The man in the mirror
"Do you remember...?"
"When we first touched?"
"yes."
"How could I forget? We are one and the same."
"And yet we could not be more different."
"I am glad..."
Their voices joined into one sentence. "You started experimenting with Tears."
At the same time, their thoughts wandered back to a day- more than ten years in the past by now. Their identical green eyes met, their lids lowered. When Rosalind had found out about her twin- her other self, neither of them had dared crossing the border. They had conversed, drank tea together and got to know each other (as far as it was possible, regarding that they already shared a mind). The desire to make more of this remarkable relationship however, grew ever stronger and more intense- until one day, neither of them could resist any longer.
"Hello?" How often had she called those words, hoping with her entire soul that someone might answer. But again, all she saw was another empty room. Slowly, she felt her motivation fade away, and doubt replace her self esteem. That had never happened before- Rosalind Lutece was a strong woman. She angrily stomped a foot upon the dusty floor. Stronger than many a man! She turned to the machine, in order to close the Tear, when suddenly a voice caused her to spin around.
"What in the world...?!" It was a man. His voice sounded somehow strange, due to the distortion of the not so very flawless Tear. "Why has a Tear opened in my..."
Rosalind stared at the man. "Excuse me. What have you just called..."
"The Tear?" It had taken Rosalind until now to understand that he did not only look almost like a male version of herself, he also seemed to think alike her.
"I have named them so." He continued, eyeing her closely.
"That is quite impossible."
"On the contrary, Madam. But perhaps it's simply..."
"A matter of perspective."
"Precisely."
"It always is."
Rosalind took another step towards the handsome man, and a faint smile played around her face like the shadow of a ghost. "What's your name, sir?"
"Why ask questions of which you already know the answer?"
He was only partly right. Rosalind did know who he was- but she did not know what her name was- in this other dimension. "I was starting to believe I had made a mistake."
"We never do."
"Men."
"Oh I beg of you- I know that we aren't the giving-up-type."
"I must confess that I have hoped that my assumptions were correct."
"So did I."
"Now, have my parents failed to give me a name in the world you live in?" She was deliberately teasing him. Apart from that, she was getting slightly impatient. The man in the mirror raised an eyebrow, and looked displeased. One thing was certain so far: he was more sensitive than her.
"Hn. Lutece- Robert Lutece."
"Rosalind." She smiled. Finally! Her dreams had become true! "Please, tell me you were aware of the obvious fact that we would have the same family name."
Their first conversation had not lasted long. Both of them were forced to continue their labour for the Comstocks of their universes. However, they had saved the data that would bring them together again some time soon. Every detail was recorded meticulously on Voxophones- but the more personal impressions were written down in notebooks. Notebooks both had prepared long ago and hidden under their pillows, hoping- perhaps even secretly praying, that the day they wouldn't have to be alone any longer, would come. Two are always better than one, and great minds think alike.
