Same Faces
A short story
This story is also available in my anthology Word Associations.
Reminder that I’m also accepting requests for art commissions. Please see this post for details!
The suitcase slid down the ramp onto the conveyor belt, and orbited the platform until it reached Teddy. Two others had come down that looked just like it, but he knew this one was his by the red felt ribbon he'd tied around one of the handles. He picked it up and rolled it toward the main lobby. On the way he woke his cell phone and looked up the last text Anya had sent him. It said she'd be waiting by the fountain, and would be wearing white shoes. Teddy couldn't wait.
A few times during the flight he'd gotten anxious that this was all going too fast, that this was too good to be true. He'd paid hundreds of dollars and traveled hundreds of miles to meet her after chatting online for only three weeks. But he knew from her messages that she was funny and kind, and from her selfies that she was a knockout. And she was even letting him sleep on her couch. Surely he'd know by now whether this was a bad idea.
The fountain waited near the bottom of the escalator. Water poured from the bowl at the top down to six smaller pools. Standing beside them was a young man wearing sunglasses and a bad wig, holding a sign that said "Teddy Woods." He was wearing white sneakers.
Teddy's heart plummeted into his stomach, which then dropped into his bowels. Great. It was even worse than he feared. He'd been catfished.
He pretended not to see the man in the wig, but now had nowhere to go. He supposed he could find a hotel, but he was already nearly broke after the plane ticket, so he'd have to put it on the credit card, and… argh.
He got a text.
From "Anya."
"Hey, I can see you. Aren't you gonna come say hi?"
Teddy forced himself to look. The man was walking toward him. Even with all the space an airport lobby afforded him, Teddy had nowhere to run. Was this an extortion scheme? A high school classmate with a weird grudge? An extremely elaborate murder plot?
The man removed his wig and shades, and Teddy saw his face clear and up close. Now even if Teddy wanted to run, his legs were locked in place. The man looked exactly like Teddy.
"Enjoy your flight, Teddy?" the man said.
"Wh-what's going on? Who the hell are you? Where's Anya?"
"You look like you need to sit down. Come with me."
As if in a daze, Teddy let the man lead him to a sandwich shop near the security line. "Anya" had promised that this shop had the best sandwiches in the entire Northeast. The man took Teddy in, sat him down, and offered to pay for dinner. Teddy had told "Anya" before that he liked Italian sandwiches, so that's what the man got.
"Now, I'm really sorry for the ruse," the man said, "but it seemed like the most surefire way to get you to come up here."
Teddy took a bite, chewed, swallowed, stared at the guy across the table. He was just like looking in a mirror, or in a photograph. The only difference was that the other guy's hair was longer and parted in the middle, while Teddy parted his to the side. "Whose pictures were they?"
"Oh, Anya's? They were from an old ex. I just happened to have them lying around. As for me, my name's Austin Grove. You're still welcome to sleep on my couch. It's just instead of a date, you're here for more of a family reunion."
"What are you talking about?" What family could Teddy be missing? His parents had never mentioned having any twins, much less them being separated at birth. He'd seen his birth certificate. He had only ever been an only child.
"You see, I'm not the only one who looks like you," Austin said. "There's four more on the way."
A strip of meat dropped out of Teddy's mouth. "What?"
"You heard me. Imagine how shocked I was when I learned. But once I did I knew I had to meet all of you. I just figured it'd look suspicious if I messaged you out of the blue saying, 'Hi, I'm a long-lost sextuplet, let's meet up.'"
As opposed to flirting with one of his brothers online. But if Teddy wasn't the only one coming, then… "You didn't catfish all of them, did you?"
"What? Of course not. I had to do it differently for everybody." Austin's phone chimed. "Ah, there's Kyle. Just got his luggage. I'll let him know where we are."
"I'm sorry," Teddy said, "but I still don't understand what's going on."
"Don't worry, we've got a lot to get through today, but we'll get through it. Now, how much do you know about the field of cloning?"
"Cloning? Not much, but I was under the impression that was impossible."
"Not at all. You see, the two of us, and our four expected guests, are all part of the biggest cloning experiment in history."
Teddy would have thought Austin was out of his mind if it weren't for the fact that they were both sitting together. And if it weren't for the man in the blue dress shirt who had just entered, who looked exactly like Teddy and Austin.
"Take a seat, Kyle," Austin said, gesturing to one of the empty chairs at our table. "I was just about to explain the situation."
"All right." The man named Kyle rested his suitcase next to mine and sat down, staring at Teddy. He had a ring on his left hand. "So it's true. My God, you even have that freckle by your eye. Austin, I don't know what to say."
"So he already knows?" Teddy said to Austin.
"I told you, I had to do it differently. Kyle here's a journalist, so all I had to do was send him a photo on Facebook and offer him the story of the century."
Teddy glared at Kyle. "I was supposed to be meeting my online girlfriend here."
"My condolences," Kyle said. "When do the others get here?"
