Jennifer’s kitten. Judy. Jennifer came to screaming, telling herself over and over again that she’d never had a twin sister named Judy. But something was wrong; she couldn’t make so much as a single sound. A big hand was clamped over her mouth. Then she realized that it was the homeless woman who was screaming.
A man whispered in Jennifer’s ear, “Count to ten slowly. Then go ahead and yell at the top of your lungs.” The hand left her mouth. She heard some kind of motion behind her. Of course she had no intention of following his directions. Why should she bother counting to ten slowly just because some idiot told her to? But her headache pounded and it took a moment to catch her breath. Then she opened her eyes.
In front of her the not-homeless man Alex had his fingers wrapped tightly around the homeless woman’s throat. She wasn’t screaming any more.
Jennifer yelled at the top of her lungs.
Alex dropped the homeless woman and wheeled around to look at her, eyes widening.
She was very sorry that she’d made so much as a single sound.
“How could I? How could I have forgotten about you?” Alex’ voice wasn’t the same as the voice that had whispered in her ear. He was closing the distance between them, babbling something about how Jennifer was just like some bird, but she didn’t know what that meant and wasn’t listening anymore. She was thinking about blond hair, chiseled cheekbones, and piercing green eyes. Who had told her to count to ten slowly?
She turned away from Alex to look behind her. Nobody was there. All that was there was the ratty old oriental rug she was lying on, with some kind of big stain on it…maybe red wine. Nobody had told her to count to ten slowly.
Blond hair, chiseled cheekbones, piercing green eyes… Bird… Birds singing beautifully. What was that…song of some kind?…going through her mind? Whose laughter was that?
But there was no man with blond hair, chiseled cheekbones, and piercing green eyes. Just like there was no…and had never been…evil twin Judy. And besides, Jennifer’s eyes were closing again.
