Guest Post: Short Story - A Million Faces

A million faces

Source: https://samiaf.wordpress.com/a-million-faces/

Reuben stares at his own reflection in the mirror as he picks up the cologne from the counter and sprays it twice on his neck. He takes a small sniff, and picks up a tight cap from the counter. He pulls it over his head to hide his greying hair and adjusts it carefully, stuffing every strand of hair that emerged from the cap. He then turns to study his dimly lit bedroom.

Walking over to the closet, Reuben stops in front of a large board. On the board, he studies the many pictures of different couples that had been hung with thumbnails. Each picture has a different man and woman posing in front of a yellow statute of a dragon in a Chinese restaurant. He faces his closet, and pulls out a jacket and adjusts a brown colored wig over his head. Next, he takes out a pair of dark rimmed glasses from his jacket pocket and places them on. Looking down on the floor, he bends down to pick up a camera, wears it around his neck, and calmly exits the bedroom.

Slowly walking downstairs, Reuben finds himself in the living room and halts in front of the front door. He keeps his position, his eyes fixed to the door, and his breathing silent. Bringing up his left hand, he pulls back his sleeve to eye his watch. He looks back up at the door, back at the watch, and repeats the motion several times. Once the second’s hand hits the 12 mark, the watch reads 7:00 o’clock which makes him jolt upwards and exit the house through the front door.

The street is dimly lit, as the weakened street lamp amplifies the darkness of the night. He doesn’t seem to mind as his eyes are fixed on the path ahead of him. He is walking in the middle of the road, not paying attention to his surroundings. A car casually stirs to avoid him. The driver pokes his head out the window, to give Reuben an unsettling glare, “Ever heard of a sidewalk?” However, Reuben doesn’t react. His eyes still pierced on the distance ahead of him.

There he is in a Chinese restaurant, on a table that is positioned right in front of the decorative yellow dragon statue. His surroundings do not seem to matter to him, but his eyes are focused on the watch on his left hand. His pupils following the second’s hand. A waiter comes up to him, but Reuben refuses to avert his gaze. “You look familiar, do I know you?” The waiter’s suspicions rise. Reuben keeps his head down, and his eyes on the watch as he coldly mutters, “Don’t think so.”

Reuben suddenly sighs as he opens the door and enters his bedroom. He casually pulls of his wig and tosses it on the tidy bed with beige sheets that seem brand new. He closes the door behind him, looks up at the peach colored ceiling, closes his eyes, and leans back on the door. He exhales heavily and rubs his face.

Opening his eyes, he walks towards the bed to pick up the wig that he threw. He moves towards the closet, opens the doors widely, and places the wig on a hanger next to several different wigs of various colors from blonde to brunette. Next, he slips of his jacket and hangs it near the wigs.

Taking off the glasses, he pulls a picture from his pocket and studies it for a moment. He approaches the board, takes an unused thumbnail, and hangs the picture of a man with brown colored hair and dark rimmed glasses with a black haired woman, who was not present in any of the other pictures. The two were standing in front of a decorative stature of a yellow dragon. He then takes a black marker, writes the number 76 under the picture.

His face takes on a sinister grin as he stares at the picture.

Contributed by:

I am Sami and currently a student of Advertising at the Lebanese International University. So you can probably act like a detective and figure out that I am from Lebanon. I’ve written a few novels, composed some small stories, small scenarios, wrote scripts, and even poems at Sam’s Box.