Actiones Secundum Fidei

The mirror again.

A necessary evil, though it ceased being kind years ago.

Jens once had had the gall to call her vain, a case of the pot and the kettle if ever there was one.

Jens, the preening peacock, crucified between his hairline and his waistline.

She leaned in, concentrated on drawing a tight line around her lips with the special lipstick that wouldn’t bleed into the creases which had seemed to appear overnight.

Satisfied, she stood back and flicked off the mirror light.

Backlit in the doorway, she smiled at her trim silhouette.

I look young.

Friday Fictioneers

15 comments

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  1. Joy Pixley

    Aging isn’t pretty, especially for the vain. But when the mirror ceases to be kind, posing yourself as backlit in a doorway is a good strategy.

    I had to look up the Latin phrase, but it was worth it to see how well it fits. Bonus: I found a huge list of Latin phrases for any occasion on Wikipedia!

  2. Sandra

    Backlighting hides a multitude of things you’d rather not see. Let’s just hope she doesn’t have one of those magnifying mirrors – that would finish her off for good.

  3. Na'ama Yehuda

    Well, as long as she feels pretty (seems she equate beauty with youth), who’s to tell her otherwise. … Personally, I find it sad that people don’t see the beauty of years’ wisdom. Age is earned. Nothing wrong with it showing. No?

  4. pennygadd51

    Oops! Been there, done that…
    You’ve made an interesting choice of title. Were you intending to imply a dissonance between a person’s education and their lack of wisdom and self-knowledge?

Don't just stand there.