2/6/11

I saw my clone today
(and he was with some incredible babe)
By Tony Rauch


I saw myself at the market today. It was as if I were looking in a mirror. I just stood there, stunned. I mean he (or I) was standing farther away, looking over some tomatoes. He didn’t see me. I ducked behind a shelf to peek from a safe distance. And sure enough it was me, another me.

I saw my clone at the market. He was looking at some bright red tomatoes. But I don’t like tomatoes, a voice in my head shouted in confusion. He examined each juicy ripe tomato, dropping them one-by-one into a small paper bag. A woman sauntered up and put her arm around him. Then she rested her head on his shoulder. She was an incredible babe!

Then they turned and walked off. I ran to catch up, to find out what was going on, but there were so many people in the way, the market so crowded on a leisurely Saturday morning. I tried to catch up, but lost them in the crowd.

Where were they going? How did he (or I) get such a magnificent babe? What were they going to do? Were they going back to my place? What were they going to do today? Were they going to kiss? Hold hands? Aw, shucks, I bet they do that kind of stuff all the time. Lucky him. Wait for me! Wait for me! I darted my head, desperately searching, but they were gone, lost in the thick, churning masses.

For the rest of the day I was distracted. I didn’t get a thing done. I just kept thinking - how could someone be so lucky - to have such a nice girlfriend? When will that be me? When? I paced all around my apartment. The guy was me. That was me, as if stepping out from behind the curtain of another life, another possibility. I just kept thinking of this, getting so upset that I finally hopped on my bike and headed back to the market. I was hoping that maybe someone would recognize me as him and thus I could find out who he was and where he lived. Maybe they lived near that market. Maybe I could find them there, run into them on the sidewalk. Maybe I could ask him how he did it, how he attracted such a nice girl to him. I pedaled and pedaled, but other people on the street seemed to be pedaling faster than me, passing me with ease. I pedaled and pedaled, pumping as fast as I could, hoping I could catch up to him.


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Tony Rauch has three books of funky/jazzy/arty short stories out, "I'm right here," from Spout Press, and "Laredo," and “Eyeballs growing all over me . . again” from Eraserhead Press (some dark and gothic, some kinda sci-fi, some absurdist, some experimental, some fairytale, some fantasy-ish, some dream-like and surreal, some whimsical, some social satire).