I have to make them see me!
“Mr. Timbert! Mr. Timbert! I’m right here!” Alex yelled. He banged a chair on the floor. He slammed the door as loudly as he could a few times. But the class went on quietly. No one even looked up.
Well, one person did. The Other Alex. She laughed, shook her head, and showed him what she had in her hands …
… a big, leafy, healthy bean plant. His bean plant!
How did she do that? My plant was dying!
The real Alex and The Other Alex looked at each other for a moment longer … then the real Alex turned and ran to the principal’s office.
Okay! You win! I don’t know what’s going on, but I need help!
He burst into the office. “Can I use the phone to call my brother? I’m not feeling well,” Alex said. The lady behind the office counter didn’t look up. Alex raised his voice. “HELLO! I need to use the phone, please!” She still didn’t look up.
Alex ran around the counter. He grabbed the office phone and dialed his home number. His brother answered.
“Hello?”
“Carl! It’s Alex. I’m really not feeling well. I need you to come and get me!”
“Hello?” Carl said. “Is anyone there? Who is this?”
Alex looked at the phone in horror. Now his brother couldn’t hear him?
“CARL! CARL, IT’S ME, ALEX!” Alex screamed into the phone.
“Alex? I can barely hear you, speak up,” he said. Alex almost cried with relief. Finally, someone could hear him.
“Carl, I need you to pick me up, I’m not feeling well! I need to see Dr. Philips.” Alex could hear his brother moving the phone around his ear.
“Okay, no problem. I’ll be there in half an hour,” Carl said. “Meet me out front.”
Alex hung up. The woman behind the counter still hadn’t looked up. Alex stared at her for a minute. The relief of hearing Carl’s voice, of being heard by Carl, made him a little braver.
“Hey! Can you really not see me?” he shouted. She didn’t look up. He waved his hands in front of her face a few times. Nothing.
But I’m not invisible! I’m right here!
He turned and ran back to his locker. Halfway there, the bell rang, and the hallway filled with students.
He stood in the middle of a flow of kids. He was the rock in the stream, the salmon swimming upriver, the one person going the wrong way. Everyone washed around him, barely bumping into him, but not seeing him, either.
Like he really, really wasn’t there.
He fought his way to his locker. He tugged it open and stared. There were two identical sets of everything: two backpacks, two coats, two pairs of boots.
Where did that come from?
He shook his head, opened and closed his eyes. He reached in and grabbed a backpack, coat, and boots.
“Seeing double?” a voice breathed in his ear. Alex whipped around.
A boy stood there. Alex stared at his exact twin: a boy with his face, his hair, his body.
“I’m not the girl with the braid anymore, am I?” the boy whispered.
Alex shook his head in disbelief. “Who … who are you?” he croaked.
“First I was your cat, then the girl with the braid, now you. It happened faster than even I was expecting,” the boy said. “Like I said, you made it too easy.” Alex stared at the boy, his exact twin, in horror.
“But … but … you look just like me!” Alex whispered.
“You still don’t get it, do you? I AM you now, Alex,” the boy said. “I’m The Other. YOUR Other. And there can be only one of us.”
Then The Other Alex laughed — his laugh — and stared back at the real Alex … with bright green eyes.
Chapter 11
This Won’t Hurt a Bit
Alex an down the hall, trailing his backpack and his coat. His vision blurred, his heart raced.
The Other! There’s another me! That girl with the braid! She turned into me! Either that or … I’m going crazy!
He burst out of the school into the bright sunshine. Carl’s pickup truck idled outside the school. Carl waved at him. Alex could have cried with relief.
He grabbed his bike and tossed it into the back, then jumped in. Carl looked over at Alex.
“What the heck’s wrong with you? You look terrible!” Carl said. Alex tried to calm his breathing, his racing heart. His brother could see him and knew who he was. It was the first time all day someone had looked at him and seen him.
Other than those two tall strangers this morning.