"Shouldn't be too long," Austin said. "I wanted to make sure your flights landed as close together as possible. ETA for Iggy and Chuck is in just a few minutes, and Joshua's driving. He's probably just stuck in traffic."
"So can you please explain what's going on?" Teddy said. "You were saying something about cloning just now?"
"Right," Austin said. "The fact is, the three of us, as well as the three who are still on their way, are all clones. We were all replicated from the same DNA—not sure whose—put into different mothers, and scattered all over the country to see how we'd turn out."
"You can't be serious," Teddy said. "This has got to be some sick joke. I'm not a clone, I'm a human being."
"Of course you're a human being," Austin said. "But you're also a clone. And the proof is right in front you. Kyle, you bring the files?"
"Of course." He opened up a briefcase and laid out some carbon- and photocopied forms. "I managed to find these in my father's records. They're all related to a trial for an experimental fertility treatment through the Burgess Clinic."
"The Burgess Clinic?" Teddy lifted his head. "But that's where…"
"That's where your parents took you every few years for full physical and psych evaluations, isn't it?" Austin said. "Down in Atlanta?"
Teddy nodded weakly. He had always hated those visits. It wasn't just the normal temperature checks and listening to heartbeat; it was scopes, blood samples, MRI's, running on treadmills, and questions so personal that by the time he left, Teddy felt like he'd turned over a piece of his soul. He'd always thought of his childhood as a happy one. The clinic was the exception.
"The three of us all went to the same place," Kyle said. "So did the other three. The clinic just staggered it so we'd never run into each other."
"So that 'fertility treatment'…"
"Was actually a cloning experiment," Austin said. "All of our parents were infertile before they had us. The clinic offered to help, our moms and dads signed on, and we're the result."
"The problem is," Kyle said, "none of them knew at the time what was going on, or that we don't actually share DNA. Mine thought it was just a new version of IVF. I still haven't told them the truth. When they find out I'm not actually their son…" He gritted his teeth. "It'll destroy them. I know it."
Mom did tell Teddy once about how long it had taken, how many treatments they'd exhausted, before he finally came into the world. He'd been a labor of love, she'd told him. "But my mom… my dad…" Teddy started to choke up, and put down his sandwich. There was no way he could finish it. "Are you saying that they're n-n-not r-really…" All he had of his family were happy memories, aside from the clinic. Fishing with Dad and Grandpa at Palmer Lake. Road trips with Mom to Ohio.
They had taught him to drive. They had taken him to the hospital when he broke his leg. They had comforted him whenever he got dumped. Was all that a lie?
"I'm sorry," Austin said. "I'm not trying to take anything away from you. But I mean, they did raise you. Your mom did give birth to you. It's not like we were grown in test tubes."
"I lost my father two years ago. His last words were telling me 'I love you.' And all this time I wasn't actually related to him?"
"Did you not tell him until now?" Kyle asked Austin, then turned to Teddy. "You did say you were here to…"
"That's right," Teddy said, "instead of keeping me in the loop, this guy catfished me. Why? Do the others know?"
"They know," Austin said. "I didn't have to tell them." His phone buzzed. "There's Iggy and Chuck. Wait'll you hear their story."
"Don't sit there and act all casual! You manipulate me, rip me off, drag me to a town I've never been to, and tell me my entire life's a sham? For what? Why am I the only one? You—" He jabbed a finger at Kyle. "Were you in on this?"
"Absolutely not," Kyle said. "I thought everything was above board. Austin, he's right. Catfishing? Really?"
"Look, I'm sorry, I didn't have any master plan or anything, I just kinda made everything up as I went along. Besides, for my money, the really important thing is the serious shadiness surrounding this clinic. They lied to our parents. All of them. And I don't think we're the only set of clones out there in this situation. That's why we need Kyle. We have to expose the clinic any way we can."
Teddy didn't say anything. He at least trusted Kyle, and if this eventually led to justice, it might help redeem the situation a little. Though he was never exactly comfortable with letting ends justify means.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, the next two clones, Iggy and Chuck, arrived at the sandwich shop. They turned out to be fairly easy to tell apart: Iggy had a lengthy beard and wore a green t-shirt, and Chuck had a buzzcut, a polyester button-down, and a tattoo of Olive Oyl on his arm. Neither of them had brought luggage; they both wore backpacks, and presumably had everything in there. Kyle and Austin introduced themselves while Iggy and Chuck pulled up some chairs. Teddy just sat there.
"What's with him?" Iggy, the one in the green t-shirt, said.
"He only just found out what's going on," Kyle said. "Somebody didn't tell him before he landed."
"Seriously?" Chuck crooked his brow at Austin. "That's kind of important, isn't it? You remember how it felt when you learned, right? Why put somebody else through that?"
"I said I was sorry, okay?" Austin said. "Why don't you tell Teddy and Kyle here how you found out? Haven't you known each other since you were ten?"
Iggy leaned back and crossed his arms as a wistful smile grew on his face. "That's right—we met in summer camp—old Camp Evergreen. That was a helluva summer, wasn't it?"
