
the pressure will not crystalize me, it will
break me.
And am I not broken enough already?
Illustrasjon: Adobe stock // Arsgera
FEBRUAR 2022 UNIKUM NR 02 29