And the Mystery Continues…
There was a knock at the door. Radha casually went forward and opened it. She could not believe what she saw…
Standing in front of her was her own reflection, an exact duplicate with exactly the same set of clothes as hers, smiling her broadest smile.
"Won't you ask me to come in?" she asked.
Radha, shocked and speechless, moved a little to let the creature come in. With the smile still struck upon her, the duplicate Radha entered and closed the door behind her.
"Wow! This house exactly looks like mines'!" she exclaimed.
"And your look is exactly like mines'!" Radha finally found her voice to express her awe.
"Ugghh, I'm hell tired after such a long journey. Let's go and sit in your room na, Radha," she replied, completely ignoring her last comment.
"Huh, you know my name?" Radha asked, more surprised.
"Yeah, why won't I? We have exactly the same names!" the duplicate Radha replied as she went straight to Radha's room.
"Wow! Everything is just the same as mines'…," she exclaimed as soon as she entered the room.
"Really? That's pretty awesome!" Radha replied, trying to get over her shock; while the other seemed to be quite comfortable with the fact.
"Would you like to have some cheese sandwich?" Radha asked, trying to figure out whether they had the same taste as well.
"Oh, I would love that. But I would love it more if…," she begun.
"If it's topped with a lot of tomato sauce," Radha completed her sentence.
"Yeah, right. So, to the balcony I guess…," the duplicate Radha smiled.
"Hmm yes, to my secret headquarter…," Radha smiled back.
"Nope, it's our headquarter now!" duplicate Radha said as she got up to go.
"Hey, you don't have to come, I can manage. You must really be very tired…," Radha begun.
"Nah! I'll be fine. Let's do it together, na. It'll be real fun…"
"Fine if you are okay with it."
Together they went to the large balcony, where Radha keeps all the ingredients of her favorite cheese sandwich along with a little toaster so that she can have it anytime she wants.
"Ah, finally our cheese sandwich is ready!" both the Radhas said in unison, delighted at the thought of having the delicious sandwich.
"Yah, but you know I like eating it sitting on the…," Radha began.
"Of-course, sitting on the swing in the garden…," her replica retorted.
"Yup!" Radha said, quite comfortable now with their identical beings, and went forward to sit on the swing chewing their sandwiches.
"That's your car, right?" duplicate Radha asked from between her teeth.
"Hmm, but I'm yet to get the license," Radha replied, chewing her sandwich whole-heartedly.
"Ah, but that's never stops you from driving it!" duplicate Radha said with a wry smile.
"Yeah, sometimes when my parents aren't at home," Radha replied timidly.
"And they aren't here today," her replica said with a wicked smile.
"No, no. That can't be. I have promised never to do that again!" Radha retorted, guessing her evil intensions.
"Oh! Come-on! Stop behaving like a baby. Finish your sandwich fast and come to the car, quick," duplicate Radha said, and before Radha can protest, she ran towards the car.
Reluctantly, Radha took the keys of her car, locked the door of her house and ran towards her. Duplicate Radha took the keys and sitting on the driver's seat begun driving with Radha by her side.
"Don't go very far, okay," Radha said and then sat quietly as her replica drove past her colony and went into a place unknown to her.
She stopped the car at a point and asked Radha to come out.
"Here? But why?" she asked.
"Come out and look at the view, girl!"
Radha stepped out and was really awestruck. They were standing at a point that looked like a mountain top, although she didn't remember climbing it. But there was no time for these useless thoughts for nature seemed to be at its best here. There was greenery all around, covered with bright colourful flowers. An awesome smell and sweet chirruping birds surrounded them. They looked down and saw houses and people smaller than ants.
"We deserve one selfie here," the duplicate Radha said, taking out her smart phone.
"Yeah, sure," Radha said, and together they posed for a grand selfie.
But before they could take it, Radha somehow got pushed near the edge and slipped and begun falling. Her senses got numb and she frantically moved her hand and legs in order to catch onto something, but to no avail. Suddenly she heard a continuous ringing sound near her ear and heard someone shouting out her name. Then, a thud! She fell down.
She felt a searing pain in her back and head, and quickly opened her eyes. It took her a few seconds to realize that it a bad dream. But her fall and the pain were for real, as she had really fallen off the bed. Her mother saw her falling but couldn't prevent the mishap; all she could do was to give out a loud cry. The ringing she heard was of her alarm clock.
Her mother helped her to get up and lie on the bed and then went off to call a doctor. Lying down on her bed, Radha played back all the incidents of her dream and even in her pain, heaved a sigh of relief that it was just a dream after all. She remembered that someday before her psychology teacher were teaching about few of the psychologists who believed in the existence of parallel universe where perhaps human beings, exactly identical to them, lives. Radha concluded that this dream must be the result of this newly acquired interesting knowledge.
She laughed at herself and moved her head slightly to look towards the swing at the balcony—the same swing where they had enjoyed eating their sandwiches. But what she saw there turned her stomach to ice and the theory of a bad dream, futile. Lying there on the swing were two plates smeared with tomato sauce—an exact replica of the ones they had left in a hurry to drive her new red car.