Day 340 - Companion Story

Companion Story

Matthew Ryan Fischer

There was a companion reflection for everyone except Helen. Instead, all she had was a standard ordinary regular mirrored image when she looked at her reflection. Everyone else had a reflection in the mirror that they could talk to. But not Helen. No, not Helen. Helen was all alone, left with nothing but her own sadness.

Some believed the companion reflections were a divinity of sorts. They were a gift. A boon. Everyone could speak with and learn from their companion. They were a friend and companion and if used properly, were partners. The companion reflections were aware of many secret things that their real world counterparts were not privy to. A companion reflection knew its counterpart’s hopes and dreams and inner desires. They shared the past and the present and understood all the potential futures. They knew their counterpart, sometimes better than the counterpart knew themselves.

Helen had no such partner, no such confidant. She was incredibly lonely. There was someone for everyone, except for her. She was stuck with herself and there was no one in the world that could understand her as she understood herself. There was no shared intimacy, no shared thoughts or beliefs. There was no one, other than herself.

It could be said that she was actually special and was the only one with any privacy. She didn’t see the benefit in that. She wanted to be seen. She wanted to be understood. She wanted to be shared and to be a part of something bigger than herself. There was no advantage in being different. She gained nothing. All she was was the strange one, the one that was left alone and had no one.

As an adolescent girl, Helen had fallen in love with one of her best friends, Nicholas. Nicholas, like everyone else, had a companion reflection. Helen and Nicholas shared a special bond. They were friends, they told secrets, and they shared a million different firsts and experiences together.

But it was never just the two of them. There was always Nicholas and his reflection. Helen would have shared the world with Nicholas, but she only wanted to share it with him. She wanted it to be theirs, to be special and unique. She didn’t want to share him. She wanted all of him.

She would never have that. Ever.

Nicholas loved Helen a great deal, but like so many others, he was unable to commit entirely to her and her alone. His reflection companion was a part of him and it was him and it was something different and better. It was a bond that could never be broken, even if he had wanted to break it. There were things he could never explain to Helen, things he couldn’t explain to himself, but yet his reflection companion always knew and understood without so much as a word being spoken.

Helen could never compete with that. Ever.

Heart broken, Helen retreated into herself, retreated from the world. She grew bitter and sad and cried until she knew nothing but despair. She wept and wept and the reflection in the mirror wept along with her. When she wiped away a tear, the woman in the mirror wiped away her tear.

And when she finally smiled, the woman in the mirror smiled right back at her.

Helen realized many things that day. She realized her jealousy of others was pointless. She realized her sadness was over. And she realized that she did have her very own companion reflection, and it was the most importantly companion reflection of them all – herself.