enamel steel · 1934 · upstairs bath
a small mirror in a thin frame of enamelled steel, mounted above the basin in the upstairs bath. it was knocked, once, by the handle of a mop in a hurried Saturday cleaning; the chip is the size of a grain of rice and the crack runs down and to the left from there. the custodian considered replacing it. this was twenty years ago. it has not been replaced.
it reflects steam, mostly. a face indistinct behind a slow weather of it. the frosted window to its right makes a second, vaguer mirror at certain hours, and the room contains, briefly, two of you. when the steam clears, the crack remains, dividing the face into a part that wakes early and a part that doesn't.
the last person to look into it each day is the one who brushes their teeth after midnight. they avoid the crack out of habit. they do not always avoid the face.
field-note a cracked mirror is still a mirror. it merely insists that the reflection be answered for.