Cinnamon Read Free

entrances. Hanan pressed her hand hard into her shoulders until she heard her bones crack, wanting to be sure that she wasn’t dreaming. Then she slipped into bed, certain that she would wake up in a better frame of mind.
    Yet the streak of light appeared in her nightmares too, as a whip of flames which flogged her body until her flesh was in tatters and her bones jutted outward. The streak was a fiery snake, crawling out from the gap in the open door and finishing up at Aliyah’s head. The girl was holding a limp piece of meat between the husband’s thighs, which grew until it became a viper that she rode upon as it sprouted wings and began to fly in circles, flapping in Hanan’s face.
    Hanan woke up from the nightmare. She sprang from the bed again as though stung and peered at the curtains. Perhaps it was all a nightmare – the whole thing simply conjured up in her troubled dreams! Hanan murmured to herself, waving her hands in the air to ward off any spirits. She felt as though she had slept for a thousand years, although she knew it couldn’t have been more than an hour. She rushed to her mirror.
    â€˜I won’t let this petrify me. These horrible limbs will soon disappear; they’ll stop growing any moment. All I have to do is get a hold of myself... Right, you stupid bitch?’ She struck out at the wide mirror on the wall.
    â€˜Where have you been all this time?’ said a voice.
    â€˜I am the Mirror, and which one of us knows the other better than the other knows herself? Quick, we’ve only a few moments to talk.’
    â€˜I know I’m imagining things. It’s all a dream. No, not a dream; it’s just my subconscious showing itself to me for a while.’ Hanan told herself, preening before the mirror. She perched on the edge of the bed, gazing into the mirror’s smooth surface as though searching in some far-off place for someone unfamiliar.
    â€˜I didn’t throw her out! I couldn’t possibly have thrown her out! She’s still asleep in her room. She’s waiting for daylight, to start work.’
    Hanan whacked the mirror. She stared into the two piercing eyes which glared back at her.
    â€˜I haven’t even left my room! They’re just images! Images rotating in my exhausted brain,’ she said, shaking her head violently.
    Hanan slapped her chest and pursed her lips. She groped at her arms and breasts, then grabbed the mirror on both sides, clasped it in her arms and shouted, ‘He’s still snoring, the old crocodile. There’s no way she’d even go near him, never mind wrap herself around him like that. She couldn’t have made herself get anywhere near his cold body, could she?’
    She moved away from the mirror, lit a cigarette and drew back the curtain, watching the birds as their shapes changed and they became tiny, multi-coloured specks. A few white clouds made various shapes in the sky. For a moment she imagined there was someone watching her, sitting atop the clouds. Hanan closed the curtain and jumped onto the bed. After steadying her feet, she stared recklessly into the mirror, where another woman appeared, her appearance much like Hanan’s. The woman whispered to her, hissing almost:
    â€˜You’re lying to yourself though, aren’t you? You’re jealous of her – a lowly servant, a nobody. She’s got you talking to yourself. Who gets jealous of a skinny, low-life servant who fucks an old man, who devours his dick like a... like a whore? She’s eating away at your insides. She’s eating away at you like a maggot, sucking dry the sweetness inside of you.’
    Hanan sobbed. ‘I just want to hold her close to me!’ she cried out, her voice hoarse. Her skin itched. She groped at her thighs and tugged hard at her hair, yelping in pain. Imagining a voice calling her, Hanan bounded towards the window. She drew back the curtains and opened the window. Eyes loomed amongst