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

Part 2

What am I?

I had believed all my life that I am like anyone else.  I’m a human being, though not normal, but I do a normal job nurturing young minds as a teacher.  I didn’t read much philosophy until now; this was too weird.  Kirsty and I are not sisters, but our genetic make ups are not like anyone else before. The scientists in the Pathology lab are excited about their new discovery.   They are asking how many of us are out there?  Are we all teachers? Are our parents really our parents? This was not something I had ever questioned before, but we had to ask.

Telling my mum about this her face told the truth.  She had given birth to me and raised me, to her I was a normal human, no question.  The thought that I was some other being, distressed her greatly.

The Professor

Receiving a letter from Cambridge University, Professor Kenneth Jeffries, Head of Philosophy wanted to meet with us.  The hospital had asked us to sign a consent form to share our case as the open-minded doctor believed that we are not of this world.

It was a week later that Kirsty and I were sat drinking coffee in the spacious office of Professor Jeffries.  Never before, had I been involved in a conversation which I would have dismissed as fiction. This is not a Dean Koontz novel its my life.

Professor Jeffries research was directly related to our situation. His work had been the theory that every life changing decision we make, creates another one of us.  For example, as you agree to marry someone, another you will not marry them, and they will go on to marry someone else and have a different life.  I’m not sure how our stories are so similar, but the theory is that we are from different timelines.  Timelines that all play out at the same time.  How had I crossed timelines? Had my mother crossed it with me?

Hurricane Hannah

For Kirsty and me to have both crossed the timeline he needed to find an event that might have caused this.  I thought back to last year, there had been a raging and crashing storm Hurricane. They had named it Hurricane Hannah.  The professor typed Hurricane Hannah into his Laptop.  There was no mention of it.  There hadn’t been a storm. Looking at Kirsty she was nodding at me, she knew about Hurricane Hannah.

“Did Hurricane Hannah have lightening?

“Yes, why?”

“Hurricanes do not have lightning and thunder because lightning and thunder are formed by vertical winds that cause water and ice to rub together. This friction creates the electrical field that causes lightning and thunder. This churning does not happen with a hurricane, hence no lightening.  However, in 2005, Hurricane Emily, Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina all had a huge amount of lightning and thunder as well.

As the Professor was getting more excited a new question went through my mind,

“What about our families, are they our real families? and are these Hurricanes all related.”

“Your families, I think are your real families, but you are all part of other you’s different decisions.  The Hurricane has somehow messed with the other world timelines.  The you’s that live here have been thrown into the other timeline.  I’m also wondering if other timelines have been crossed before, these are unique Hurricanes as they have lightening.

“And how come have Kirsty and I have parents that look different.”

“Kerry, we’ve compared our fathers but not our mothers.”

Reaching into my pocket I pulled out my phone. Opening my phone gallery I passed it to her.

A likeness

Her jaw dropped, “That’s my mum.”

The Professors’ face was a picture.  “This is exciting, so your mums made a decision at some point that meant that she didn’t marry your same father.  Whether she has met both men we don’t know until we ask them”.

“But hang on, how come are Kirsty and I both here?”

“An explanation could be that more than one timeline experienced Hurricane Hannah. Meeting you two, has made my research fact, your DNA has shown that you are the same, but copies of the original”.

“So where are the originals?”

“I think they and their families have been pulled into your timelines. Somehow 200 miles apart you are both here, both unaware of what has happened until now,  We don’t know how many different timelines there are, but this gives evidence to their existence.  This also poses the question of the average number of copies per person.  Also, with you two here, how many doppelgangers are here on this timeline now? And do the originals know they have been pulled into another time?”

Human  Copies

“That’s a lot of questions to answer. So, all the people who I’ve been talking to have been copies or originals of the ones I know in my world.  I guess its coincidence that we are both teachers and coincidence that we lost our dads to the same disease.”

“Unfortunately, Pancreatic Cancer is common and one of the deadliest cancers as people are often diagnosed too late.”

“But in one of the other timelines there might  be a cure, different decisions leading to better outcomes.”

“Yes, in one of them somewhere there could be a cure, it’s a shame that we can’t recreate Hurricane Hannah and choose which timeline to move to.  If we could find the cure and share it across all timelines wouldn’t that be amazing.”

“What would be good Kerry, is to find the cure to all the big illnesses.  Cancer, Dementia, Motor Neurone, Parkinson’s, there are so many that affect many people.”

“Well, I know in my lifetime there has never been a cure to any of them.  So, my timeline is not worth searching and I guess Kerry’s isn’t either”.

