Teke::Teke – Doppleganger

“There’s a German legend that when you see someone who looks exactly like you walking toward you, it means you’re going to die. Or you just met your identical twin you didn’t know about. Or both!”

Robyn Hitchcock laid that bit about doppelgangers on us at a SXSW show sometime in the early 00’s. You never know what he’s going to say – he also compared his guitar to a javelina.

The movies always play up the scary angle. What if your evil twin takes over? What if YOU’RE the clone? Dun dun dunnnnn.

I met my doppelganger in college and I wasn’t scared. I was insulted – because he was fucking ugly! Met is too strong a word. I never talked to him because the idea of him being in my school made me mad.

Professors who had him in their other classes called me by his name and I snapped back. “That’s not my name!” They were surprised, like “OK then…”

I complained to my mother who was already in the habit of saying, “You were so cute. What happened?”

It didn’t occur to me to ask if there was something she hadn’t told us, because he DID NOT look like me. She said “Maybe he thinks YOU’RE the ugly one.”

Dammit. I hadn’t thought of that.