from FUGITIVES OF SPEECH

Furniture in Space IV.

Grandma at the hair salon, Diana had some time alone with her other new roommate, her grandmother's grey Maine Coon, Marvin. Some items eternally unpacked in the living room, an un-mounted oak-framed mirror making what Diana estimated was nearly an acute scalene triangle but for the right angle of the floor and the wall, 90° 80° 10°, the 10° angle making the mirror almost parallel with the wall itself. Marvin sat in front of the mirror, his tail absent-mindedly whisked at the reflection of himself, and while he would not look at himself, would not acknowledge or did not have the level of consciousness to accept the cat right next to him as him, he looked into the other living room, the extended floorboards, the extra set of shelves, the projection TV as flat-screened and boxy as the one on this side—as if these reflected objects were real. Diana could only see her feet reflected from where she was now, so she got up and crouched in front of the mirror herself and joined Marvin in his meditation. Marvin ignored Diana but settled squarely on her figure within the mirror. She did the same, stock still, between seeing herself and the small, distinct gestures from the other side. 

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