“I saw all the mirrors on earth and none of them reflected me.”

The Aleph, Jorge Luis Borges.

Prologue

Viewpoints

The small animal emitted a pitiful whimper through the double transparent barrier and tilted his head to the side, as he looked at the man on the other side of the transparent barrier.

The figures of the people, drew blurred shadows as they sped by, always swift and fleeting like meteors tearing through the firmament. Where were they going so fast?

How many seconds, minutes, days, months, years and centuries had passed?

He certainly couldn't remember, not that it mattered much to him. Time had become relative for the animal and he certainly didn't care much about the concept of time either.

He had seen too much throughout his life, even if most of the time it was just monotony. The price of his long existence was to see what was happening outside the barrier. Everything was so close, and yet so far away at the same time.

People and vehicles on the streets had passed by every day and year. People moving aimlessly under suns and moons through the passing of the evos. Sad looks, smiling looks, dissolute chatter, which he could capture through the first barrier, which was the farthest away from him. Days of sun, rain, golden sunsets, blood-red dawns and nights with furtive flashing stars.

Sometimes his barriers moved and that gave him some change in his life. When this happened, what he saw through the first barrier changed, and so did the inner space where he moved, behind the second barrier. This gave him joy, if only for a short period of time.

New angles to rummage through, to lie down and look at. The excitement of exploration was short-lived, but that was better than nothing. His sense of smell, one of his best weapons, was useless in the place where he was, there was always a strange smell, a mixture of something metallic, something abandoned, old and decrepit. His sight was practically the only sense he had to use in there and that's why he trusted his eyes more than anything else.

On rare occasions he had suffered an indescribable dread when everything went black. The barriers were covered by someone. When that happened, he slept. Lethargic periods floating without gravity, that could last days, months, and on a couple of occasions he was sure it had been years before he saw the light again. Many times, when he saw the light again, the landscape had changed. It could be a street, sometimes a high floor, without the first barrier, although after some time he almost always returned to a new landscape with a double barrier.

On some other occasions, he had caught some animals similar to himself walking through the streets. That made him happy sometimes, it meant he was not alone. He could barely remember the time he had lived outside the second barrier, but he certainly remembered others like him, jumping and running around. He dreamed of being able to go out and be with them, but he also had grown accustomed to the loneliness and the situation of his confinement. Although he could not understand why.

At other times, people would stand in front of the double barrier, and seem to stare at him for a few seconds, to which he would respond cheerfully, only to be disappointed when the people continued on their way undeterred.

Having spent most of his life behind those panes of glass, with changing images, the animal knew nothing else but to observe what was happening in his rectangle of vision. Although he had no need for food or water in his captivity, he longed from time to time to think what it would be like to be outside again.

How had he gotten there in the first place? He had wondered. Although he couldn't remember either.

But that rainy Wednesday afternoon was different. Although he always responded cheerfully to passers-by, there was something about the man looking at him that was different. About five minutes had passed and the man was still looking at him. He didn't seem to mind the rain soaking his clothes. The people, with umbrellas, around him passed by without paying attention to the main barrier, but the animal and the man looked at each other, even if their reactions were different.

The animal was somewhat fearful. The man, on the other hand, it was hard to tell what emotion he was expressing through his cold stare.

He was a wiry man and was dressed in an old-fashioned suit, with a fedora hat crowning his head. His face was covered by a few strands of wavy black hair that hid obsidian-black eyes, almost sunken into the cadaverous face.

Suddenly, the animal saw how the man raised one of his hands, and with a slender index finger touched the first barrier. Then, as if it were not there, the man ran his finger through and then his whole hand, as if the solid material of the glass were simply a sheet of water. The animal flinched in indescribable terror. In all his life he had never seen anyone do that. The hand advanced several centimeters and, when it reached the second barrier, it stopped.

From the forefinger there was an electric flash that lasted for a blink of an eye. Then the hand withdrew and passed through the first barrier again.

"You're playing your part in this too," said the man, his voice was low and dry.

At those words the man disappeared. It was not that he had walked away, as all those who passed in front of the glass barriers of the antique store did. He simply vanished, as the mist of breath vanishes on a winter's day. It was there and the next second it was gone.

The animal opened its eyes wide and jumped. What had that been? A magic trick? An illusion? He had never seen anything like it. Fear gave way to excitement and, not knowing how else to show his excitement, he jumped in front of the first barrier and emitted a bark that no one could hear.

What were the words the stranger had uttered? He didn't know. But he didn't care too much. He gained a new sensation, after a long time, and he had to take advantage of it while his euphoria lasted.

That's what happened that Wednesday, in front of the antique store, although none of the passers-by got to see it.

But the animal, a simple observer through the window glass, the first barrier, and the mirror which was its second barrier, saw it.

Little did he know that the next day his life would change.

The long wait of centuries was over.

To the people passing by on the street, if they had been able to perceive the man's presence, it would have seemed as if he had put his hand through the glass of an antique store and then touched the reflective surface of a huge mirror.