While Ric searched the house, Josh searched the attic in the typical way kids his age search. He looked around the room once and gave up.
Josh was bored quickly. It wasn't any fun being nothing but a reflection in a mirror. There were interesting things in the attic but being unable
to move them, he couldn't enjoy them. There was a stack of very old comic books in the attic but Josh couldn't move them or open them. There
was a wooden rocking horse but Josh couldn't make it rock. The attic would have been a lot of fun but being unable to pick anything up, it was
very boring.
Still Josh explored looking for things to entertain himself with.
Josh found that when he looked behind anything, there was nothing but a great big hole behind everything. Josh was nothing but a reflection in
the mirror and his entire world was whatever the mirror reflected of Mr. Mendes' attic and the stuff stored there. But anything that wasn't
reflected in the mirror, didn't exist in the reflected room that Josh was stuck in. About the only fun thing Josh could do was hang dangerously
out of one of the many holes into the nothingness that surrounded his world.
Then Josh started exploring the reflection better. He went back to the box of clothing that he'd tried to wear before. When he stood on one side
of the box reflection, he could see the box reflection perfectly. But when he stood on the other side of the box reflection, the box reflection
disappeared completely. Josh sat down and put his hand on the box. It was a fully three dimensional box but only the surfaces reflected in the
mirror existed in Josh's world. He could feel one side of the box. He could smell it and see it. He banged on the box and could even hear it. He
put his hand on the other side of the box, the side that didn't exist, and he couldn't feel it at all.
Josh tried putting his hand through the box from the side that didn't exist. He expected to see his hand come out the other side of the box but
it didn't. Instead, the air around his hand felt moister and warmer. Josh tried this a few times then decided to try sticking his head through to
see what happened.
Meanwhile, Ric had been searching and had stopped in the bathroom to search there. Ric jumped when he heard "Hey Ric" coming from the
head of Josh sticking out from behind the reflection of a shower curtain in the bathroom mirror.
Ric squealed, "How'd you get there."
Josh said, "I don't know." Then he jumped the rest of the way into the reflection of the bathroom.
Ric asked, "You can move from mirror to mirror?"
Josh said, "I guess so. Watch."
Josh jumped back behind the shower curtain.
Ric yelled, "Josh, where'd you go."
"I'm in the hallway." yelled Josh.
Ric went out to see that Josh was in one of the photos on the wall. The photo was of the fishing trip Mr. Mendes had taken the boys on and they
were holding the trophy fish they caught. It was weird to see the naked Josh standing next to the clothed Josh in the picture.
"You're in a picture, not a mirror" Ric said.
"Yeah but it's kind of creepy not having any clothes to wear and standing next to myself. I wonder where else I can go." Josh said as he jumped
behind the dock and disappeared.
Ric yelled, "Josh, don't. Do you know where you're going?"