Mirrors of the Heart - BW Starmer a.k.a. Stormynite (unputdownable books .TXT) 📗

life. I know it."
Winter touched the glass with another tearin her eye. "Be happy, Jason, and know that someone always loves you for who you really are." The mist began to cloud the glass as her eyes bid him a final farewell.
"No! Winter, No!" She was gone. Jason sank to his knees and wept.
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Jason rubbed the mirror for a week straight and nothing happened. She was gone. She had been both right and wrong...and he knew it. He had found someone to love him for who he was...and it was Winter. A couple stunts and the movie was finished... then he would find her.
Lyle moved the crane high overhead for the third time. There was not enough danger, nor sufficient heart-pounding fear for Jason's taste. "If I get a little closer, Jason, it might look better." Lyle shouted from the boom high in the air.
"Okay, Lyle, but watch the cycle. If it just touches the crane, we're all dead. Close, but not stupid, okay?" Jason yelled and Lyle nodded.
They rigged for the stunt and the motorcycle was launched airborne over the car. Lyle lowered the boom slowly with the zoom at full extension. Seconds before he realized his mistake, he yelled. "Look out!" The motorcycle grazed the boom, the stunt man lunged sideways off the cycle forty feet in the air. The camera plus mounts disengaged from the boom and started their downward death spiral to the ground.
Jason launched himself into the air toward Michelle and David underneath the boom. Seconds before it hit, his body contacted theirs and deflected the lethal weapon. A scream tore from his lips as the metal brackets that held the camera in place impaled him. The the whole place erupted into chaos.
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Tiffany and Genin sat quietly in the waiting room while most of the cast and crew paced the floor Tiffany cried intermittently and Genin comforted her as best she could. Jason was still in surgery after six hours and not faired well. The stunt man was still unconscious, but Michelle and David only suffered minor cuts.
The doctor entered the waiting room to a crowd of anxious people. "Who is the wife?"
"I'm his ex-wife, doctor. This is his daughter and the rest of the cast and crew." Genin's voice broke. She might not be in love with Jason anymore, but they shared a child together and that meant something.
"It doesn't look good. He's suffered major internal injuries and he's having a difficult time breathing on his own. At this point, it is touch and go. We really won't know anything until the morning."
The doctor's sad face met the group. "If there is anything or anyone that might give him an incentive to fight this, please find them." He stared at Tiffany. "I'll get you special permission if you want to sit with your dad."
Tiffany's tear filled eyes met his as she nodded. Genin held her hand in comfort. Tiffany sniffled and let the doctors words play in her mind. "Mom, I need to go to dad's place. There's something there that will help him. I know it." Her bright eyes begged her mother.
"Tiffany, I don't see how anything at your dad's apartment would help him now. We just need to have faith." The nurse motioned and they left for intensive care.
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Tiffany managed to convince Lyle to drive her to her father's place right after her mother dozed off in the chair. She wouldn't sit by and watch without trying it. Ahe believed and her father believed. Love makes you stronger. Lyle waited in the car as she let herself in. Quickly, she headed for the bedroom and spied the antique mirrorl. It had to work. It just had to.
Tiffany rubbed the wood grain and concentrated. "If you can hear me, Miss Winter, my dad needs you...please, if you can hear me. He really needs you." Fear gripped her small heart as she repeated the words. A shock ran through her arm as the mirror began to cloud. Again she placed her hand back onto the wood frame and spoke the words louder.
"Please, Miss Winter! Help me! Help my dad live." Tears streamed down her face as she cried.
Winter felt the pull from the mirror in the kitchen. A child's was crying openly. Winter ran into the bedroom just as the mirror began to cloud.
My dad believes you're real and so do I. Please...he's dying!" Her small voice barely whispered the last words. The mirror cleared and Tiffany watched an image appear before her. A tall dark haired woman stood before the mirror with a terrified look on her face.
"Tiffany! Tell me what has happened. Where is your father?"
