Inner Dialogue: Juliard

[shosen]

The air in the large house is dusty and stale. Unlike the small house, it had been closed up upon leaving, though she can't understand why. There's very little left inside, and what remains is mostly broken. Moving through the rooms quietly, she begins to pull aside broken furniture, sorting it from what might still be serviceable.

In the master bedroom, she finds that frame of her mother's full length mirror. The glass is broken, scattered across the floor, and she wonders briefly who earned the bad luck before catching sight of her reflection in one of the pieces. Turning quickly, she leaves the room. She can sort through that later.

*****

"It just bothers me that no matter what, they think of this face as mine."

"You do the same thing."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, this is your daydream, you are as you were, and yet, you perceive me as I am now."

"Oh. I hadn't noticed."

"Exactly. You could at least try to imagine what I used to look like, even if you will, of course, fail miserably."

"Right, sorry, okay."

*****

She stops in the act of moving a broken table out of the way, trying to fight the giggle fit before giving up. After a few moments she sighs and reaches for the table again.

"Okay, so not quite right there..."

*****

"Are you quite finished?"

"Yes, sorry."

"Yes, well then. What they think you look like really matters very little anyway."

"Well it might, I mean, if I have to, well, move."

"Planning to?"

"If this body's soul ever wakes up, I'll rather have to, won't I?"

"True. But, as I said, it doesn't matter."

"How can you say that?"

"It's not your appearance they value, it's your soul. That is what you need to care about, and take care of."