The Damned Lies Project

Wherein graduation commences and suspicions grow

The next day was high school graduation.  My clone was under strict orders to stay home and out of sight.  Since I was there when he woke up, I was clearly the “real” me and the one in command.  He was the copy and so was on bitch duty.  He didn’t respond well to this at first, but my logic was irrefutable.  Also, I wouldn’t let him out of the plastic tube until he agreed.

I drove over to Bruce’s house before graduation.  My family was driving to the ceremony later.  All graduates had to get there early and stand in a prearranged line.  I got dressed before I left for Bruce’s.  My high school eschewed the traditional cap and gown in favor of something a little more classy.  All the men were required to wear white tuxes, complete with black bow tie, while the ladies were required to wear white dresses.  While in quick moments it seemed like a scene from a GQ ad, overall it worked.

Bruce opened the door and paused for a second.  “You look like James Bond,” he said.

I smiled with the compliment and smoothed my sleeves, feeling slick.

“Or the waiter at someplace Grandma would take us,” said Victor vaguely from inside.

I frowned and waited for Bruce to grab his jacket.  Though his white tux was a twin of mine, he didn’t wear it as well.  He looked like the fourth member of the groom’s wedding party, the guy pulled in just so there are enough groomsmen to match all the bridesmaids.  “Let’s go,” he said.

While we drove to the school, he let me know about prom.  My high school was weird.  For some reason, they had prom the very night before graduation.  Other schools had a week or two gap.  I had heard of one that did prom after graduation.  But ours was the night before.  I expected to see quite a few hungover people at graduation.  Bruce looked just the same as when I saw him the afternoon before.  Either he didn’t drink or he had an iron liver.

“Prom was fun,” he said.  “Kelly and I shared a limo with Claudia and Brian, then drank a little at Kelly’s parents’ beach house.”

“Claudia went with Brian?  Seriously?”

“Oh, you didn’t know?” he said with a smirk.  “Yeah.  I don’t think they’re actually dating, though.”  He paused.  “Kelly told me that Claudia had really wanted you to ask her.”

I cursed.

Claudia had been the object of my crush for half a year.  We laughed a bit in school, we were part of the same after school club, and I even made her a goddamn mix tape.  At no time did she get the message that I was interested.  I even suggested the movies a few times, but always let that idea sputter out when she kept mentioning friends to invite.  I used to cut class to hang out with her doing her workstudy job in the attendance office.  Besides the obvious delicious irony, that should have showed her what I risked for her.  Honestly, in retrospect, unless I had said directly to her, “Do. You. Want. To. Go. On. A. Date,” she may never have gotten the message.  And I was too awkward a teen to be that direct.

“You and Kelly have been dating how long?” I asked in exasperation.

“A year.”

“And Kelly and Claudia have been best friends how long?”

“Three, I think.”

“And you never thought to mention the fact that Claudia wanted me to take her to prom?”

He shrugged, then yanked the wheel putting us into a screeching turn, which flung me against the car door.  “I guess it never came up.”

I never went to prom.  Part of it is I didn’t have a date lined up, attempts to curry Claudia’s favor not withstanding.  Part of it was money; prom could be quite expensive.  But it ended up that I was off fighting the forces of darkness that night, and I would not have been able to attend without really neglecting my date. ¹

We arrived at school and were herded into the gymnasium.  We were lined up according to last name, which put me between one annoying rich girl I didn’t like and a more hung over spoiled rich girl who I could’ve tolerated if her voice was an octave lower.  The sober one kept having conversations with the other girl, which made the conversations go through me.  The hung over one didn’t speak as much, but laughed in a high pitched chitter which was maddening.  When pomp and circumstance started, I couldn’t be more thrilled.  We walked out of the gym, and onto elevated platforms placed in the middle of the football field.  This faced the normal football bleachers where our families were arranged.

Since we were outdoors in the middle of the field, the windy day was made much worse.  The wind went the opposite direction of how my hair usually parts, so I spent much of graduation with hair in my face being blown by the wind.  Suffice to say the pictures from that day are hardly flattering.

