Reflections be?
At first, I didn’t notice anything, let’s say, out of the ordinary, unusual!
It was a normal Saturday morning bustling down Pitt Street.
Dimensionless people, swilling by, on a dull, cloudy morning.
All jostling along the pavement, oblivious of one another, the busker straining to stem the flow, by laying his heart bare.
Nobody was listening!
I wasn’t quite with it, after rising late.
Me, after a heavy Friday night, semi-conscious you might say, walking at a measured pace, trying to stand tall, behind my sunglasses.
Window shopping, the only distraction, coffee the attraction, the motivation!
Heading to Raffaelli’s hole in the wall, my sanctuary!
Shop windows recording, reflecting the passing multitudes, enabling me to monitor and indeed admire, the flow of attractive women, without being too obvious!
My furtive glances arrested, I stopped abruptly, people colliding into me, as I, apologetically straightened up, fixing my gaze on the shop window reflections, particularly on what was not there?
Me!
Looking askance, it took a moment to dawn on me, I……I was not there, not in the reflection in the window, but something or someone was!
The scene unfolded around me, in what seemed like, a prolonged silence!
Transfixed, a reflection, standing where I should be, was looking back at me, but
the reflection was not me.
Looking back at me, in exactly, the same spot, exactly the same stance, same demeanour, was my sister!
She was quite attractive, but not me!
Shacking that thought from my mind, we stood facing one another, not moving, nailed to the spot.
No one else noticed, didn’t even stop.
Eyes locked, raising first, my right hand, then left, testing the reflected image.
Shaking my head, then playfully, turning around, dancing with this alien me, mimicking me, exactly, every movement, but with long, shiny, flowing hair, the petite body, of an agile female, my sister.
Standing motionless, our hands, slowly outstretched, touching the window, linking us, hand to hand, finger to finger, eye to eye.
A connection!
A rippling sensation!
Feeling a radiant warmth from within me, fighting with the first sensation of the chill of the glass, oblivious to what was around me.
Eyes, slowly slid to shut.
Images flooded my mind, of playing with my young sister, laughing, spraying her with water, embracing at Dad’s funeral, images of a lost time.
If she would have survived being a teenager, she would be here, reflecting herself!
Captured in my own solitude amidst the crowd, tears ran down my cheeks, falling in time to the pavement, gone.
People stared!
Noticing, suddenly acutely aware, we ripped our hands away, abruptly disconnecting, back into the chill.
Two policemen sidled over.
Are you OK?
I nodded.
Sure!
Embarrassed, I panicked and walked quickly, then ran down the street.
Slowing, as the reality of the encounter, sunk like lead into me, the weight, slowing me, to a stop.
Flopping, back against the wall between two windows, for safety.
Panting!
Everything around me swirled, enveloping, reassuring me, of this side of reality.
The cacophony of sound, the immediate physicality.
Head against the wall, I breathed deeply, until calm.
Then, at first, I did not want to look!
Curious, turning my head, tentatively, one eye, peeking into an adjacent window.
A twinkling eye engaged me, with a cheeky look!
I jumped, back, head to the wall, startled!
This is real man!
Curiously turning, with two hands on the window frame, I leant into the other window, only to be mimicked in every way, the smile, with the flashing eyes, but in the shape, the form, the reflection, of my sister!
Slowly, deliberately, pressing my nose against the cool glass, through our eyes, communing our intimate thoughts and feeling, as the radiance grew from within, sparking images of dancing smiles, gyrating images of the school formal, illicit alcohol, fuelling each turn.
I relaxed into the glow of the glass, the only thing dividing us, totally unaware of my surroundings, lost, in an alternate universe, happy, at one, with my sister, nose to nose, breath to breath.
Firm, three finger taps on my shoulder, pulling, wrenching me back into this world.
The policemen, both with puzzled, concerned looks, one placing his hand gently on my shoulder.
Turning to face them, I was stricken, dumbstruck, overwhelmed.
We have been watching you, are you really, OK, is there anything we can do?
I thanked them profusely for their concern, nodding, shuffling feet, disorientated.
I’m fine, just clowning around!
They turned, walked away, looking back every few yards to check on me, as I stood, alone, amid the ceaseless surge of the Saturday shoppers, distraught!
The only physical testaments to my experience, hand and nose prints on the shop windows.
I slowly walked away, with a reassuring, inner glow.
Knowing, feeling, that I had experienced a unique, inexplicable, connection.
With my dear, adorable but dead, sister!