The other

I walk slowly up the curving staircase of an almost stereotypical southern mansion.  He is up there, not in a room, but in a capsule, a sort of bathysphere, like an Easter egg, waiting for me.  He knows I am coming. I only have to find him, but his family is going to make it as difficult as possible in their sweet passive aggressive way.

Sometimes I feel like a ghost. Moving through familiar turf that has become unfamiliar while I've been away, but how much could things change? Surely the bond between us will be strong enough.

My search feels futile.  I keep missing him, but just by moments. By the time I reach the bathysphere only a beautiful soft blanket remains. He is gone. Then I hear him laughing and talking to someone as he escorts them down those same steps I just came up, but by the time I return to them he is gone again, far ahead of me down one of the long corridors on the main floor. I have missed him again!

Wandering around in the dim black and white light of late dusk, I hear something upstairs now. It has to be him. This time I run and arrive out of breath, pushing my way into what turns out to be a bathroom. He is in there! But he is helping someone out of a shower bath. It is a woman and she gazes blankly in my direction. There is something very familiar about her.

Not until I look into the wall mirror and see us both, do I realize the woman is me. I know that is impossible and yet I am overwhelmed by a feeling of cold stark terror. This other me cannot not be real can she?

Fear shivers through me followed closely by rage. What if I stabbed her with a hat pin, would I feel the pain too? Are we connected? Is that thought any crazier than what I am seeing?

He looks surprised to see me and looks from one of us to the other, but he never falters in his gentle ministrations of caring for and wrapping the big white terry towel around her. What does this mean?  Does his look mean he is confident that I will understand what he is doing and that it has no bearing on us?

She continues to stare at me, no real emotion showing on her face, but the eyes!  There is something terrifying about her.

And then -- I wake up.