Bromford Below - Part 18

 
»Here, it's for you. It's London calling.«

The man my heights and stature is passing me something that looks like a smartphone in his hands but turns out to be a hunk of burnt charcoal as I hold it in my hands.

First he is like one of my reflections in the subway windows against the dark tunnels but as he steps forward, moving and behaving totally independent of me, the experience is really mind-blowing and mind-bending.

»I am the other side of me«, he says with my voice and face.

»What is he? Your identical twin brother?«

The others have noticed him, too. And Nigel is asking.

»I have known Bromford since he was a child«, Kylie says. »He doesn't have any siblings.«

I close my eyes, trying to find my breath again. I remember the same mind-blowing and mind-bending experience from twelve years ago when this guy opened the door to his Apartment 18 in Bromford. This resemblance is creepy. It is like looking into a mirror but without the side-changing effect. My left arm with the mole or birthmark on the inner side is also my reflection's left arm, not his right one.

»Thore Christian«, he is introducing himself to Nigel, Professor Sideburns and Kylie shaking their hands one after the other. For a moment he holds still in front of the llama, but the llama is only shaking its' head.

»Don't you dare touch me, demon«, the animal spits out a warning.

Identical, I think, maybe, but identical twin-brother? No way. He is more like the twin I have never had but missed for the whole of my life. Or he is the twin I never wanted. It depends on the way my mind is bending.

»I didn't get any sleep within the past few weeks«, I admit and Thore is nodding in understanding.

And he is continuing my story, »The Sandman also known as Morpheus of the Endless or Oneiros or simply Dream, the lord over all dreams and reality, took it from us - the sleep or the ability to sleep. But when I used to sleep I always heard your heart beat next to mine in the dark. We were never together, yet never alone.«

I feel it from the bottom of my heart. As crazy as it sounds, I know what he means.

»Things look bigger on the other side of the looking-glass«, I say.

»Then turn it around«, Thore answers. Does his last name Christian mean something in these times before holidays called Christmas? »Turn around the looking glass. You will see things will look much smaller then.«

Kylie is touching and stroking my arm again.

»Are you sure you are not talking about a spyglass, you two?« she asks looking for a way of comforting me.

»Will this train ever stop?« I ask my reflection.

»Don't you see the four lights at the end of this tunnel?« Thore Christian is pointing through the remaining waggons in front of us.

🕯🕯🕯🕯

»We have to leave this train.«

»We always have the emergency hammer.«

Thore is pointing at a small tool made of red plastic and hard metal parts which is attached on the wall of the waggon.

»Are you nuts?« Professor Sideburns shouts out. »Can't you read the warning? DON'T USE WHILE STILL DRIVING.«

But it is too late. Thore already ripped the hammer from its' bracket and is trying to hit one of the windowpanes with the pointy end with all the power that is inside him.

But what about the living, moving and swirling darkness outside this underground train waggon, comes to my mind. Won't those whirring beings or even worse the entity with the deep and dangerous voice come inside once the window is broken?

Thore's powerful hit does not have the wanted or wished effect. He is losing control of and letting go the hammer which is just sliding through the window now without causing any damage.

»I am sorry I cannot help it.«

He is turning around and looking at me with my own, pale eyes. Then he is being sucked through the window like the emergency hammer before. Within the blink of an eye he has vanished into nothingness.

In shock my empty hands are reaching into thin air.

And of all things in the world these come out as my parting words, »I promise, next time I will see you in the mirror I will not recognize you, but I will shave you anyway.«

🎄🎄🎄🕯🎄🎅
🎄🎄🎄🎄🕯🎄

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🕯

"New Bromford"

Jean Michel Basquiat, François Truffaut
Robert Zimmerman, and De Niro
Paris, Texas
End of the world
New York, New York
Goodbye girl

And they meet on Bleeker Street
Or the park that is central, oh
I watch the sun go down
Down, down beneath the ground
And it's a new day
It's a new dawn
In New Bromford


The stranger in the moonlight
Looks stranger in the moonlight

And they meet on Bleeker Street
Or the park that is central, oh
I watch the sun go down
Down, down beneath the ground
And it's a new day
It's a new dawn
In New Bromford

And we meet on Bleeker Street
Or the park that is central, oh
I watch the sun go down
Down, down beneath the ground
And it's a new day
It's a new dawn
In New Bromford