“Carl, you can see me, right?” Alex asked. He closed his eyes. His voice was a hoarse whisper.
Carl nodded slowly. “Of course, Alex. You’re sitting right there. Do you have a fever or something?”
“I … I don’t know. I hope so.” Alex looked at his brother. He wanted to tell him he thought he was losing his mind. But he couldn’t say it. He just couldn’t. He just didn’t know his brother well enough. Didn’t trust him enough. At the moment, Alex didn’t even trust himself enough to say what was happening to him.
“Just take me to the doctor,” Alex answered. “And thanks for coming.”
“No problem,” Carl said. “Oh, and after the doctor, I should drop you at Finkman’s, right?”
Alex stared at his brother for a second. Finkman’s? What was Finkman’s? For a moment, he had no idea what his brother was talking about.
Then his mind clicked. Oh, yeah, it was Friday. The day he worked at Finkman’s Pharmacy after school. He’d worked there for almost a year. He loved Mrs. Finkman. Stocking the pharmacy shelves every Friday was a highlight of his week.
How could he forget?
Alex nodded. “Yes, Finkman’s. Thanks.” It was so … Carl … to remember something as solidly real as Finkman’s Pharmacy.
After that, Alex sat still and silent, staring out the window. Carl drove and whistled. But at that moment, Alex didn’t even mind the whistling.
Carl could see him.
When they got to the doctor’s office, Carl sat in the waiting room. Alex sat on the crinkly paper on the examining table, freezing in his socks and underwear. Dr. Philips listened to Alex’s heart, looked into his ears, nose, throat.
“Well, Alex, I can’t find anything wrong with you. You’re as healthy as ever,” Dr. Philips said kindly. He wore thick glasses and he stooped a little, but Dr. Philips had always been their family doctor. He knew Alex well.
“But is there something else bothering you, son?”
Alex bit his lip. How exactly do you tell a doctor that you think you’re cracking up?
“Dr. Philips?”
“Yes, Alex?”
“Do people ever think that they might have an identical twin, when they don’t?”
Dr. Philips looked at Alex with surprise. “Hmm, I think we all wonder if there’s a duplicate of us out there somewhere. But unless you’re really an identical twin, it’s just a fantasy. Although recently a photographer took pictures of people from all over the world who looked a lot like each other. Maybe there are only so many faces out there.” Dr. Philips smiled at Alex. “Does that help?” he asked.
Alex nodded. No. Not really.
“I was there when you were born, Alex. I promise you, you don’t have a twin,” Dr. Philips added. “You can get dressed now.”
As Alex pulled on his clothes, Dr. Philips looked at Alex’s chart, and frowned. “But, you know what? You really do need your booster shot.” Alex watched the doctor’s back as he shuffled around. He pulled out a needle …
… and Alex gasped. Doctor Philips quickly moved the needle behind his back. But not before Alex saw what was in it!
“Are you okay, Alex?” the doctor asked. He leaned in, concerned. “You look a little pale.” Alex looked up into the doctor’s face.
“Hold s
till now, young man, this won’t hurt a bit.”
“Doctor Philips?”
“Yes?”
“What’s in that needle?”
The doctor grinned. “Oh, nothing serious. Just some measles, mumps, rubella vaccine and …” Just as Dr. Philips dipped forward, Alex leapt. He jumped under the doctor’s arm and shot out the door. He ran down the hallway and out into the reception room.
Carl dropped his magazine and stared as his little brother sprinted past.
Alex burst out the heavy glass door and down the steps. He tore to the pickup truck and grabbed his bike. He ran with it, hopped on, and sped across the snowy parking lot as fast as he could. Carl and the astonished Dr. Philips stood at the door as he pedalled away.
They stared at Alex as he rode off.
Dr. Philips still held the needle. Carl’s eyes, the doctor’s eyes, the goo in the needle … everything burned bright green!
Chapter 12
Finkman’s Pharmacy
Alex rode to the edge of town. He had nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.
