number 12
Crit day. We pinned up all our portraits so far and Pia walked along the wall slowly, humming or not humming.
She stopped at my #12 and said, "Did you work from a photo here?"
I didn't. I did it last Thursday at the hall mirror, eight to ten in the evening, Hedda was on nights. I remember sitting there.
But she's right. In #12 my parting is on the right of the paper. In the other eleven it's on the left, because mirror. In #12 I look the way I look in photos.
Theo from my class said I just made a mistake, you get tired and your hand goes wherever. Probably. I looked at that face for two hours, though. You'd think I'd notice which side my own hair is on.
When I got home I checked the mirror. Parting on the left. Grey patch in its corner. Everything where it's supposed to be.