Copycats

The sound of the alarm on his phone made Paul wake up. He shut the alarm off and put his phone back down on the nightstand. He rolled over and looked at where his wife slept. Strangely she was already out of bed. He climbed out of bed and walked out to the kitchen. Sharon was standing at the fridge and was talking on the phone. She hadn’t noticed that Paul walked in. 

“Yes. I understand. No, he doesn’t know yet.” Paul was confused from only hearing one side of the conversation. She closed the door and made eye contact with Paul. She smiled at him and waved. “Yes, it will be on Friday.” She was holding the half-empty gallon of milk and placed it on the kitchen table. “I will make sure it’s ready.”

Paul walked over to the pantry grabbed a box of cereal and placed it on the table next to the milk. He then walked over to get two bowls and two coffee cups. Sharon hung up the phone and placed it on the counter. “Who was that at this early in the morning?”

“Just my boss. He wants to make sure the test is ready on Friday for the big event.”

“Sounds interesting. What is the big event?”

“For legal reasons, I can’t tell you.”

“Fair enough.” Paul poured the milk into his bowl and then poured the cereal into the bowl. He looked over at Sharon. She did the opposite. She poured the cereal and then the milk. “That was weird. Why did you do it that way?” 

Sharon looked up at Paul with one eyebrow raised. She looked down at his hands. He was eating with his right hand. “Paul?” She asked as she cautiously put her spoon on the table and stood up. Paul stood up across the table from her. 

A knock on the door caught both of their attention. Sharon started walking over. She could see outside the door window. Two men were standing on the other side. They were wearing suits, had dark black sunglasses, and both were clean-shaven. One of the men was bald and the other had a buzzcut. She opened the door and before she could greet the men, the bald man shoved her aside and walked toward Paul. Paul saw the man walking toward him and he ran toward the back door. He swung it open with such force that the knob left a hole in the wall. Paul ran out and climbed over the fence.

Sharon watched Paul run outside then looked at the other man. “What is going on?” She asked with a demanding tone in her voice. The second man looked back at her and didn’t say anything. He walked past her and toward the back door. The first man was already outside with his gun drawn. He had it aimed at Paul as he dropped on the other side of the fence. 

The second man walked back over to Sharon. “We have reason to believe that this man is an imposter. A few days ago a portal opened up to another dimension and copycats of many people came through. These copycats are taking over the lives of people and trying to replace everyone. As to why, we have no idea just yet. But we have found that these copycats do things that we do just the opposite. For example, my brother's copycat drank decaf coffee instead of regular. Logan's copycat was writing with his left hand instead of his right. My copycat was caught when he ordered vegan food.”

“Copycat Paul was putting milk into his bowl then his cereal. Wow.” 

“We do have your real husband in custody if you want to come get him.” Sharon nodded her head. “Alright follow me.”

They drove to the police station and Sharon walked inside. She was guided to the interrogation room where Paul was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee. She sat across from him and smiled. Paul took a sip of his coffee and was just about to speak. “What are you drinking?”

“Regular coffee. Cream and sugar. Why?”

“Just making sure.” She looked around the room and then leaned closer to Paul. “Did they tell you what is going on?”

“Something about other dimensional beings here to take over our world. I didn’t believe a word they were saying.” He took another sip of his coffee and leaned back in his chair. He looked around the concrete room and then at the surprisingly clean mirror behind Sharon. As he was about to speak again, outside the door were three gunshots. Sharon stood up and opened the door. She looked both ways before running out. She went left then went around the corner. As she heard more gunshots she stopped. The last thing she expected to see was her husband Paul walking through the door holding a machine gun.

The real Paul grabbed her arm and pulled her back toward the room. He led her to a closet and pushed her inside. He closed the door and ran back to the fight. A cop ran up behind him and handed him a pistol. He shot the copycat Paul. When he landed on the ground Paul walked over to him. “This is so bizarre.” He said to the cop. 

Sharon walked around the corner and saw Paul looking at the body. She stopped before walking over to him. He put his hands up to stop her from walking over. He ran over and hugged her. The first thing she noticed was his right arm was on the top of her back. She made a sigh of relief as she realized this was the real Paul.

One of the FBI agents that came to their house walked up to them. “Well, we have some good news. This copycat Paul was the last of the copycats. That we know of. But so far no other copycats have been sighted.”

The agent gave them a ride home. As they pulled into the driveway, Paul got out and opened the door for Sharon to get out. Paul held out his right hand so that Sharon would hold it with her left. They walked to the front door together. Paul stopped just before they reached the steps. He started to move his fingers around as if he was trying to feel for something. “Honey. Where is your wedding ring?”

She looked at him confused as she held up her right hand to show her wedding ring.