Tiffany gasped in awe. The lady in the mirror was real, just as her dad had said.
"Tiffany, tell me where Jason is."
"Dad's in the hospital in intensive care. They don't think he is going to make it. He's asking for you. He needs you. Will you come?"
"Tell me what hospital, Tiffany. I'll be on the next flight out." Winter's bright green eyes filled with tears.
Tiffany watched the beautiful woman in the mirror and asked. "Do you love my dad?"
"I love him very much, Tiffany." A great sadness washed over Winter's face.
"Don't be sad. He's been happier the last few months than I've ever seen him. I think that was because of you. Come with me and save him. I don't want to lose my dad." Tiffany reached into the mirror and grasped Winter's hand.
Winter felt it immediately, even though she could not see Tiffany's small fingers on her wrist. Maybe it was that simple. Maybe you just had to believe. Instead of pulling away, Winter stepped into the mirror. The cold glass became mist filled with a feeling of warmth and love. She took a deep breath and stepped into Jason's bedroom and stared at his twelve-year old daughter.
"I knew you'd come. My granny says, "If you have faith, anything is possible." We have to hurry." Tiffany grabbed Winter's arm and they ran for the door.
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Tiffany pulled Winter into the waiting room. She pulled Winter down the hall to her father's room. Nurse Caine smiled at her as she came around the desk.
"You can go in for about ten minutes, Tiffany." The nurse eyed Winter closely. I'm afraid it's only one at a time Miss...and Tiffany gets priority.
"Please, Nurse Caine. This is Winter. She is a very close friend of my dad's. I want her to go and sit with him. It might make him better, please?" Her small face pleaded. "I know she's not family, but she's important to my dad." Tears formed in her small bright eyes.
"Okay, Tiffany. I'll put Miss Winter on the list of approved visitors." She glanced at the clock and relinquished. "You can go on in, but don't be shocked."
Winter stepped through the door leaving Tiffany behind. Jason lay quietly on the bed attached to tubes, monitors and needles from all angles. She'd been in enough hospitals and worked on enough medical software to know his vital signs were not good. Slowly she walked to his side. He was real, so real, so human and he was dying. She gently picked up his hand that lay limply by his side and caressed it.
"Jason, I'm here. You have to fight this just like you have everything else in your life. You aren't a quitter. Don't start now." A single tear slid down her cheek. "Remember I love the man behind the pretty face…the man who sees beauty in a sunset, the man who wants to see the world from a sailboat and visit ever port in the world. You started over...remember? Just like me." Winter wrapped her arms around him and held him gently. Finally, she smoothed his soft silky hair away from his face. Jason moaned her name softly. The nurses were in the room immediately checking everything.
Nurse Caine touched Winter's arm in comfort.
"This is a good sign. He is responding to you. Keep talking."
Winter pulled up a chair and sat down at his side. Carefully she placed his hand in hers and she began to talk. She told him about her job, her parents on the farm, how Tiffany got her to step through the mirror.
Still holding his hand, she feel asleep.
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Jason could hear her voice. It was Winter, his Winter, and she was calling to him. He could feel her warmth, almost like she was holding his hand. She'd said she loved him. It made him smile. The lady in the mirror loved him, the screw up man who never seemed to remember where home was except for his daughter. She loved him anyway. The dim lights and whirring sounds of the machines reminded him he was still alive. Someone clasped his hand and bright green eyes met his. She was beautiful and so close.
"Winter?" He moaned softly. When his fingertips touched her cheek, he gasped. "You are here. Tell me I'm your fantasy again. Tell me you love me in spite of all the screwed up things I've done."
Winter clasped his hand to her face and held it. "I'm really here, Jason, and you've always been my fantasy. You haven't messed anything up. This is all part of life. You're just not ready to die yet." She leaned in and kissed his lips gently." The door opened and Tiffany walked in with Nurse Caine and the doctor.
"Dad!" Tiffany ran to his side, picked up