came from, but letting all the pieces fall into place had helped the time pass. So I told it.
There was once a little orphan girl whose name was Emmy.
“Like me,” Emmy said.
“Just like you,” I said.
She went to live with her aunt and uncle, two very mean people.
“Were they Mr. and Mrs. Brickman?” Emmy said.
“As it so happens, Emmy, that was exactly their name.”
The little girl was terribly unhappy in the home of the mean Brickmans, I went on. One day, as she was exploring the great, dark house, she came to a door in a high tower that had always been locked before, but someone had forgotten to lock it that day. Inside, Emmy found a comfortable little room filled with shelves of books and toys and a nice soft sofa and a little reading lamp. In one corner stood a tall, old mirror in a carved wooden frame. Emmy decided it was the nicest room in the whole house, far from the awful Brickmans. She pulled one of the books from the shelf, a book called Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
“We had that book,” Emmy said to me. “Mama read it to me.”
“What a coincidence,” I said and continued the story.
Emmy settled down in the sofa to read, but she hadn’t been there long when she heard a small voice call, “Hello.” Which was odd, because Emmy was the only one in the room. “Hello,” the voice called again. Emmy looked at the big mirror in the corner and saw a little girl sitting on the sofa, just as she was. But it was not her reflection. It was a different little girl. Emmy stood up, and the girl in the mirror stood up. Emmy walked to the mirror and the girl walked to the mirror.
“Who are you?” Emmy said.
“Priscilla,” the girl said. “I’m the ghost in the mirror.”
“A ghost? A real ghost?”
“Not exactly,” Priscilla said. “It’s hard to explain.”
“My name is Emmy.”
“I know,” Priscilla said. “I’ve been hoping you would come. It’s been so long since I had a visit from anyone who could see me.”
“Mrs. Brickman can’t see you?” Emmy said.
“Only nice people can see me and hear me.”
“How did you get in there?” Emmy asked.
“Put your hand to the mirror and I’ll tell you,” Priscilla said.
But as soon as she touched the glass, Emmy found herself inside the mirror, and Priscilla outside. Priscilla clapped her hands together and danced with joy.
“I’m free!” she said. “I’ve been trapped in that mirror for oh so long, but now I’m free!”
“What happened?” Emmy cried.
“It’s the curse of the mirror. I was trapped there by the little girl who was inside before me. And now I’m you and you’re me and you’re trapped in there. I’m sorry, Emmy. I truly am. But I’ve wanted so much to be free again.”
Suddenly Mrs. Brickman stepped into the room. She looked sternly at the girl who’d just traded places with Emmy and said meanly, “What’s all this shouting about? What are you doing here, Emmy?”
“She’s not Emmy,” little Emmy cried from the mirror. “I’m Emmy.”
But Mrs. Brickman couldn’t see her or hear her, because Mrs. Brickman was not at all nice.
“Come along, Emmy,” Mrs. Brickman said. “I’m going to show you just what happens to little girls who go where they’re not supposed to.”
She took Priscilla by the ear and pulled her from the room.
Emmy tried to get out of the mirror, but it was no use. So she settled down with the book she’d been reading on the other side, determined to make the best of things. And you know what? She found that she was really quite happy there all by herself in that comfortable little room on the other side of the mirror.
Then one day not long afterward, Priscilla burst into the tower room and ran to the mirror.
“Oh, Emmy!” she cried. “Please let me back in the mirror. Mrs. Brickman is such a witch. I can’t stand her. Please, please let me back in.”
“I understand,” Emmy told her. “It was awful being me with Mrs. Brickman. But I quite like it here, so I think I’ll stay until a different family moves into this house, a nice family with a nice little girl. Then maybe I’ll come out.”
Priscilla turned sadly away and little Emmy settled down to read from a new book she’d selected from the shelves. It was called Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Albert eyed me and gave a nod of approval. “Alice Through the Looking Glass. Nice