The Broken Past Flash

Louis’ parents tell him to clean out the attic, he thinks maybe he’ll find something cool or valuable.

He pulls the long string and up pops out the ladder. He puts objects on the floor in boxes until he finds a hand mirror. It has colorful gems on the back of it, but he throws it into a box. Then the hand mirror glows, he walks up to it, and picks it up. A button appears on the back of it and he pushes it. He turns it around and the mirror changes to reveal an oval that shows what the object in front of it looked like in the past. He holds the device up to an old painting leaning on the wall and he could see the painter painting it. He holds the device up to an old coat rack and it has hats on it, but it’s in a house in the 50s. I have to keep this a secret or everyone will want it, he thought. Then he accidentally dropped the mirror and the glass shatters. He picks up the broken mirror, presses the button, and beams of light flash out of it. They change anything they touch back to their former glory or what they looked like in the past. It hit the painting, the coat rack, and a few other things. A turned the front of the mirror back toward and it one least beam flashes at him. Louis turns into a child and if he tells his parents, they might believe his younger self since they remember what their infant son looks like.

“Louie, are you done cleaning the attic?” Louis’ mother shouts up, standing in front of the ladder.

“Um — no,” Louis says in his now higher-pitched voice.

His mother climbs the ladder and finds her young son.

“Louie?” What happened to you?” she asked as she kneels down and cups her son’s cheeks.

“I found this mirror that shows you what things look like in the past, but I broke it. And it changed me back into a toddler,” Louie said in a cutesy childish voice.

“Oh, honey, what mirror? His mother asks.

He points to the broken mirror on the floor and his mother picks it up. “You just have to find the pieces and put the mirror back together like a puzzle — and you look into it.”

She points the mirror toward Louis and he looks into it. He changes back into a teenager.

“How did you know what to do?” Louis asks with his normal, cracky voice.

She smiles and says, “I found this mirror in your grandfather’s apartment after he died and I broke it. My mom told me it’s been passed down through each generation and it’s broken a lot. She showed me how to fix it. Now I’m giving it to you, have fun with it.”

“Thanks, mom.”