Stella’s Magic Mirror

Stella’s Magic Mirror.

Written and illustrated by Bertie Read by Jana

Hello, you’re listening to Jana and welcome to Storynory. In this episode I am introducing a Brand New Character! We hope you are going to enjoy her stories. Her name is Stella, and as you will hear, she has a magic mirror that can tell the future – but it’s not always helpful to her. 

It was Sunday, and the family were visiting Grandma. Mum had something on her mind. So when she and Grandma were in the kitchen making sandwiches, she had a quiet word.

“You know, Mum, Stella’s really looking forward to her birthday. Please don’t ruin it with one of your predictions, because I won’t forgive you this time,” she warned.

“I wasn’t planning on making any predictions,” replied  Grandma, in an offhand sort of way.

“Thank you. Be sure not to let any slip out.”

Grandma huffed to show she was offended by any such suggestion. But the whole family knew about her predictions. 

 When Dad bought a motorcycle on his 50th birthday, Grandma knew right away that he would be spending at least two weeks in hospital – and said so. And when mum planned to go to the ballet at Christmas, Grandma predicted, accurately, that the entire cast would catch the flu. And when Stella’s brother was about to take his exams, Grandma told him not to bother, because he would fail all of them.  Mum was furious with her. But Grandma was almost right. His best result was a 3 in Geography. 

After tea, Grandma took Stella  upstairs because she wanted to give her an early birthday gift. Mum gave Grandma a stern look as they left the dining room.

Stella followed  Grandma to her dressing room where she kept her old clothes. She never threw anything away, including her party dresses from the old days when she had been a fashionable – though always dark and gloomy – beauty.   Grandma pulled out a drawer. Stella expected a piece of old jewellery. But instead she received  an object wrapped in tissue paper. 

“What is it?” Stella asked curiously. 

She unwrapped the tissue paper. Inside she found an old vanity mirror. It was set in a stone frame that might have been marble. In fact, it was a miniature version of the grand mirror that stood on the table in Grandma’s hall. 

The glass part of the small mirror was slightly cracked. Stella’s mouth was smiling back at her. 

“Thank you, Gran. It’s lovely,” Stella said hesitantly. “I know what you’re thinking,” said Grandma. “You are wondering why I gave you this old thing. Well there is a special reason, as you will find out soon. That’s the only prognosis I will make today because your bossy mother warned me not to say anything about the future.”

“Oh. I’ll treasure it always,” Stella replied and gave her grandmother a big hug. 

On the way home in the car, Mum wanted to know if Grandma had made any of her predictions.  

“No she didn’t,” said Stella. “She just gave me an old mirror for my birthday. It’s very pretty and I love it.”

“That’s a relief,” said Mum. “You can never be sure with Grandma, she loves to ruin everything with her big mouth.”

Stella, who was especially close to her Grandma, thought her Mum was being rude. But she didn’t say anything, because she knew how angry Mum was with Grandma for jinxing Jason’s exams. 

As she got ready for bed, Stella put the mirror on her night table and went to sleep. In her dream, she looked into the mirror and saw Grandma in her prime, 60 years ago. When she woke up in the morning, the mirror gave her a half-awake reflection.

Just before she left for school, she took another glance at the mirror and smiled wide enough to see the gap where a wobbly tooth had come out. But then the mirror turned black, like a screen that had been turned off. She looked on the back and felt around the edges to see if there were any buttons on it. There weren’t any. She gazed at it again, Now it was even more like a screen showing a movie clip. There she saw her teacher, Miss Bromy, sitting with her lunchbox on her lap. As she opened the lid, a huge hairy spider leapt out of it, landing in her hair. She jumped up screaming, as in a silent movie.

Mum was calling from downstairs, “Stella, hurry up, you’ll be late for school.” Stella was still smiling as she ran down the stairs and hurried into the car. 

“You’re in a good mood this morning,” smiled Mum. 

“I’m excited for my birthday on Friday,” said Stella. 

Stella did not tell anyone about the mirror when she got to school. Who could believe such a story? But she handed out pink party invitations to her six best friends. They had already RSVPd ages ago, but it’s nice to do things properly. 

After school, Stella sat looking in the mirror. She thought, “I wonder what funny thing it will show me now. I’m surprised Gran isn’t more cheerful, because her mirror only makes me want to smile.”

She grinned into the mirror and saw a strawberry, cream ice-lolly. After supper, Mum went to the freezer and took out a box of just those sorts of ice-lollies. It was a small coincidence, but it had been a hot day and ice-lollies were just the thing to cool down with.

As she was getting ready for bed, Stella glanced at the mirror and it showed people walking to school with umbrellas. Sure enough, when she woke up, she heard the pitta-patter of rain on the roof. 

At school she was greeted by her best friend Celeste: “Hey honey bun, you know your star sign is Gemini?”

