Doppelgänger

No, not my Doppelganger - this just happened to be the only picture handy that might illustrate the concept. It was actually my brother's Doppelganger who made an appearance last week.

It's not rare to see (or even more commonly, hear) my brother when he's not there. Flashes of clothes or beard around the corner, his disembodied footsteps in the hall. It's long been a family joke. My brother is so grouchily cynical, yet the paranormal follows him like Pigpen's dust cloud on Peanuts. I swear it's trying to take pokes at him. I'm just surprised it hasn't rained stones or fish on him by now

Even my youngest son isn't exempt from being tricked by his uncle's shade. "Here comes uncle Igneous up the walkway!" he shouts, only to find no one there and that his uncle is out of town. And there was that entire week when we all heard him come in and flop down on the couch every day about noon, when he was really at work the whole time.  It's not a new issue; it's just his thing.

What happened a couple of days ago was new, however. 

Last Thursday, about 6 PM, I see my brother get out of his truck in the driveway and head toward the carport. (yes, by Jove, he is still living in our carport. His latest plot is building one of those tiny houses to move to his land. Anyway...) I was standing on the lawn maybe 30 feet away, wondering who was following behind him. For a moment I thought it might have been my elder son, but that didn't seem right. They have a similar build, but a different walk, and besides, the following figure was dressed like my brother. I blinked. Could I be seeing double? But my vision was otherwise fine, and what's more, the follower was moving at a different speed. That's when things get weird...

My brother was walking the way he normally does, but the figure behind him was trailing much slower. Indeed, I was put in mind of frames of a film being cranked slowly through a projector, with the figure seeming to fade out just toward the end of the frame before appearing in the next. It was very, very odd. I watched their progress into the carport, then had to go think it over. Despite the jokes about my brother bi-locating, I'd never seen anything like this before, let alone the Doppelganger appearing in the same place at the same time.

What to make of this? Well, there is a medical condition that can make things appear in slow motion, but as far as I can tell, it doesn't isolate one object, nor does it come and go in an instant. Not very likely the explanation in this case. No more likely than something popping in from another dimension. Or an honest-to-goodness Doppelganger, for that matter.

To see one's Doppelganger is a bad sign. To see it following your footsteps is even worse. I decided to say nothing to my brother - no sense in alarming him if it did turn out to be some quirk of my vision.  

Early the next morning, though, he had a strange story to tell

About 5 AM, he was awoken by someone opening the door to his trailer and motioning to him to come with them. He thought it must be one of us, but it was dark and he couldn't see well. He told the person he'd be a minute, got dressed and came into the house. But we were all asleep. It was none of us who'd done it. 

Perhaps it was just a dream. 

Perhaps. 

But I have my own ideas about who came to his door that night.