DOES everyone have an exact double? I might once have been sceptical about that claim. Until, that is, I had a weird experience in Rugby back in 1971 which made me a believer.
For quite some time, several of my friends had been telling me that they’d seen someone around town who was an exact likeness of me, insisting that we were so alike that it would be impossible to tell us apart. It’s quite a leap when people go from merely telling you that there is a resemblance, to claiming that they actually mistook this man for me. That’s the sort of dramatic device which was once popular in B movies, in which obviously the same actor plays both parts.
At first, I assumed they must be exaggerating; I had never seen him myself. One potential problem was the fact that this ‘other me’ was actually a policeman, which could prove quite an embarrassment, when so many of my friends and acquaintances were inclined to sail close to the wind with regard to drugs, etc.
One evening, I was sitting at the bar of a town centre pub, drinking my lemonade, when a man sidled up, sat on the stool next to me and, in a very annoyed voice, hissed to me out of the side of his mouth,
‘Just when are you going to get round to doing the “effing” washing up?’
It was, by any standards, an unusual opening line to hear from a total stranger and so I turned towards him and replied,
‘I’m sorry, but what on earth are you talking about?’
On hearing my voice, his face dropped, and it was clear that he suddenly felt very embarrassed.
‘Oh, my God, I’m sorry. You’re not Jim, are you?’
‘No, in fact I’ve never been called Jim. My name’s Brian.’
‘I’m sorry but you’re the spitting image of my flatmate, Jim. It’s only when you spoke that I could tell the difference.’
‘Is he a policeman?’ I asked.
‘Yes, how did you know?’
‘It seems that my friends have made the same mistake!’
A week or two later, I finally saw Jim for myself on duty in the High Street. I had to concede that even in his full police constable’s uniform, he was indeed the exact likeness of me. It was an uncanny sight.
Fortunately, by this time I had got a job with Warwickshire County Council and since I had no car in those days, I left town to live in Warwick. All in all, it was an uneasy feeling to know that there was somebody else walking around my hometown who could be so easily mistaken for me. Perhaps it was time to be glad that he was a policeman, and not a street-thief with a criminal record.
