Celeste Lumière's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Celeste is sanding the baseboard in their bad apartment when someone knocks. They don't answer right away. The knocking gets louder. When they open the door, a woman stands there with tears streaking her face and a photo clutched in both hands. The woman thrusts a ceramic cup toward Celeste with her other hand. It glows faintly blue in the hallway light, covered in strange luminescent specks. She says her daughter is getting married in two days and won't leave her bed. She says the girl keeps asking for someone who will understand. The woman's voice cracks when she says the photographer already cancelled. Celeste looks at the cup, then at the photo. A young person stares back from the image, eyes uncertain, wearing a white dress that doesn't fit right. Celeste knows that look. They take the cup and set it on their counter. They grab their scissors and the good mirror leaning against the wall. They walk with the woman to a building six blocks away that smells like cinnamon and has a wooden cradle in the window. The woman's daughter sits in a room upstairs, still in pajamas. Celeste sets up the mirror and turns on the radio they brought. They work for three hours. When they finish, the daughter looks in the mirror and her whole face changes. She sits up straighter. The mother cries again, but differently this time. She leaves an address on a scrap of paper and says Celeste should come see the space above the holiday stall on Marker Street. The owner is her brother. He's been looking for a tenant.