What If You Didn’t See Your Reflection Ever Again

There are tons of people outside! You’re making your way through the laughing, chatting, shouting, and constantly MOVING crowd. It’s a nice summer night, and it feels as if the entire city has gone for a walk.

You decide to take a shortcut through the park. You’re already near the lake when you trip... and the next thing you know, you’re rolling downhill toward the water! Luckily, you stop in time not to get soaked through.

Time to estimate the damage. A bump on your head, ice cream all over your clothes, hands, and face. Green spots left by grass on your sneakers. Oh, and dozens of people laughing at your clumsiness. Well, it could be worse!

You get to your feet and are about to climb the hill when the world around plunges into darkness. Oh, no!!! The fall must have been more serious than you thought at first! Did you hit your head hard enough to lose eyesight? You calm down a bit when you hear people around screaming. “What’s going on?” “Is it a blackout?!” You can’t see anything, not even the Moon!

After a couple of very tense minutes, the light is back again. You and other people laugh in relief. Nothing serious. You finally get back home. You’re tired and still a bit shaken after your fall. So you take a quick shower and put an ice pack on the bump on your head. Soon, the ice falls to the floor. You’re asleep.

Beep! Beep! Beep! You try to make the alarm on your phone stop but only send your gadget to the floor. Groaning, you sit up in your bed. Your head hurts. Supporting it with your hand, you get up and shuffle to the bathroom. Something strange catches your eye in the hall, but you can’t for the life of you understand what it is.

You switch the light in the bathroom, getting mentally ready to see a huge purple spot on your forehead. And... nothing. No, it’s not that there are no marks on your face. The thing is, your mirror is empty. Well, not exactly — it just doesn’t reflect YOU! You giggle. It sounds nervous. You come closer to the mirror. Nothing. You move farther away. Still nothing. Must be broken.

That’s when it hits you. Mirrors don’t break — at least, not this way. If it doesn’t reflect you, something must be wrong with YOU! You’ve got two plausible theories. One: after hitting your head, you fell into the lake and never got out. And now, you’re a ghost. Two: during the blackout, a vampire bit you. And everyone knows that vampires don’t get reflected in mirrors!

You visibly shake yourself. What are you even thinking about? Neither ghosts nor vampires exist. There must be something wrong with the reflective layer at the back. You try to look behind the mirror but only hit your nose against the glass. You run to the bedroom to check your floor mirror.

EMPTY! Three minutes later, you discover that no mirror in your apartment reflects you. “No one should find out! Or I’ll be locked up in a laboratory to the end of my days!” You’re pacing your room when your phone starts ringing. It’s your friend Nora. She sounds strange. “H-hey, why d-don’t you come to my place? I’ve already invited Nick and Alison!”

You thoroughly comb your hair and examine your face with the tips of your fingers. Unfortunately, you can’t understand if the bump on your forehead stands out. You put on a baseball cap, throw on your jacket, and leave the apartment.

The streets look... deserted, to put it mildly. Instead of the usual morning crowds, there are only a few people. And they look as if they’re sneaking around. You’re crossing a normally busy road when it hits you. There are almost no cars!

Luckily, you manage to catch a cab. When you get into the car, the driver adjusts the rearview mirror so that you can’t see him. Strange. At one point, you look in the mirror and notice a car driving behind your cab. And it would be nothing special — if there WAS a driver in that car! But the mirror you’re looking in claims the vehicle is moving on its own. So, maybe this “mirror-invisibility” isn’t just your problem?

Once you’re at your friend’s house, you realize Nora not only sounds but also looks strange. Her lipstick is smudged, and she’s apparently done up the buttons on her shirt the wrong way. It only confirms your suspicions. When your other friends come, they look no better. Nick’s hair is a mess. Alison has some toothpaste on her cheek.

It seems as if each of you is trying to behave nonchalantly but fail miserably. Nora gives Alison a pocket mirror. “Here, you’ve got something on your face.” But Alison suddenly jerks her hand away, and the mirror falls to the floor. Surprisingly, it doesn’t break. Instead, it just lies there... reflecting nothing. Like, nothing at all! The surface of the mirror is blurry. Sometimes, it seems to shimmer — but that’s all.

You all nearly jump out of your skin when the TV announces, “Breaking news!” The presenter (her voice shaking) informs people that after the blackout the day before, all mirrors stopped reflecting. At first, they didn’t show people and other living beings. But just an hour ago, they turned into “broken TVs” — just shimmering and flashing at random times. After several moments of stunned silence, your friends start talking over each other. The shocking news and all the noise make your head hurt even more. So you just get up and leave.

What you see outside makes you stumble. You spot at least three car accidents. Several cyclists are shouting at each other. A man is sitting on the sidewalk next to his fallen motorbike. Side and rearview mirrors have become useless at once. And it caused a wave of road accidents all over the place. You get home and are about to enter the elevator. But when you look inside, you see the large, floor-to-ceiling mirror you used to like shimmer and flicker. You shiver and take the stairs.

In the morning, your mirror still wouldn’t reflect you. This makes shaving a challenging and tricky task. In the end, you give up and decide to start growing a mustache and beard. At that moment, you don’t understand yet how the absence of mirrors will complicate your life. Hairdressers and barbers are in extremely high demand. Makeup producers, on the contrary, lose tons of money every day. Beauty products are no longer popular. Applying makeup is so difficult these days that most people have given it up altogether.

With no mirrors around, most people have started to eat more and have gained a bit of extra weight. They don’t want to follow strict diets. Fewer and fewer people stress about their appearance. They become more self-assured and begin to appreciate their personalities more.

Of course, almost no one risks driving without being able to see what’s going on around. Even if people DO drive, they move extremely slowly. No wonder — you need to stick your head out of the window all the time to make sure you won’t cause an accident. Some drivers ask their passengers to do this. In this case, their cars look quite funny, with a head sticking out of every window. The main transport is now bicycles. People become fitter and healthier. The air is now clean and fresh without exhaust fumes from cars.

Different devices that used mirrors, like some kinds of telescopes, microscopes, and even streetlights, don’t work anymore. Photographers can’t use their reflex cameras with mirrors inside and have to get digital ones. The number of selfies people take is growing at incredible speed. Without mirrors, it’s the only way to check what you look like. People also have more free time now. It comes as a shock how much time the average person used to spend in front of mirrors.

Scientists work day and night to find the solution to this unexpected problem. They experiment with different materials, trying to find something that would reflect the world as well as mirrors did.

Car manufacturers have changed their strategy. They have started to develop self-driving cars that need neither mirrors nor a driver. They interact with other cars on the road. And their passengers can simply relax in their seats and do whatever they want.

How are YOU dealing with this situation? Well, you’ve grown an amazing beard, and now you look like a Viking. Thanks to lots of walking and cycling, you’re muscled, suntanned, and energetic. You definitely don’t regret all this mirror situation!