What Lindy's mom always said about Aunt Lydia's mirror was that Lydia had considered it her good luck charm. And if anyone needed luck, it was Lindy's older brother, thirteen, who was in the hospital, in a coma. He had been returning from a camping trip with some friends, and a van came out of nowhere. Her brother was the only one significantly damaged. Lindy thought that was very unfair.

Lindy was named after her mother's Aunt Lydia, but two years ago, when she was seven, she told her mother she wouldn't be caught dead being called Liddy, and if anyone knew her name was Lydia, she would be. Her father suggested "Lye", her brother guffawed, and her mother rolled her eyes and thought of "Lindy".

Old Lydia had once traveled the world as a famous fashion model with a hobby of getting married and then getting divorced. Father always said "In the right sequence, I hope." Her mother always said "Of course!. Of all the", but Lindy thought sometimes she had a worried frown when she said it.

Lindy suspected she'd been named after this female because her parents thought the elder Lydia was rich. In fact, Lindy wouldn't need a scholarship or loans or a job to go to whatever college she could get into, but that was about it. That and the trunk in the attic, full of fascinating objects Lindy would dearly love to keep in her own room now. Glittery, dangling earrings, of no particular value her mother said, and dramatic shoes and a fascinating little traveling case engineered to hold all sorts of objects, and some dramatic items of clothing, carefully folded, and the mirror. It had a fascinating, changeable design on its back that her father said was probably just a bit of trapped oil or some such thing. Mother said Lydia had called it her magic mirror and claimed it brought her great good luck. What Lindy needed most now, she decided, was luck, and she concluded it was time for a commando raid on the trunk.

The attic was reached by a ladder-like set of steps that pulled down from the ceiling. It was difficult for Lindy to pull the steps down, and normally her mother would have noticed and asked, but things were all out of kilter now, with her mother engrossed in phone calls and paperwork, and Lindy managed it without too much trouble. Nor was the trunk locked, as she feared. When it opened easily, she decided she was meant to take the mirror, and since she was obviously on a quest, she sternly refrained from investigating the other contents, but took the mirror and closed up the trunk again.

Her mother almost caught her after she descended the steps and pushed them back up, for that made a bit of noise, but her mother was too preoccupied to wait for the answer about what Lindy had been doing and rushed back to the telephone.

Once in her room, Lindy inspected the mirror thoroughly. The face part didn't impress her for it had little age bubbles in it, but the back fascinated her. She was certain the design must have great significance, and its fluid changing definitely looked like magic to her. If she tilted the mirror, the design would take on a whole new character. She played with it, entranced, and wondered what she should do now. It must be that she should take the mirror to the hospital, so it and her brother could be in contact. But that was a challenge, for the hospital was a drive of several minutes, and she might have to walk. She thought she knew the way, but wasn't quite sure. Just as she was nerving herself for this, her mother called to her to put her coat on, for they were about to go there. This, to Lindy's mind, proved again she was on an important quest.

At the hospital, her mother was delayed for several minutes talking anxiously to doctors and nurses. With great care, Lindy eased towards her brother's room on her own, cautious because the hospital had never seemed to approve of her presence.

Most fortunately, the other bed in his room was empty today. She stood beside her brother's bed, finding it hard to look at him lying so muted and still, and she slid the mirror out of her book bag. She touched him with it gently, but to her disappointment, he did not respond. She waited a few seconds and tried it again, and then a third time, but he simply lay there, caught in the grip of all his tubes and wires. She heard her mother's footsteps then, and hastily concealed the mirror, but her mother only stood by the bed for a short time before her face puckered. She gulped and said, "Oh dear, I don't want him to hear me", and walked hastily out of the room.

Lindy pulled the mirror out again and stared at her brother in perplexity. Then she looked at the shifting design and held it up before her brother, telling him in a low voice it was there and he should look at it. He did not. She kept trying, concentrating so hard she never heard her mother return.

"Lindy! What are you doing?" Her mother's voice was harsh, but Lindy hardly noticed. A sunbeam, bounced off the glass office tower next door, had hit the mirror. And bounced briefly off that, for a moment directly onto her brother's eyelids. They twitched. She and her mother both froze, staring in wonder and hope, as his eyes opened.