Doppelgänger.

On Thursday I visited a former coworker for dinner. When I arrived, her next-door neighbor called and said he’d be stopping by for a few minutes. I went to use the washroom; by the time I returned he had arrived.

Neighbor was standing by the sliding-glass door which led to the patio. From my vantage point, there was almost enough sunlight coming through the glass to make him a silhouette. I thought that he was shaped an awful lot like my dad—a little taller than me, big belly, big forearms, big calves. As I approached Neighbor to introduce myself, I got a better look at him.

The resemblance to my dad was shocking. Neighbor wasn’t just shaped like Dad—aside from his eyes and nose, he looked exactly like Dad. In fact, I’ll list the differences first, since that would take less time: Neighbor had smaller eyes, a differently shaped nose, and his sunglasses weren’t the right tint. And he had a burn on one arm.

Aside from that, it looked like the CIA outfitted W. C. Fields with a full-body Dad-suit. He had the same big head atop a thick neck and the same lines in his forehead. His hair was the same wavy mix of white and reddish-brown, brushed back in just the same style. He had the same handshake, with the same thick fingers. He wore the same style of shirt: short sleeved, top button undone, untucked, some goofy design on it. He had the same eyeglass frames. He even had the same gait.

It was scary. I expected Neighbor to start talking with in a reversed-backwards Black Lodge stutter while a tuxedoed midget danced in the background.

Anyhow, while my former coworker cooked, I listened to Neighbor’s fascinating (to me, at least) stories about his career in naval architecture. He turned out to be different enough from my dad that I don’t currently suspect any cloning, and have not ordered a priority rush on the genetic comparison.

…

The Bears had a pretty poor first-half performance against the Vikings today. Turns out that I had been wearing my grey #11 jersey instead of my giant, stylized “C-shirt.” I made the adjustment at halftime and the Bears went on to win, 19-16.

3 Responses to “Doppelgänger.”

  1. ticklemeelmo Says:
    September 26th, 2006 at 10:10 PM

I’ve a doppelganger myself actually. People say I resemble a young Bob Dylan…

  1. ticklemeelmo Says:
    September 28th, 2006 at 6:27 PM

why do my comments never show up? anyway. get on the guessing. Ieven made up an e-mial adress to throw you off

  1. VDV Says:
    September 28th, 2006 at 10:09 PM

You claim to resemble a young Bob Dylan. I’m going to guess that you’re the kid who’s going to get a 14% on his progress report tomorrow.