Man in the Mirror

By Erick S.

The image was hazy at first, but if I squinted my eyes, I could see that the reflection in the mirror was someone else. Those surely couldn’t be my thick, sculpted pecs and biceps, and there was no way that was my six pack. I had been a skinny guy all my life, and I could never gain muscle like that, no matter how hard I tried. And, anyhow, I definitely wasn’t that tall, and my jaw was never that square. My face was average, at best, and didn’t even look anything like the handsome man that was reflected in front of me. But the more I squinted, the more that image of myself came into focus. I reached out to the mirror and my reflection did the same. It was like watching some muscular hunk perfectly imitating my every move.

The mirror shimmered and I pulled my hand away, but the image was perfectly clear now. I looked down at myself and saw that I was that hunk in the mirror. The reflection was me. I gave my muscles a flex like I had been doing it for years, and memories flooded into my mind of all the time I’d spent in the gym, the weekends I’d spent doing photo shoots for fitness magazines. This was me, and it always had been. The memory of that skinny, average guy who I used to be was becoming hazier and hazier.