Anita stopped and nearly tripped over a footstool at the opening to the stall. The mirror was Victorian with all the excess that style had to offer – and then some. It would be completely ridiculous in her Mid-Century modern home, but it called to her in that way that some things do. It was like she had sniffed out a treasure just waiting to be rescued and given a proper home.

Usually, her finds were starburst clocks or Danish modern furniture, but this heavy mahogany, intricately carved cherubs, gods, goddesses, and roses behemoth wouldn’t let her be. She was enchanted.

The mirror was easily eight feet by four feet in dimensions and would dominate a wall. “Where in the world would I put it,” she said aloud. At that the shopkeeper bustled over and said, “Why anywhere that needs a bit of beauty! I can let that go for $100 – cash and carry.”

“Wow. That seems awfully cheap for a Victorian mirror. What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing other than the fact that people don’t appreciate the style these days and the mirror is so large. Most folks simply don’t have the wall space for it. It’s made to lean against a wall – nut hung. You can have it set up and operational in a matter of minutes!” The woman laughed. “It would be charming in one’s boudoir or foyer.”

“It really wouldn’t go with my decorating style. I’m more into the atomic era. But, you know, my daughter would love it. A hundred dollars? Sold. It will make a great Christmas gift. Where I will put it until then will be a problem.”

With that, Anita called her husband and had him bring the pickup truck to the shop. It took him and three other men shopping at the antique mall to wrestle the mirror into the bed of the truck. He’d thought to bring furniture pads, so the mirror was well protected. Greg was used to his wife’s impromptu purchases of large objects.

When they got home with it, Greg called the sons-in-law and told them he needed muscle. The guys unloaded the mirror and returned to Anita’s kitchen where she poured them all coffee. While they were catching up on football scores, they heard a large crash in the garage.

“Oh no!” Anita said. “Please, no.” They all headed to the garage expecting a broken mirror. The only thing they found was a paint can that had fallen off a shelf and taken several objects with it. The paint can was on the opposite side of the garage and Anita was mystified as to what made it fell.

They had no sooner settled back in the family room again when another crash was heard. This time just Greg went, “Must be a critter. Squirrel or something.”

Sure enough, another paint can was on the cement floor and Greg caught the fleeting shadow of something. It was too large to be a squirrel. Much too large. He wondered if a fawn had somehow slipped behind the shelving. Deer weren’t known to hide though. It was a big shadow. A thorough search of the garage found nothing. The garage door was still up, and they all reckoned that the animal, whatever it had been, had left.

Later, after the guys had left and Anita had cleaned the mirror, marveling at its beauty and craftsmanship, they closed the garage and went to bed.

At 2:12 a.m., a series of crashes were heard. Greg and Anita went running to the garage. More paint cans on the floor. Greg swore and removed the rest of the cans, looking for whatever was hiding behind them. Anita helped. After they had removed all the cans, but not found any sign of anything to explain the crashes, they returned to bed.

The next morning, Anita glanced in the garage, and all seemed to be normal. Greg left to go golfing, and Anita decided to uncover the mirror to take a photo of the carving. She would wrap the photo rather than try to wrestle the mirror into the house and put it behind the tree. It was too large to wrap, didn’t go with the house, and it was just too much effort. A wrapped photograph would be effective. Suzanne would be mystified and then thrilled. It was a plan.

With the covering off, the glass looked strange. Anita opened the garage door to get more light in and found the mirror cloudy again. As if it had not been just cleaned the day before. She thought there must be something wrong with the silvering. She hadn’t budgeted to have the mirror re-silvered. Elaborate Christmas gifts were not their family tradition and Anita wasn’t keen to spend more money on the mirror. “Maybe I just need to use a good glass wax on it,” Anita mumbled.

She returned to the kitchen, made a cup of tea, and was making the rest of her Christmas list when the crashes started. Running to the garage, she found the contents of shelves strewn about the space with a lawn chair on the hood of her car and the table saw toppled over. This was no animal. Anita knew it was the mirror.

Over the years, she had joked about haunted furniture. She got vibrations in antique stores. She could feel the memories in the furniture – sofas that held remembrances of small bodies eating ice cream out of big bowls, their little legs too short to reach the floor. Wedding dresses forlorn that their promise had not held. One time there was the thoroughly sinister vase. The vibes Anita got from it caused a cold sweat to break out on her brow. She was sure it had played a part in a murder.

Anita walked to the mirror and removed the sheet. A crack had spread from the left corner of the mirror diagonal to the bottom of the right side…Jagged and ugly. She touched the mirror, and the room went dark.

When Greg arrived home, he couldn’t find Anita. He found the mess in the garage and the uncovered mirror. Funny, he hadn’t noticed the woman’s face carved into the wood yesterday. Looked familiar. The glass looked funny too. He shrugged his shoulders. Anita must be out walking. He went to the family room and turned on the television – the game was almost starting.

He heard a crash.