Written for Pancreatic Cancer UK to fundraise and help raise awareness of this terrible illness after losing my dad in November 2020

Part 1

Doppelgangers

I stared, were my eyes deceiving me?  I am an only child, and at twenty-five I’m certain this is the case. The woman could have been me in a mirror, how does this work?  I’ve have never believed in Doppelgangers, so how can this be true? Pinching myself, hard, no I’m still here.

Seeing her look at me, her surprise said it all, we don’t know each other but we are identical.  Approaching her, we had to talk, but what do you say to a stranger who looks just like you?

“Hi, this is rather strange and awkward, but how can we look so alike?”

“We don’t know each other, but I know you are Kerry, I’m Kirsty, I saw your news article and sorry I had to meet you.”

Thinking of my article in the local paper, I cringed.  “Kerry Wells wins the Marshwood Half Marathon.”  All done for charity, and it was a good but exhausting day.

Being approached by an identical woman in your own village surely does not happen often and I would have been equally curious. Not sure I liked the idea of being sought out, but I might have done the same.

“Shall we get coffee?  There’s a café just down here?.”

The café

Stirring my hot chocolate, I was taken back by the similarities in our lives.  We are both Teachers, both divorced, both have two children, a boy and a girl, we live about 200 miles apart and so had never had the chance of meeting, until now.   After both losing a parent to Pancreatic Cancer, she had been following the same Pancreatic Cancer forum and saw my story.   Comparing photos of our fathers they looked alike but are not doppelgangers.

Comparing stories, we are not biologically related, but Kirsty had been researching the Doppelganger phenomenon. She had read that there is a one in a trillion chance of finding an exact copy of yourself; but there is a one in one hundred and thirty-five chance that a single pair of identical copies of you exists.   She also read that in the world there are seven copies of you, with your facial features. There is even a website to help you find your lookalike. However, to find an exact copy in all features is unlikely.  We are not comparing DNA, but I was feeling nervous about all our likenesses.

“Is there any reason to suggest anything strange here?  Is this just coincidence? I’ve watched too many films but surely this is just a chance meeting.

“Maybe we should get checked. I’ve got the worry of clones going around my head, hope this is nothing sinister.”

Weeks later

Sitting opening my post I felt a cold clammy feeling.  What was I reading? As the phone rang, I wasn’t ready to talk to the caller. Something wasn’t right and today’s letter confirmed that.  All that I know about the world is distorted.  God made the world and all its creatures.  Then created Adam and Eve, who procreated and so we are all here.  This questioned that, though maybe something strange has happened as we have evolved, if Charles Darwin was correct.

Flicking on the kettle, I need a day off, this is not a normal day!

Written for a A story a day for Pancreatic Cancer UK

Here is my fundraising page if you would like to donate, any size donation is appreciated