#DWHabit - This is an excerpt from "Faces in the Mirror"

Monica stood in front of the mirror combing her hair. Her mom had put the full length mirror in her room after she decided to grow her hair out.  She began the brush strokes that would tame her tangled mess. As she looked in the mirror a face appeared. She closed her eyes, then slowly opened them. The face of the young girl was still there staring at her. Who was she?  This was the second time she had seen the face of a young girl. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned away from the mirror.

"Mom, would you put my hair up in a high pony-tail?  I tried and it doesn't want to do what I want it to."  She handed the brush to her mom who smiled down at her. Her mom quickly put her hair up and ushered her into the kitchen. Monica sat at the table. The small TV was on  in the living room. She poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat down. As she lifted the first bite to her mouth her hand froze. She recognized the face of the girl on the TV. She didn't know her name but she had been the first face she's seen in the mirror. The newscaster was saying the police had found her body that morning. Monica's mother quickly switched off the TV.

"Eat Monica, you have to leave in a few minutes."  She sat across from her daughter and sipped her coffee.

"Mom, I saw that girl on the TV the other day."

Her mom paused, coffee cup suspended  a few inches from her lips. "Where? When did you see her?"

Monica looked at her mom. "In the mirror." She waited. Was her mom going to laugh at her?

Her mom leaned forward in her chair and looked her in the eye. "What do you mean you saw her in the mirror? Where?"

Monica explained about the face she'd seen three days before while she was brushing her hair. Then she told her mom she'd seen another face this morning. She described the face to her mom. She didn't begin to feel afraid until she noticed her mom's hand shaking as she set her cup down. Monica glanced at the TV and pointed. "There, that's her, the girl I saw this morning."

Monica's mom turned toward the TV. The report was explaining the girl had gone missing that morning.  Monica's mom quickly shut the TV off. "Time to brush your teeth then we need to leave." She cleared away the dishes while Monica left the kitchen. Fear coursed through her veins. What was going on? Why was her daughter seeing the faces of girls who had disappeared and been murdered?

#DWHabit - Word of the Day - Invincible

I'm always talking to my students about some of the things they do that are not the brightest ideas. The most recent incidents of kids taking the Tide Pod Challenge brought that home to my students. We discussed this. They laughed when I told them that often kids think they are invincible. Things won't happen to them.  I told them that all kids feel that way at some point. However, life  shows them those hard lessons and hopefully they learn from it. Learning the lessons by seeing how a tragic event affects others is a hard way to learn that lesson. But, it no where near as hard as being involved in the tragedy yourself. 

Feeling as if we are invincible doesn't just happen to kids. Often we keep pushing ourselves in our jobs because we think nothing will happen to us. We have to get things done. Thursday was a fifteen hour work day for me at school.  I came home to a steak dinner my husband had fixed and waited to eat with me.  I was barely able to keep my eyes open for another hour before I fell asleep without writing.  Friday was more of the same. I tried to make up for the work I didn't get done the night before. I was asleep an hour after dinner.  I didn't write that night either. 

Today I did part of my work and then realized I had not written. It is now almost nine at night. I feel incomplete when I don't write, even if it is just a small post like this. I prefer to do my writing first thing in the morning and then try to make time to do more writing at night.  This Daily Writing Habit Challenge has been the best thing to happen to me and I'm sure to many others. So even though this post is small I feel pleased that I got some writing done today.  I just need to remember that I am not invincible and that to keep me going I need to write daily.  Have you written today?