I use to look at my reflection in the mirror. Perhaps more often than I would like to admit.

As a child I was fascinated with the wall of mirrors in my mother's bathroom. I noticed that if you looked at the long pieces of glassy silver at just the right angle they would create an optical illusion. Somehow there wouldn't be one reflection of me but a long line of them and I'd smile and wave happily at all reflections of myself. A seemingly endless line. Forever trailing off into the depthless distance.

As I grew older, the mirror lost the magical quality it held when I was a child. It became a practical inanimate object.

I'd glance into its flatness before I left for the day.

On good days, I'd be pleased with what I saw. On bad days, I'd avert my eyes quickly in distaste or shame.

Sometimes, I'd glimpse up at it to pass the time with my reflection while I brushed my teeth.

Use it to fake a smile at myself to try and feel better.

Since the summer it's become hard to look in the mirror these days. When I look myself in the eyes I see a confused stranger trapped within the mirror's unchanging walls.

Who am I?

Summer has turned to fall. The humid heat has shifted to crisp autumnal air. At night the smell of fireplaces burning envelops the street. Pumpkins greet cheerfully around every corner. Leaves sway alight with color before they flutter down to the ground. Everything has changed around me yet I still feel like I'm caught--unable to move on from the events of the summer and given up on with wishing for things to be normal again.

The rain came and everything was washed clean, refreshed. Water collected together into dark pools. I walked carefully to avoid soaking my shoes in the pools of water. Weaving through crowds of people and skirting the edges of the fleeting miniature seas.

Suddenly my eye caught the reflection in one of the pools. It was a window away from this world. The puddle's surface delicately reflected the still green leaves of a tree, the clear blue sky, and the side of a stone building. It was my world. Just different. Better. Somehow made otherworldly in the water where it was turned upside down.

I stepped closer to the puddle, taking in its mirage. I thought about trying to see my reflection in the water and approached the edge. Not close enough. I didn't see myself. The reflection in the puddle never changed. I admired the beauty of tree's leaves and the sky.

It was a reprieve from reality. An escape.