The world’s gone crazy! The teachers, the kids at school, now Carl and Dr. Philips. Not to mention me. Or The Other. What am I going to do?
He stared out at the windswept fields of snow. The highway ran south to the city from there.
Could I ride to the city? Live there? Do I know anyone there?
But it would never work. He was a twelve-year-old boy on a bike in the middle of nowhere. In the middle of winter. He had no money. No friends. He had a job, but how much did you need to live on, anyway? Probably more than he earned stocking the shelves at Finkman’s for two hours a week.
But when he thought of Mrs. Finkman, he suddenly felt a tiny bit better.
Mrs. Finkman, the pharmacist, was the most normal, sensible person he knew. There was definitely no funny business about Finkman’s Pharmacy or Mrs. Finkman.
If anyone could help him, it was her. She was his last hope. He rode his bike against the wind, across the icy road, and back into town. He hoped Carl wasn’t looking for him, but he’d have to risk it. A few minutes later he pulled in front of the pharmacy.
“Mrs. Finkman!” The little bell over the door jangled as Alex ran in. It was so warm in the pharmacy, he suddenly realized how cold he was. He rubbed his hands together.
Please help me!
“Mrs. Finkman!” he called again. A pleasant-looking grey-haired lady stepped out from the stockroom at the back of the store.
Please see me, Mrs. Finkman!
He called her name again, and she looked up in surprise.
“Oh! Alex!” she said. “What are you doing here?” she asked, bewildered.
“It’s Friday after school, Mrs. Finkman. When I come and sort the new stock?” How could she forget?
“Well, of course, dear, but it’s just that you already did it.” Mrs. Finkman looked puzzled.
“What do you mean, Mrs. Finkman? I just got here,” Alex said.
Mrs. Finkman came from behind the pharmacist’s counter, opened the little swing door to the stock floor, and peered into Alex’s face.
“Are you okay, Alex? You look a little off,” she said gently. She drew close to Alex, like she wanted to put her hand on his forehead and check for fever.
“Mrs. Finkman, I’m telling you, I just got here,” he said. His mouth was dry, his heart started to pound. Mrs. Finkman was the nicest lady he knew. She was kind to him, paid him well, and always sent him home with a bag of peppermints each week. As the town’s only pharmacist, she was everyone’s friend. Finkman’s Pharmacy donated new hockey jerseys for the town team every winter and new baseball team shirts every summer. Not that Alex had ever had either of those things. But still, everyone loved her.
She wouldn’t tease him.
“Mrs. Finkman, I know this sounds crazy, but what do you mean that I already stocked the shelves?” Mrs. Finkman stared at him for a moment. Her grey hair was cut short, and her plastic tortoiseshell glasses almost hid her brown eyes.
“Well, you came in at lunchtime and told me you had to stock the shelves earlier than usual today, since you were busy tonight. I think you said you were going to a sleepover? And I said that was a first for you, and you seemed really happy.…” She trailed off and looked at Alex.
He stared at her in horror.
“But I … I didn’t stock the shelves at lunch today, Mrs. Finkman. I promise you. I … I was at the doctor.” A horrible thought was forming in Alex’s mind. If he didn’t stock the shelves, who did?
Someone who looked just like him.
“Alex, are you feeling all right?” Mrs. Finkman drew in closer to Alex, reached for him, and he drew back in horror.
She cocked her head to one side and whispered, “Maybe you should get some help, Alex.” Alex gulped and backed toward the door.
“I know two people who can help you. They’re in the back. They were here asking about you, Alex. Let them help you.” Mrs. Finkman reached out, but he dodged her and tore toward the door. He yanked the heavy door open, ran across the parking lot, and jumped on his bike.
He looked back over his shoulder once. Mrs. Finkman stood at her door. Two tall figures, much too tall, in overcoats and sunglasses, stood on either side of her. The three of them watched him ride away, like curious dogs.
