"Clandestine Magic" is about an impressionable little girl who is on a magical quest to discover her missing reflection.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a Ted Talk where she went into great detail about the single story narrative. She defined it as the following: “Show a people as one thing, and one thing only, and that is who they become.” Her Ted Talk really inspired me to create a short narrative story that explores the consequences of the single story narrative.
In “Clandestine Magic,” the protagonist, Kayli, is an impressionable little girl who has no reflection, and the antagonist, the mirror, is symbolic of the single story narrative. Kayli does not have a reflection because she is unable to identify with any of the single story narratives that are told about people that look like her.
Kayli develops the ritual of returning to the "magical mirror" in search of reflection night after night, until she is ultimately defeated and gives up on her search for her missing reflection. In her lowest moment of defeat, her Mother appears and guides her on a magical quest inward and she is finally able to discover herself beyond the shackles of the mirror/single story narrative.
Once she is free of the single story narrative, her magic is unlocked and she is able to see herself for who she truly is — a beautiful and untamed soul with endless possibilities.
