Luck on the road.
It was the worst blizzard he had seen in years. At a stop sign, there was a car parked with its emergency lights on and a man waving to be picked up.
He thought "what the hell" and let him in "where are you headed? " He asked the man. " Just up ahead to the next town thanks for the lift by the way," said the man getting comfortable in the car seat as it was a bit warmer. " Crazy weather, the car stopped working?" He asked as he drove.
" I don't know what's wrong with it but it won't go on. Do you mind if I smoke? I'll Crack the window open a bit" said the man pulling a cigarette of his jacket pocket " go for it" he said also opening his window a bit " weird question but, if you could make a wish that would come true what would it be?" Asked the man as he held the cigarette in half his mouth and tried to light it " hmmm… it would probably be to make everything I wish into a reality.
Do you know? Loophole the thing and make me the machine that grants the wishes" The man smiled as he inhaled the smoke. The tip of his cigarette burned bright as the brown in his eyes caught a tinge of red from the cigarette.
He exhaled and said: " all your wishes huh?" The brown of his eyes was almost all red now " never heard that one before but I'm sure it'll be fun" the man put the cigarette back in his mouth as he chuckled in a very deep voice.
" yeah I mean probably but you know what they say 'your tongue will be your whip'" he turned to look at the man but he was gone the window was up and there wasn't even a smell of cigarette.
The bright lights of an oncoming truck and the hunk of it made him snap out of it and swerve back into the lane as he slid on the snow. The next day he went out to the porch to have a cigarette.
He sat on one of the steps and right after he lit the cigarette a hand took it from his mouth. It was the man, " so anything you wish for you'll have" He remembered the words of his grandmother: 'never pick up a stranger at a crossroads.' Looking at the man smoke the cigarette he understood, paused for a second, and then said: " I want it all" The man's smile slowly grew bigger. " I knew you'd be fun!" He said almost laughing. He lifted his right-hand index and middle fingers pointing in front of him like a gun.
The man moved his thumb like he was cucking It, then made a gun sound with his mouth. To the front and back of his hand, a mirror extended from the ground to the sky. " our deal's been made you'll have it all" He was bright-eyed and started to smile until the man continued: " you'll have it all if you can find the door, everything you want is on the other side of this mirror" the man took a drag of the cigarette and started to laugh.
" you'll have it all at the other side of this mirror, it will happen as we speak and you will see it come to be" the man laughed harder in between sentences. He came closer to the mirror and saw himself but when he tried to move to make the reflection do the same it just smiled as they both looked at each other.
"That's the best part!" The man said wiping tears off his eyes from laughing too hard " you won't be in control of that reflection at all, here you'll step on the butterflies that will become storms over there and you ...won't... know…" the man said, composing himself breathing in deep breaths. " But don't get me wrong, " he continued, "you won't have the bliss of ignorance, you'll know!" The man couldn't hold the laugh any longer and he burst out laughing " it will follow you everywhere even if you try to escape it. it'll get bigger and bigger and it'll follow you in music and you'll hear it in the car and you'll hear it at the gym.
You'll get so used to hearing about it you won't know when it is and when it isn't it" the man couldn't talk anymore stomping his feet and hitting his knee with his fist. " but then you'll never really know how big it is. And oh they'll hate you… first just in general and then and this is the funny part: they hate you because you are not there!!!" Said the man laughing " and you'll trick them at the beginning you'll be able to play it off as if you've seen it and they'll think you brave, and wise but then you'll be fucked! Because you never found the door. You'll have it all. behind this glass.
If only you can go through the door and grab it with your hands" said the man finally calming down. Speechless he sat at the step not moving a muscle " doesn't that break some sort of rule? I won't have it all" he said trying to understand " oh no, it's yours. It's all yours just go in and grab it!" The man burst out laughing uncontrollably again.
" Almost forgot you'll be the only one to know about it without seeing it. So on this side, you'll be insane and on the other, you'll be insane, and when people from this side know about the other. No one will ever talk to you! And when you ask people you've thought had been there they're going to lie!" The man laughed harder than ever before.
" But you won't know for sure." Wiping tears off his face the man took the last drag of the cigarette and flicked it at him " you have it all now. Congratulations" the cigarette butt bounced off his jacket and ended on the floor. He looked at it and turned to look at the man that was now gone. He looked for another cigarette in his jacket but the man took the last one, so he sat looking at the sky feeling so much he couldn't even move.