The Reflection Pool
You crawl through the space in the hedge.
The other side opens onto a stretch of low-cut grass and a wide, paver border around a reflection pool. Centered in the shallow pool is a statue. Its pedestal is rough-hewn granite. The figure is a woman, although her facial features have been worn away from exposure to the elements. Her body is sculpted from something smooth, and white, in stark contrast to the granite base.
You take a step closer to the edge of the pool to get a better look at the statue. It’s so peculiar, you think it must be a scion of a baseless figure and a figureless base — two different sculptures that have been thrown together. Instead, what you notice as you edge closer to the water is a reflection in the pool. At second glance, it isn’t a reflection of the statue like you had assumed. It isn’t your own reflection, either, although…
Yes, it looks like you. But the angles and proportions are wrong. The reflection is upside down to you, the head touching where your feet are, the feet extending toward the opposite side of the pool.
You squat down to touch the surface of the water and slip.
A feeling of suspension makes you lightheaded and you fall unconscious as you sink under.