Doppleganger
05:42 Dec 10 2014
Times Read: 411
Alicia Reid had spent most of her adult life as a bit of a loner. She threw herself into her work as a paralegal for Appleby & Thomas, and she was happiest when knee-deep in research on cases she’d been assigned. Even at home, she had a thick stack of papers to review, or hundreds of leads that had to be sorted via the internet.
She barely had time to notice her lack of a social life, or miss that comfort one found within the close ties of a strong relationship. She hadn’t dated since she’d graduated college and had broken her engagement to Zachary Williamson.
When her parents, Mathew and Pamela Reid, were given the news, they both tried to change her mind, saying, “Honey, you’re throwing away a golden opportunity.”
She’d wrinkled her nose, “Why, because he’s wealthy? There’s more to life than marrying somebody, just because they’re rich.”
“He loves you,” her mother said, “don’t you feel the same?”
“I don’t know what I feel, except that I need some breathing space. I can’t breathe around him. He smothers me with too much affection.”
“You don’t know what a lucky girl you are,” her father said, “but one day, you’ll regret it...if he gives up and marries someone else. Remember, his parents died in that plane crash, and everything they had, he inherited. And the young man has a good head on his shoulders. I’ve heard he’s doubled that fortune in five years. He’s not someone you just brush off and walk away from, darling.”
“That’s my decision, don’t you think? You do want me happy, right?”
It hadn’t been easy to convince Zach of their need for a separation either; but giving him back the pear-cut five carat pink diamond had been the hard part; she’d loved that ring, but she couldn’t keep it, if she wasn’t going through with the marriage.
Now three years had passed; yes, she’d seen the handsome jet-setting bachelor with his various beauties on his arm, displayed in the gossip magazines, in the interim; and though she’d been with no one else, he certainly had done plenty of bed-hopping, it seemed, though none had lasted very long.
She’d tried not to let her mind focus on what Zachary was doing any given night when she grew bored with her paperwork, and with her lonely existence. She couldn’t let the thought that he was bedded down with one of those super-models or actresses, enjoying their fleshly delights, when she couldn’t even say he was cheating, since she had let him go free to do as he pleased. And she knew how virile he was, so could she blame him, when she’d refused to be his steady and his wife for life? The fault lay with her, not with him.
Alicia had been working at her desk at home, having only stopped long enough to eat some take-out Chinese, and then had gone back to slogging through the most recent case when the phone rang, startling her. She jumped, looking at the clock on the wall above the couch. “Who’s calling me at ten past eleven at night?” She listened as it rang into the fifth and sixth ringing, before she picked it up. “Hello,” she yawned into the ear-piece. “Who’s calling at this ungodly hour? I’m on my way to bed, thank you.”
“Alicia Reid, it’s Zachary Williamson. I have an invitation for you.”
“Oh, really, Zach...haven’t you enough girlfriends to keep you busy?” She snapped, “I’m not interested, whatever your invitation might be. Have you found a bride perhaps and you think I’d want to attend?”
“Don’t be ridiculous...and by your saying that, do I detect a hint of jealousy which indicates you still care about me? In which case, do you really think I’m that cruel that I’d invite you to my wedding as anything less than the bride?” He snorted a dry laugh.
“Point received, and so what is this invitation?”
Zackary said, “I’m having a small dinner party this weekend, and I’d like you to come.”
“I really am too busy, so I’ll have to say I can’t. I have a deadline to meet here at the office.”
“Oh come on and give yourself a breather. You push yourself too hard; and do you really think your boss appreciates all those unpaid extra hours you give him? Have you really stopped to consider you’re making them rich by working enough for five employees? What do you want in life? Always to be a workhorse and not the filly? Besides, I’m having all your favorite foods prepared, so please agree to come. You have to eat.”
“You don’t have any right to talk to me like that,” she said, getting hot under the collar.
“Saying the truth, you mean...oh, Alicia, I’ve always been forward and up front with you. Don’t tell me you can’t accept it, now, after all these years.”
“I’ll come if you’ll tell me why you want me to be there.”