Alex didn’t feel the cold. He just rode and rode, anywhere.
As fast as he could.
Chapter 13
No Place Like Home
Alex rode along the highway.
He didn’t want anyone to see him, and he didn’t want to bump into Carl, those tall strangers, or anyone else with green eyes! If he was going to survive whatever was happening to him, he had to get home, fast. He needed supplies and somewhere to hide.
A storm was brewing. Dark clouds pulled across the sky, and snow started to fall. When he pulled into the driveway, the snow came hard and fast. He put his bike back in the shed.
He crept up the driveway. Carl’s truck was parked outside the kitchen door. The horses stirred in the barn, but Alex didn’t go to see them. He knew Needles wouldn’t be in there, either.
The Other had done something with her. He couldn’t bear to think what.
He hid behind the bushes at the side of the house. The driving snow hit his face.
He couldn’t look away from the brightly lit kitchen.
And what he saw through the window.
Carl sat at the kitchen table. And so did a boy. The Other Alex.
The real Alex watched from outside in the snow as his evil twin sat across from Carl. The two looked warm and happy. They chatted and laughed together in the cozy kitchen.
The Other sat in his kitchen. In his house! Alex crept closer to the window and strained to hear what The Other Alex and Carl were saying.
But he could only catch a word or two.
“Needles.”
“Doctor.”
“Sorry. I feel better now.”
Then, “tell Mom and Dad!” Carl jumped up. He called The Other Alex, and the two sat in front of the computer. Alex-outside-in-the-snow-and-storm couldn’t hear anything. But he could see just fine. His mother’s face came onto the computer screen. Then his father’s face. They smiled, and then The Other Alex said something, and they all laughed.
Outside-Alex thought he heard the word “sleepovers” and “that’s great, Alex!”
But it didn’t matter if he heard a word. The happy look on his parents’ faces told him that they thought they were talking to their son Alex. To him. A whole new Alex, maybe; a brand new boy who suddenly wasn’t invisible and got invited to birthday parties and sleepovers.
They thought they were talking to a boy who was somehow taking a turn for the better.
Alex-outside-in-the-snow felt sick to his stomach. His teachers, his classmates, Mrs. Finkm
an, Carl. Now his mother and father.
The Other Alex had them all fooled.
Alex considered knocking on the kitchen door. But what if Carl didn’t open it? Or even worse, what if he did but didn’t see Alex? Then he’d be completely invisible. Gone. He didn’t think he could handle that.
“But I’m right here,” he whispered outside in the snow.
At least … I think I am.
The real Alex was fading away. Unless he did something fast, the last piece of him, whoever he was, was about to disappear forever.
Chapter 14
Trapped
Alex lay curled in the corner of the abandoned trapper’s cabin. The storm raged, piling snow higher and higher in the clearing. Alex lay on the hard floor, listening to the howling wind.
What am I going to do? No one even knows I’m here. But I’m the real Alex!
He looked out the broken window. A tear slid down his nose. He didn’t really do anything terribly well or better than anyone else. He was shy. He was quiet. He was entirely forgettable, not the least bit memorable or important to anyone. No one would miss him. He didn’t even have a best friend.
Yes, you do! You have Needles!
Alex sat up. In all the weirdness of the past few hours, he had almost forgotten about her.
Then Alex remembered something that had been bothering him. At school, The Other Alex had said Needles was fine. But how? Was she still out there somewhere? Waiting for Alex to save her?
Alex stood up and slapped his hands against his chest to warm up.
There was no point dying of hunger or freezing to death. He had to take care of himself if he was going to get out of this. And if there was any way to get Needles back, somehow, he had to try.
First thing tomorrow, I need to find food. And warm clothes.
He looked around the barren cabin. It wasn’t much, but it was home for now. At least it’s not leaking, he thought with a sigh. He lay back down on the cold boards and closed his eyes.
Alex and The Other Page 4