Desiree Dul | SAFE 2027 |

The mirror watched from her purse. And the reflection smiled.

“What do you want?” Desirée asked.

The reflection pointed at her, then at the world beyond the window: the city lights, the distant thrum of a late-night train, a couple arguing on the sidewalk below. desiree dul

She put the mirror in her bag.

Outside, the new Desirée Dul stepped into the rain, tilted her face up, and laughed. She was loud and bright and terrible. The mirror watched from her purse

But at twenty-six, working as a restoration archivist in a basement office that smelled of mildew and silence, she found the name fit perfectly. Her life was Dul. Her coffee was lukewarm. Her sweaters were beige. Her greatest thrill was alphabetizing a box of 1972 municipal water bills. The reflection pointed at her, then at the