“Alright, it’s because I’ve seen you walking in my garden, and yet I know you’ve not been here in years. Security doesn’t show anyone coming or leaving, so how are you getting in my garden for me to see?”
“Now you surely are bluffing; that’s crazy. I’ve not been to your house in more than three years.”
“Precisely; so who walks in my garden?”
“I don’t know, but it’s not me.”
“So are you intrigued enough to accept this dinner proposal?”
Alicia felt a twinge of guilt. This was the second time in two months, he’d invited her, although the first time, he hadn’t mentioned anything about the garden sighting.
“Ok, what time do you want me to be there,” she asked.
“Saturday, I’ll send my car out to pick you up at six p.m. Wear something casual, and please don’t wear one of those three-piece business suits that you’re famous for,” he joked lightly.
“That’s exactly what I’ll be wearing,” she sniffed. “But since you mention it, what was the woman in your garden wearing?”
“I’ll tell you that this weekend, dear.”
“Fair enough, and thank you, Zachary.”
“No, by all means, I thank you; I’m looking forward to our evening together.” He said, before hanging up the phone, leaving Alicia listening to the dial tone.
“Well, I’m going to bed,” she stood up and immediately her head swam in a dizzy way. She almost fell, but caught herself by grabbing the back of a chair. Rather than risk it, she sat in it, and waited until the dizziness subsided.
“Might go to a doctor and see if he can give me something for that, but if it’s going to affect my productivity, I’d rather do without. I don’t want anything slowing me down. Maybe I have been over-working myself though. And Zach is right about the unpaid hours; is that fair to me?”
She sighed in relief when she was able to stretch out and rest, it was as though her whole body ached in a mysterious malaise.
The rest of the week, she cut back a little on the extra hours, curling up in her favorite chair, watching movies, rather than hitting the books. After all, she reasoned, what I do at home in my time is my business. I need to stop bringing the office home, when nobody else at that firm is so dedicated; I’m only a paralegal, not the freaking lawyer, after all.
She grew steadily more excited about the dinner party and spending time with Zach. It seemed as though the weekend would never come.
She had two more dizzy spells, but she didn’t call to make an appointment; Maybe on Monday, I will. I really should.
That weekend, as promised, Zach’s car came to pick her up. She’d hoped that Zachary would be in the car, but Ned the chauffeur said, “Oh, Mr. Williamson couldn’t leave. His guests were already arriving. You look very nice, Ms. Reid.”
Alicia settled in the back seat of the limo and glanced down at her little black dress, accentuated only by a string of pearls. “Maybe this will suit him; although I did contemplate the Irish Linen three-piece suit that I’m famous for.” She smiled.
“I wouldn’t know, Ma’am. I’m a new employee.”
Ned let her out at the door of Zachary’s fine home. The door opened almost immediately by Zach, holding out his arms to receive her.
Zach’s eyes lit up, “You look amazing!” He kissed her on the cheek, “I’m so glad you came.”
“Thank you,” Alicia responded to his hug as sexual heat spread throughout her body. She hadn’t realized how much she missed Zach or how irresistible he still was to her.
She wanted to throw her arms around him and kiss him passionately, but she suppressed the urge as inappropriate in front of Zach’s other guests, gazing at them with varying degrees of interest. Proudly, he led her inside.
Zack said, “You’re more beautiful than ever, my dear. I still find your eyes the most startling emerald green, which accentuates your flawless, milky-white skin and that gorgeous red mane. You are perfectly stunning.”
“You haven’t lost your charm,” she said.
He reached up and gently caught a lock of stray hair between his middle and fore-fingers, looping it behind her right ear. Before removing his hand, he caressed her cheek in a loving way.
She found her face pressed against the cup of his palm, before she realized what she was doing. She straightened herself into a more regal pose.
Cheerfully, Zach said to the others as they headed for the dining room, “Having Alicia back at my side completes me.”
She smiled, gazing at him and thinking, he knows I can’t properly reply to such a remark without putting myself in a bad light when he has said such a wonderful compliment, plus he means it.