“Of course, the other thing that we know, ladies, is that Hurricane Hannah brought you here.  I will try and work out what makes these Hurricanes unique other then the lightening, unless that is it, we need to know how to move between timelines, however, how would we share the information and get home.  What we do know is that my research and theory is correct.”

My thoughts

Meeting with the Professor had raised questions. From meeting someone identical to me to finding a cure for cancer in another timeline.  This had all become like something out of a film.  However, this is my life and it is real.  What is happening next? Looking over at Kirsty I was glad to have met her, but this was all too bazaar and what about all the friends I had left in my own timeline? And all the new decisions that the original was making.  Only in time we will find the answer, we will wait and see.

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.

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

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

‘Tiny Cafe’

Working at the ‘Tiny Café’, I see the same customers day after day.  Doris will always come in at 10.00am for a creamy coffee, bringing her Labrador Percy with her.  Ben and Charlie arrive at 12.30pm for their dinner and Nicola at 4.00pm for a catch up while I take my afternoon break.

I have worked here just five years and I’m happy.  Watching people eating my baked cakes and enjoying the café atmosphere gives me a feeling of satisfaction that my secretarial job didn’t.   I’ve always enjoyed baking, and now I get paid to play with icing.

Today should have been a good day, an open afternoon for the local residents, raising money for the school nursery.  We had balloons, banners and a clown organised, so how did it go wrong?  As the children arrived things took an unplanned turn.

The Clown

With Paul the clown up a ladder hanging a banner, little Billy somehow gave it a shove. As Paul screamed, elderly Doris was walking underneath.  A yelp came from Percy as he saw the chaos as it evolved.  As the ladder and clown fell, Doris tried to move but wasn’t fast enough.  Running over all my first aid training flashed through my head.  The clown groaned as Doris lay there peacefully.  Thinking the worse I pulled out my phone and dialled the ambulance.

Days later

What should have been a happy community event had put poor Doris in hospital.  Percy was now sat in the corner of the café observing the guests.  Waiting tables I became aware of being watched.  A lady sat in the corner had been cuddling a mug of cappuccino all afternoon.  Walking over to her, I needed an excuse to talk to her.

“Would you like another drink?”

“No, but are you Mandy?”

“Yes, sorry but who are you?”

“Are you due a break soon, we need to talk?”

“Ten minutes and Doreen can take over from me for a while.”

The bombshell

“Have you visited Doris in hospital?”

“I went in this morning before opening up.”

“And has she told you what has happened?”

“She was trying to say something, but a doctor walked in, and then I had to leave. What has happened?

“Well, how well do you know Doris?”

“She has been coming in here for years, that’s why Percy is happily sleeping in the corner.  Sorry, who are you?”

“I’m a friend, but she saw you Mandy as her closest.”

“I see her and Percy everyday and talk to her when I can.”

“And what about the clown, did you know him?”

“He was recommended to me by one of the parents.”

“Interesting, and the child who knocked the ladder.”

“No, I don’t know.”

“Well, the child who knocked the ladder was the son of the clown, that wasn’t an accident.  Doris saw something that they don’t want anyone else to know.”

“What?”

“Doris told me days ago and I told her to talk to the police. She said she would ask for your opinion.  You need to be careful Mandy, they dropped a clown on Doris, not sure what they might do to you.”

The story

“What did Doris see? What happened?

“Doris saw Paul the clown stealing from ‘Chubbs’ the Jeweller’.  Mr Chubbs’ doesn’t know who stole the diamonds, but he knows Doris saw him.   We think he hoped to scare her to keep her quiet, but she is worried he will be coming after you.  She’s not worried about herself.”

“What do we do, do we talk to the police, I think we have to.”

“Are you not worried about Paul?”

“No, he can’t steal and then put Doris in hospital and get away with it.  Doreen can take over here.”

Doris

Another day in the ‘Tiny Café’, Doris is happily sat nursing her coffee.  She looked relaxed and content and you wouldn’t know that a clown fell on her a few weeks back.

Paul the clown was now waiting to be sentenced and was in a police cell.  He was predicted to go down for years for stealing the diamonds and Grievously Bodily Harm to Doris.  The child had been in trouble with school and his mother, who had not known about her husband’s dodgy dealings.

Our charity event had raised money but had not been the success it should have been.  Doris has suggested that we try again, I don’t think I will be hiring a clown this time.

Written for A story a day for Pancreatic Cancer UK

Here is my fundraising page if you would like to donate.   Any size donation is appreciated.