written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Doppelganger

I have some experience of doppelgangers...not of myself, I might add...although like nearly everyone reading this someone at some time has asked if I have sister or did I live in...?  I'm sure that's happened to you!

Well my experience is this- - - when I met my second husband he told me how,on attending divorce court, his wife had brought forward witnesses that swore to his meeting a blonde on Magdalen bridge every Saturday morning---further more in a red Capri ( he did in fact own such a car! ). He told the judge how it wasn't him - - but he was not believed. Anyway the divorce went through.

We had been together for a little while, and every summer weekend we went out on our boat along the Thames. One Monday evening my husband was approached by our neighbours , and severely admonished by them for 'playing a dirty trick on me,' - - my husband called me out to the garden and asked me tell the neighbours where WE had been all weekend. So I told them. It transpired that they "saw" him at a restaurant on the Saturday night....with a blonde and a red Capri in the car park. So the penny began to drop.

Months passed till a workmate told how he'd seen him at the Casino with a blonde on his arm and had said " Buy me drink and I'll not tell , Terry " . The doppelganger turned and told the man that he certainly wasn't Terry .....A slight argument seemingly ensued until the workmate was persuaded that it was a case of mistaken identity. Well, when this story was related to my husband he finally knew that he had a look-alike in the same city!

 When we moved to Scotland we often wondered if people still approached the doppelganger to ask how come he was in Oxford!

Then we had an experience in our new home town - - we went to the local library and in the reference section sitting at a desk was a close friend Bob.....this was a wax figure of a local artist...BUT it was Bob! We always said, " Hello, Bob" every time we went in!

 Last week I shared a photo on FB of doppelgangers who met on a flight to Ireland...they'd even booked into the same hotel!
         

Doppelganger

Look at you,
Looking at me.
Who are you ?
Who am I  ?

Mirrored we are,
Like peas in a pod,
Identical.

I see you
You see me.
What do we see ?
Who are you ?

Separated at birth ?
Separated by miles .
Alike.

I see me in you,
You see yourself in me.
What do others see?
Who are we ? 
 
 
Kath Curtiss.

1 comments:

Steve Rowland said...

Kath, what a brilliant story! Truth stranger than fiction. I wonder if wife #1 ever realised that here was a case of mistaken identity?