Lola in the Mirror

Lola’s sketch depicts an open car trunk with planets and stars swirling inside. The museum label suggests that this represents discovery or truth.

After dark, Lola convinces Charlie to accompany her to the Bedrock Wrecking Yard. Once inside, E.P. Buckle narrates as Lola remembers the route to the old Gemini. Discovering nothing on the seats, she unlocks the trunk. The only thing inside is a stuffed elephant, and even though she is disappointed, Lola feels nostalgic and imagines someone saying her name, but she cannot decipher it. Then, a man appears, demanding to know who they are. When Lola explains, the man, Barnie, recognizes her; when she and her mom first arrived in Brisbane, he offered them the car to sleep in. He is saddened to learn of Lola’s mom’s death, for she visited him so often that he gave her the key to the car. Suddenly, Barnie asks if she knows Elizabeth. Confused, Lola notices a plastic hospital bracelet around the elephant’s leg. It has Lola’s birthday on it, but the name is Elizabeth Finlay. Memories flood her mind, and Lola believes that she is Elizabeth.

Lola’s sketch depicts a wedding scene with a skull-faced bride and a dinosaur-headed groom. They cast a skull-shaped shadow while monstrous onlookers watch from a balcony. The museum label calls this work a macabre depiction of hell.

Believing her name is Elizabeth Finlay, Lola has many questions. At the library, the woman at the information desk tries to stop Lola from entering. Despite this, the girl races to the computers. Working fast, Lola searches for Elizabeth Finlay and discovers an article headlined “The Monster of March Street: Why did Marcus Finlay Crack?” (113). Just then, a security guard grabs her, and before pulling her away, Lola sees a photograph of her mother and a man.

Later, Lola begs the magic mirror for answers. The woman in the glass tells her that she is strong enough to endure the pain of her past and that it can fuel her art. When Lola asks who the man with her is, the woman is surprised that the girl does not know. Then, they talk about where Lola can find a computer, and the only option is Flora Box. This dredges up a memory of the woman’s son, Brandon. Four years ago, she, Brandon, and Charlie were smoking behind a concrete factory when they joked about climbing to the top of an enclosed conveyor belt and scooting down the tube like it was a slide. When they hopped the fence to get inside, Brandon cornered Lola and sexually forced himself onto her. Thinking fast, Lola wrapped her leg around his and pushed him to the ground. When she threatened to tell Flora, Brandon whispered that he would kill Lola if she did. Then, he ran. Eventually, Charlie and Lola saw him atop the conveyor belt, and he almost fell. On the way home, Brandon threw a drunk man face-first into the river at low tide. Although the water was not deep, the man was so drunk he could not get up. Lola and Charlie rescued him while Brandon laughed.

In the present, when Lola gets to Ebb ’n’ Flo seafood, Flora has already left. Brandon offers his iPad. Hesitantly, Lola follows him, and the narrative shifts to Buckle’s perspective: Brandon conducts the Google search and reads the article. When “the artist” scans it, she learns that Marcus Finlay, a successful mortgage broker, set fire to himself and his six-month-old child in his car. His wife, Erica Finlay, sustained burns trying to save her daughter. Before this, Erica had called the police multiple times about Marcus’s violence. Two months after the fire, the woman went missing.

While Lola weeps, Brandon laughs and asks where she came from if the Finlays only had one child, who is dead. Distraught, Lola returns to the scrapyard. She pleads with the mirror to talk to her. The woman yells at her to go away, for she is in a hospital and is missing half an arm.

The sketch illustrates a tired-looking man wearing a Santa hat. The museum label notes that although this piece exudes sadness, it is the beginning of the artist’s optimistic drawings.

Briefly, Lola believed she was Elizabeth Finlay, but now she knows for certain she is not. She is 18, and it has been a year since Erica Finlay drowned. One day, she stands amid the throngs of people downtown, and although they bump her, they never look at her. This reminds her of Edvard Munch’s painting. Raising her arms, she declares that she is invisible. Not one person reacts. Saying it louder until she is screaming, but still, no one acknowledges Lola. Lola believes she is a nobody.

Later, she sits on a train across from a man dressed as Santa Claus. The man watches her sketch him. She draws quickly, noting the imperfections and that life itself is imperfect. While she works, they talk. Lola imagines his lonely life and infuses this into her sketch. She gives the finished drawing to him, and when he tiredly admits to having a sore head, she sells him drugs. Then, he compliments her artwork, asking if she is in art school. Smiling, Lola says no and admits that she should be, but she is stuck in a mistake of a life. When Santa asks her to sign the drawing, she refuses because she has no name.

Off the train, Lola rides her yellow bike, a gift from her friend, Esther, who lives in a hole in the ground. She pedals to George Stringer’s house to deliver drugs; George is a client that Lola regularly visits. As she rides, she slips into the voice of E.P. Buckle and notes that the artist gave up on her quest for answers. She is confused and angry.

When she visits George, he shoots up, she eats ice cream, and then they either watch television or play Scrabble while the man talks of his deceased wife. Now, she finds a note on the door stating that he has hung himself and died by suicide, and she should not enter his bedroom. In the note, he wishes her a Merry Christmas and declares her the only person he will miss in this world. Lola enters, walks back to George’s room, and opens the door halfway. In the mirror, she sees his legs hanging; they are blue. The sight unsettles her, reminding her of Erica Finlay’s death. Urging herself to be tough, she eats a snack and sits outside. She sees a man in a Honda across the street who watches her before driving away.

An hour later, Lola is in Ursula Lang’s house, another customer. The woman offers the girl biscuits as she shoots heroin and watches a Nicole Kidman movie. Ursula scolds her for opening George’s bedroom door and then explains that when you lose everything, there comes a time when you want to give up, which is what George did. Then, she professes that Lola and Lady Flo make her feel better, and this declaration sickens the girl. Changing the topic, Ursula tells the story of how she once dressed Nicole Kidman before a movie premiere. Then, Lola asks the woman if she can try on the pretty red dress again.