“Yes I do, but my Mum says Astrology is all nonsense.”

“Then why did she call you Stella which means Star?”

“She thought it meant “well done” or something like that.” 

“Mum looked up your horoscope for your birthday and you will have super opportunities in career and love.”

“That’s great,” said Stella. “But we’re still stuck at school. And I don’t think any of that applies to me.”

Then she wasn’t quite sure why, but she whispered, “Guess what, I’ve got a prediction that I think might come true. I think Miss Bromy might find a surprise in her lunchbox!” Stella giggled.

“A surprise in her lunchbox? What would that be? A cheese and tomato sandwich?”

“If it does come true, we’ll be sure to hear about it,” said Stella, knowingly. 

But nothing surprising happened all day. Just boring old geography and running around the muddy sports field in the rain.

 When Stella sat peering into the mirror that evening, she saw something that did not amuse her. Her friends were waiting around her living room with a birthday cake – only one very important person was absent – her!

Friday came, and it was Stella’s birthday. Celeste gave her a card – it showed a cartoon of a wide-eyed rabbit staring into the camera with the word SURPRISE!

Stella smiled. She wondered if there would be any surprises that day. 

And strangely enough, when she and Celeste were walking past the staff room, a loud piercing scream rang out – almost like in a murder mystery – and teachers started running out in panic.  

The first out was Mr Grayson followed by Miss Bromy. She wailed: “Have you ever seen a spider that big?”

“Only in the zoo,” replied Mr Grayson, “It looks like a tarantula for sure.”

 A few moments later, Mr Harvey, looking very smug, came out holding up the lunch box.  “Caught the pest!” he announced. “What do you want me to do with it?”

“Run it over,” suggested Mr Grayson.   

“Then flush it down the toilet?” added Miss Bromy. 

“I’ll go down to the vet on the high street. They might know what it is,” said Mr Harvey after considering. “If I’m late back, will somebody take my class?”

While he was saying this, Miss Bromy fixed her beady little eyes on the two girls.  

“You two seem to find this highly amusing,” she said slowly. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with this monstrous spider, would you?”

“No, Miss,” they both said together, shaking their heads.

But that afternoon, in the middle of Biology, they were both summoned to the Head Teacher’s office and grilled separately.  The head teacher interviewed Stella and the deputy head spoke to Celeste. They allowed Celeste to return to Biology.  But Stella had to remain in reception while they called her mother.   Then she had to face both the head teacher and the deputy together. “One last time, what do you know about the spider in Miss Bromy’s lunchbox?” asked the head teacher. 

“Mr Grayson said it’s a tarantula for sure,” answered Stella.

“How did you sneak it into the box?” demanded the deputy. 

“I had nothing to do with it, I swear,” insisted Stella, almost in tears. 

“But you predicted it, so you must have had something to do with it.”

“I just said that as a joke,” said Stella, shaking her head.

“Your mother says it’s your birthday, so on this occasion, we are going to let you off lightly. You’ll do double detention in the library.”

“But it’s my party!” protested Stella.

“Im afraid you should have thought of that before you sneaked a horrid spider into your teacher’s lunchbox!”

Poor Stella! When the bell rang as school finished for the day, she had to sit with the other miscreants and write an essay on Climate Change.  

Finally she arrived home, at quarter to six. She walked into the living room expecting everyone to be gone. But instead she was relieved to be greeted by a loud chorus of: 

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Dear Stella! 

Happy Birthday to you!

Her friends could not wait to hear how she played the trick on Miss Bromy. Stella almost began to believe that she had done it! But the more she denied it, the more her friends wanted to know her secret! 

Eventually she said, “I didn’t put it in her lunchbox, I just saw it wandering around the school.”

“Oh right,” winked Celeste. “We believe you totally. But you shouldn’t deny that you played the trick, because the whole school thinks you’re a hero!”

“But I would never…..” 

Stella sighed, and decided to accept her fate. She had learnt the hard way that magic future-telling mirrors can get you into heaps of trouble.  If only Grandma had warned her… not to make predictions!

And that was Stella’s Magic Mirror, read by me, Jana and written for Storynory by Bertie.  We hope you found that a fun story! We’re cooking up some more stories about Stella and her Magic Mirror.   What do you think?  Would you like to catch an occasional glimpse of your future?  Or might it cause more problems than it solves? Now I’ve got a special message for families with younger children.We have a new book out with six Sleepy stories about  Raffy and his best friend Sleepy Star.   The stories are quirky and funny, and they will also help you nod off at night!  Each one ends with me singing a sweet lullaby.   The kindle and print versions are available on amazon, packed with Bertie’s hand-drawn illustrations.  And we’re working on getting the Audible version out soon.   See if you can help us get Sleepy Star up the Amazon Charts!  The link is on the front page of Storynory.  They don’t cost much and are  a great way to support us, so grab your copy soon!