We stood on tiers on the platform, the line wrapped up and down each tier serpentine.  One small blessing is the way our last names coincided: I was on the platform just behind and slightly left of Bruce.  This made it possible to lean over and talk to him during the ceremony.  Since the speeches went on, and on, and on, this was a very good thing.  How many times can you really listen to someone quote “Oh the Places You’ll Go”?  If it was not that, it was some other hopeful graduation gibberish.

“And as you graduates go forward into life, never backward, but following the dreams that you yourselves established over a long period of growth into the young leaders you shall now become, never forget that the challenges of life are both unpredictable and are learning experiences to mold you into the persons you shall become.  But forget not those along the way, making sure to give back and give forward to the community, so that they can share in the benefits of you on your longer journey of personhood as it goes forward.”  And so on.

If I listened too long, my brain would probably explode.  The keynote speaker was someone unknown to me.  We had Telly Savalas graduate from our school; they couldn’t get him?  That would have been a great speech.  He gets up there, turns on the mic.  “To all the graduates…” pause, then his signature phrase: “Who loves you, baby?”  Smile, everyone laughs, end speech, done.  And everyone would have fucking loved it.

Boredom had me scanning the crowd.  I saw my family, who waved randomly if they even thought I might be looking in their direction.  Yes, Mom, I saw you.  Then I scanned for people I might know, mostly friends’ parents and parents of my enemies.  I saw Bruce’s family: his mother portly and proud, his father thin and distant, Victor vague and pale as usual, his sister hot and perpetually stoned.

I froze and then scanned back.  It was a quick flash and then someone running down the bleacher steps.  Was that…?

I leaned forward and whispered in Bruce’s ear.  “I think I just saw my clone.”

He didn’t respond at first.  He was actually listening to the speech!  I flicked his ear and said more insistently, “I just saw my clone.”

“No shit?” he said.  “I guess seeing you graduate is an interesting experience for him to.”

“He was supposed to stay at home!”

Bruce shrugged.  “Who knows?  He’s your clone.  Would you follow that order?”

“I thought there was something in it to make him more subservient, more willing to follow commands.”

Bruce chuckled.  “When did we ever tell you that?  He’s like you in every way.  Which is almost unfortunate.  The only difference is that Victor thinks he probably will dissolve in a few months.  The universe correcting itself or something.  Didn’t he send you an email or something?”

I leaned back with a hrrmph and spent the rest of graduation pouting.  I scanned the bleachers the whole time and saw nothing.  I thought I might have seen him when I grabbed my diploma, but I could have just been paranoid and reading into that mysterious stranger that was idling on the left bleachers.

The ceremony finally ended and the field became a madhouse of beaming graduates and fussy parents, with pockets of people opening and closing every minute or so as people made room to take photos.  My mom came and gave me hug and grabbed my arm, my dad patted me on the back.  My brothers congratulated me in their own ways.  After that, they took me out to a nice dinner.

When I arrived home, I found a way to discreetly excuse myself and made for the basement.  My bedroom was on the second floor, but I had taken over the basement once most of my brothers went to college.  Except for when my mom did laundry, it was my sanctum sanctorum.  All my cool stuff was down there.

I found my clone on the couch beneath the stairs reading a copy of Max Stirner’s “The Ego & Its Own.”  He tilted his head around the book when he heard me and raised his eyebrow.

“You were supposed to stay home!” I said.

“I did stay home.  I’ve been reading.  Did you bring me home any food from the restaurant?”

I tossed him the doggie bag I had packed.  I would’ve liked to finish my entire meal from the restaurant, but I had some responsibility to my clone.  And ordering a second entrée just to pack it up would have been suspicious.

“I saw you at graduation,” I said.

“You must have seen someone else,” he said, opening the bag.

“I know it was you,” I said defiantly.

“Really?  Didn’t know you had so much practice recognizing yourself in the crowd, you must be that good.  That paranoid, more likely.”  He rifled through the bag.  “Seriously?  You brought me a third of a piece of baklava and cold steak fries?  I have the same appetite you do.”

I ignored his comment.  He was clearly lying to me.  I had no doubt.

This was when I first suspected that my clone might be evil.

* * *

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