There were ten other guests, five couples...and all seeming to take it for granted that Zachary and she were back together again. She found it hard to say much at all, but she certainly grew more eager for when the guests would leave, so that she could confront him about this. For once more, she viewed him as manipulating the situation his way and what he wanted, rather than what she wanted or what they both wanted, and which ideally, that was the way the strongest relationships were; for the good of the couple, not just for the good of one or the other?
When they finished dinner, she leaned close to him and whispered, “The others are leaving. Once they are gone, I have something I need to discuss with you, please.”
“Yes, of course, but please help me send them on their way, my dear.”
His earnest expression touched a chord within her, so she stood at his side, giving her goodbyes to the guests and accepting their complimentary words.
Finally, only she remained.
Zach said, “Let us go into the living room, where the patio doors are that lead to the garden. We can talk there.”
He led her to the living room and went directly to the glass, sliding-doors, staring out into the yard toward the fountain.
He seemed preoccupied...but as she stared out at the well-manicured, floral profusion, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. She said, “Zach, why did you lead those people to believe we are back together as a couple? You know we have not agreed to rekindle our relationship.”
“That’s why I have you here tonight. Alicia; surely, you’ve missed me. I know you’ve seen no one else. If you hated me, you’d have sought someone to replace me. I’ve dated, it’s true, but again and again, I found them all lacking. I want you, and please, don’t push me away anymore.”
“I just don’t know, but somehow, something tells me it will never be, for you and me. I’m afraid to get in too deep, for the pain is too great.”
“Alicia, you’ve already put me through three years of pain, by rejecting my love. Why do you reject me? I have everything to offer you and I love you. Can you say this is not the best of everything a relationship could want? Why can’t you give in and let happiness be ours?”
Alicia wanted to say yes, but something still left her cold inside; she couldn’t explain it.
“You deserve someone who can be there fully for you,” she said.
“Maybe all I want is you, though. I’d give anything if you’d love me as I love you.”
To distract him, she said, “Take me to the garden and show me where you saw the woman you say looks like me.”
Zack took her by the hand and led her out to the garden. They strolled along the winding path, which was well lit by electric lamps on posts resembling gas-lamps of Victorian times.
They didn’t speak, until they neared the water fountain and Zach pointed toward an angel statue set among the roses. “I’ve seen her there. Let us sit here on this bench and wait.”
Alicia sat beside him, and as the minutes passed, she had a weird sensation of being watched.
Alicia saw the bushes moving, as though someone walked through them, but as she stared at the rose bushes, she saw nothing.
Zach expired a pent-up rush of air, as he leaned forward and hissed, “Look, see her now? Oh my God, that dress!”
Alicia saw her in that moment, and she jumped to her feet, her hand flew to her necklace of pearls. The woman was identical to herself, wearing the same dress, and yet...she could see the angel statue through her body.
The woman stared into her eyes, the same green eyes she saw each morning gazing from her vanity dresser as she brushed her flame red hair.
Alicia screamed, and felt her throat tighten as a burning pain filled her head and she collapsed, unconscious.
Zachary called 911, and rushed her to the hospital. In a coma, the doctors’ tests discovered a brain tumor, and for the next six months, Zachary stayed with her, having her brought to spend her last hours in his home, in a room with a view of the garden.
The lady continued to walk in the garden, until Alicia’s death, and then the appearances stopped.
Zachary called upon an expert in supernatural occurrences, Dr. Eldon and told him the story.
Dr. Eldon said, “This is a classic recounting of the doppelganger syndrome. Your Alicia’s illness had caused her to steadily project her image to the one person she knew loved her. Subconsciously, she pushed you away, because her body was warning her that her time was short; she wanted to spare you the sorrow of losing your wife. Alicia loved you deeply, for her sacrifice speaks of that devotion.”
“Maybe she thought her decision was the correct one, but all I can think of is the three happy years we could have shared together. She didn’t spare me...if anything, it hurts more, because we weren’t allowed to have those happy moments.”
For the rest of his days, Zachary never forgot his beloved Alicia or the strange occurrence of her doppelganger twin in the garden.
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