three panels · 1908 · the back bedroom
hinged in three. the side panels swing on small brass hinges that no longer quite agree with one another; the left panel sits two degrees further forward than the right. it was bought from the seamstress's estate the year she stopped taking work, and it has been in the back bedroom ever since.
it reflects you three times at once, in slightly different lights, so that the shoulder seen in the side glass is always a moment older than the shoulder seen in the centre. children, sat in front of it, have spent whole afternoons learning to be three things at the same time. adults, mostly, learn not to look at the side panels.
the last person to look into it each day is whichever member of the household goes to bed last. they comb their hair, on principle, and do not check the result.
field-note a three-panel mirror is for people who suspect themselves of being more than one person. it confirms the suspicion and offers no remedy.