CHAPTER V - The One Who Is Late (The End)
CHAPTER V - The One Who Is Late (The End)
24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG0sIc5OD7V "Break it," your sister says. "Just break it." 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVgPavz9uAu
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She has picked up the soap dish. She is holding it like a stone. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ28ydaM58i0
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"No." The person with your face catches her wrist. "Don't." 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdLoK4lCvMK
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"Why not?"
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The person outside does not answer at first. Those eyes stay on yours. The hand around your sister's wrist tightens.
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You feel your own fingers close around nothing. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmxoMfZHAQC
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"Because sometimes," it says quietly, "I'm not sure which one of us is on the right side." 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5fBAjrvnDU
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Your sister looks at it. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqWL6Yoif04
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Then she looks at you. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5vEs6PyJis
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For a moment, her face goes very still. As though she is trying to decide which face is her sibling's. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Dl3lUQKGR
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You lift your hand. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1wVwEUTrSD
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Her eyes follow it. She takes half a step towards you. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLgZwudx9e2
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Then the person beside her says her name, in the voice she has known all her life. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡotbyH3s9Tb
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She stops. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfMQfBlSJxk
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“Can you hear me?” she whispers to the glass. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBsbfJxO6YE
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You nod. Too quickly. You press your mouth against the surface, trying to make a sound she can feel. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeXv3HHx8ka
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She begins to cry.
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“I don't know what to do,” she says. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Y5ugaeHKE
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She puts the soap dish down.
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Your sister picks up the sheet. She cannot find the corner at first; her hands keep folding the same edge. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMo9omYeQst
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The person outside takes it from her. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc5eHocoXhy
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She watches your face until the last strip of light disappears. 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkmPTb3Junn
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They secure the sheet with twice as much tape, then leave.
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──── ⸸ ❦ ⸸ ────
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In the dark, you have time to think.
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You have watched an entire life.
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Every morning. Every night. Every tired face in every dark window.
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You saw your mother's birthday through the glass of a cabinet.
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You watched your sister grow up in the back of a hundred spoons.
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You remember your sister asking whether you could hear her.
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You nod again in the dark.
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It is your life too.
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It does not seem fair that only one of you gets to stand in it.
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At first, you imagine asking for small things.
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Leave the sheet off. Bring your sister back. Let her speak to you without someone else's hand pulling her away.
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Then you remember the drawer that stayed shut outside while you held the marker inside.
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Your fingers close.
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Nothing closes them for you.
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You had begun moving early before anyone covered the mirror.
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Alone, with no face to follow, you can keep moving. You practise opening your hand and leaving it open.
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──── ⸸ ❦ ⸸ ────
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They always come back to check.
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It takes three weeks. Then, one evening, the tape comes off, and the sheet comes down, and the person with your face stands in front of you, pale and ready to run.
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You do nothing wrong.
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You copy it perfectly. Every blink. Every breath.
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You watch its shoulders before its hand moves, and you move with it, not one moment early.
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It watches you for a long time.
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Then it lets out a breath, and its shoulders drop.
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After that, it leaves the sheet off.
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You are perfect for a month.
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The person outside begins to look rested.
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Sometimes a laugh comes through an open phone call.
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Sometimes your sister's voice answers, and you hear dishes being set out for Sunday lunch.
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You watch the face opposite yours soften at the sound.
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The person outside bends to rinse without keeping those eyes on you.
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Turns away to reach a towel. Only for a second.
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You wait.
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You could stay like this. There would be light most mornings.
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There would be glimpses of your sister. No one would have to be frightened.
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Then the towel comes down, and you find yourself copying the movement before you have chosen to.
You remember her hand reaching for the person beside her. How close it came to the glass.
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You want that hand to reach you.
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You tell yourself you will only try one movement.
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Enough to make the person outside understand that you are still here.
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You do not let yourself think about what happens if the movement works.
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──── ⸸ ❦ ⸸ ────
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One evening, the person outside comes home late.
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The familiar hand reaches around the doorframe and turns the light on before that person steps inside.
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The light flickers three times. You both count without meaning to.
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The person at the sink brushes their teeth.
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White foam gathers at the corner of that mouth. You feel it at yours.
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Inside the glass, you wipe your mouth first.
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Just a moment first. Just a little.
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The person outside freezes.
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Those eyes meet yours.
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You hold that gaze. You do not smile.
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Slowly, you lift your thumb to your mouth again.
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Outside the glass, the other hand jerks. Stops.
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You could lower yours now.
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Instead, you keep it raised.
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The person at the sink grips the counter with the other hand, fighting the movement. You feel the strain in your own shoulder.
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Then the thumb reaches the mouth.
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You have made someone move.
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For a moment, you are ashamed enough to look away.
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You do not lower your hand.
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After that night, the person outside never enters a dark bathroom.
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The light comes on first. Those eyes stay on you through the brushing and rinsing, until you can feel the familiar ache in your neck.
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That person never turns away from you.
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You know this habit very well. You thought it was yours.
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Perhaps it was. Perhaps it has always belonged to whoever is on the other side.
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Tonight, the person outside stands in front of you, and stares.
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You stare back.
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Two faces. One mirror. And you are no longer sure which of you is standing in front of it.
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You raise your hand.
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Outside the glass, the other hand stays down. You can see the effort it takes. The strain in that shoulder. The fear in those eyes.
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Then the hand rises anyway.
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A little late.
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So when you brush your teeth tonight, watch carefully.
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And if one of you is late —
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are you sure it is the other one？
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Content Note: Warning! Repeated eyes and unsettling imagery.
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ILLUSTRATION III — The One Who Stayed Behind 24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ12zR9uR4rl
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It no longer wears your face.
Only the longing remains.
And still, it reaches for warmth, for light, for the touch on the other side.
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──── ⸸ ❦ ⸸ ────
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The End of Story 4
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