Nemesis Part 2

Digital Abstract Painting, The Stains of Chaos No. 1 by thecryptofiend

How wonderful to have someone to blame! How wonderful to live with one's nemesis! You may be miserable, but you feel forever in the right.
Erica Jong

A strange girl was claiming I was a seducer.

No matter how I framed it to Kenzie, my defence was going to sound lame.

And the damnable thing was, this happened at the worst possible time.

Kenz and I were best buds, but I was thinking of taking our friendship to the next level.

I was shy and hadn't even kissed her yet, and now I had to convince her I don't go around seducing or assaulting women.

“I don’t know if you’ll be able to understand, Kenz, but this kind of thing has happened to me before on occasion. I honestly think I’m being stalked.”

Her voice went up. “What do you mean, ‘on occasion’—are you telling me there were other incidents?”

I hung my head in shame. “Unfortunately.”

She grabbed my chin and stared straight into eyes. “How many, Jude?”

“About a dozen, I’d say, give or take, a few.”

She arched an eyebrow.

“Look, Kenz—there are so many I lost count. What can I say? I transferred from Scarborough College to Vic here to get away from it all. I guess it followed me.”

“You gotta be kidding—you expect me to believe this?

“Naw, I don’t. Why should you?”

She looked again out the window as if searching for an answer in the rain-streaked glass.

“Have you told anybody else about this?”

“Yeah, I told Wren, my roommate.”

“So, what does he think?”

Well, Wren’s kind of different. I mean, his parents are crazy-rich and he’s just taking a smattering of interest courses. He’s almost a mystic.”

“I don’t care about that—what does he say?”

It’s gonna sound really weird.”

“I can take it—I doubt it can be weirder than what you’ve already told me.”

“Well, okay—but remember, I warned you.”

She gave me the look, and I figured I better cut to the chase and just tell her.

“Wren uses a lot of analogies to explain people’s behaviour—but the damn thing is, he’s nearly always right. He’s got a kind of intuition. Anyway, he thinks I’ve got an evil twin.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh brother, all this lead-up to tell me this load of crap…Do you think I was born yesterday?”

“No wait, Kenz—hear me out, for godsakes, will ya?”

Her mouth line was firmly set, and arms crossed. “Go on.”

I took a deep breath and plunged in.

“Wren explains my situation by seeing it in the light of the stars. He says stars are often born in pairs—like our own Sun, for example, it might have a companion star, lost and wandering somewhere out in the cosmos.”

“Where’s this going, Jude?”

“Hold on—I’ll tell you. It seems astronomers have even named the hypothetical star Nemesis, after the Greek goddess of retribution or payback.”

She slowly shook her head. She wasn't buying what I was selling.

“Yeah, Jude, I get it. I’ve studied enough Shakespearean tragedy to know what nemesis means. So, what are you saying—he sees you as some kind of tragic hero born under a bad star, or something?”

“No—it’s an analogy. Think about it—the Sun might have an evil twin lurking in the far reaches of the cosmos waiting for his chance to get even for being kicked out of the galaxy.”

"That's enough." She reaches across the table to gather up her books and gets ready to leave.

“I can't believe you'd expect me to listen to this drivel. Like I said at the beginning, this is crazy. I don’t want to hear any more.”

“But wait, Kenz—here’s the strange part. Wren's right. I do have a twin—I just found out about it a few weeks ago when going through my parents’ papers.”

Her eyes turned fiery.

“You’re not going to pull that one on me, are you? Look Jude, I’m sorry your parents died last year in that plane crash, but how the hell could you have a twin you don’t know about?”

“Simple. My Mom didn’t give birth to us.”

Kenzie slumped back down in her chair. “What?”

“I found out by going through these papers that my original birth mother was an aid worker in Nicaraugua. The hospital records show she gave birth to twin boys named Jude and Dre. My father was trying to repatriate us to Canada when a band of Contra commandos attacked the villa where the three of us were staying, and only I survived.”

Kenzie’s eyes filled with tears. “I'm so sorry, Jude. This must have been heart wrenching for you to learn the truth in this way. I can’t imagine…”

“It was hard, but it helped to explain things. I couldn’t see any resemblance of me in my mother—just my father.”

She leaned back in the chair staring at the ceiling. “I don’t get what this means—what’s the point of telling me all this?”

“Don’t you get it? My twin brother that I didn’t know about until two weeks ago is alive. He must have survived and returned to Canada somehow. He’s my Nemesis—returning to take revenge on me for being kicked out of the family.”

“That sounds like a plot for a made-for-TV movie, “ she groaned.

“Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, Kenz—but how the hell else do you explain it? It makes sense. Someone who’s my exact double, is stalking me and causing chaos in my life.”

To be continued

© 2017, John J Geddes. All rights reserved