Chuck grinned along with Iggy. "Sure was. See, Iggy was really shy and homesick, and somebody saw him moping in his cabin, then they saw me playing with my buddies outside of our cabin, and couldn't figure out how he got there so fast. Then suddenly everybody was like hey, you look exactly like Iggy. Then I found him, and let me tell you, it blew our minds all over the ceiling."
"And we were inseparable after that. Turned out we were both really into Street Fighter, so we spent the whole time at camp pretending to hadouken each other. Then the next year—" Iggy chuckled—"we told everybody we were twins."
"And they bought it." Chuck guffawed and clapped Iggy in the back. "But that was also the year our parents found out. I thought they were all gonna have a stroke, simultaneously."
"They've been trying to get the truth out of the Burgess Clinic ever since," Iggy said. "Meanwhile we've been meeting up and hanging out every summer. Now we're roommates!"
At least somebody was wringing some good out of all this.
"On that note," Kyle said, "did you bring the paperwork you mentioned?"
"Sure did," Iggy said, and he and Chuck both opened up their backpacks and took out binders full of various files—medical forms, letters, legal documents, prescriptions, many of them with lines blacked out. "That's what Dad's lawyers have been able get from Burgess over the years. Like blood from a stone, I tell ya. Hope that's enough."
"Trust me, this looks very helpful. Even with the redactions, I'm seeing some serious red flags. And Burgess is still not cooperating?"
"We've gotten court orders and Freedom of Information requests, but this is it," Chuck said.
"Then maybe some publicity will change their minds. This trip is already worth its weight in gold."
"What about your family?" Teddy said. "You said this would destroy them."
"I did. But this is something that has to be exposed. That human cloning is possible, that it was possible so long ago, even, and that they accomplished it with this kind of deception? I can't just let this go. When it's time to break the news to them, I'll find a way to deal with it. I've got my wife to help me through this. You don't have to worry about me."
And now Teddy wished Kyle had been the one to invite him on this trip instead of Austin. One seemed like the kind of brother who'd look out for you, back you up, stand up for you; the other as the kind who'd pick on you, take all your stuff, and fake a girlfriend online for you.
Iggy's cell phone rang. "Hello? Yeah, we're all here. You made it? Great. See you in a minute." He hung up. "That was Josh. Brother number six. He's parked outside."
"You know him already?" Teddy asked.
"Yeah, we met him a year ago on Instagram. And he's our ride, so is everybody ready to go?"
"Where to?"
"To wherever we're staying tonight." Austin stood up. "Iggy and Chuck got a room with Josh at the Hyatt downtown, and you and Kyle can stay with me. I got a foldup couch and an air mattress with your names on it."
And so they all began to file out of the sandwich shop, all of them having gained at least a few extra brothers in less than an hour. But halfway to the exit, Teddy stopped. The suitcase leaned from his hand.
"What's up?" Iggy said.
"I can't," Teddy said. "I am not going anywhere until Austin explains himself. Why was I the one catfished? Yeah, I get it, we're all mad at the Clinic for tricking all of us, but what the hell makes you any better? Why should I trust you?"
"Dude, catfishing?" Chuck said. "He's right, what the hell?"
Austin had stopped right at the door. "I didn't really mean anything by it. I just needed to find some things out first, and things got out of hand."
"That's not good enough, Austin." Kyle pressed his hand on Austin's shoulder. Judging from the wince Austin made, it was a pretty strong grip. "You and I both know it wasn't called for in the slightest. He deserved the truth from the beginning, just like all of us."
"Yeah, what did he ever do to you?" Iggy said.
"Oh, I dunno," Austin snapped, "maybe he's the reason I found out about all this in the first damn place!"
Teddy sat his suitcase straight. "I don't understand."
"Those pictures I sent you? The ones from my ex? Well, the reason she's my ex is because she found your Tinder profile. She thought you were me, and I couldn't convince her she was wrong, so she left me. And I wanted to figure out who you were, so I came up with 'Anya' and sent you a message. But I mean, I wasn't trying to get back at you or anything. I just needed to know. That led me to finding Iggy and Chuck, then messaging Kyle, and by then, you'd already fallen for Anya. Like I said, it got out of hand. I'm sorry. I'll make it up any way I can. At the end of the day, we're still brothers. Heck, we're the same person, aren't we? Right?"
An announcement rang out over the intercom, too muffled by distance and the intervening crowds to be heard.
"Let's get out of here," Teddy said.
The doors slid open and let them through. A red SUV was idling outside, and a burly man with a shaved head was waiting, leaning on the hood. "Good Lord," Joshua said. "I feel like a fly looking in a mirror."
Iggy and Chuck tossed their backpacks into the trunk, and Kyle placed his suitcase beside them.
"Austin," Teddy said, "there's just one more thing."
"Yeah?"
Teddy punched Austin right on the nose. Austin tumbled into Kyle's arms.
Teddy then asked Iggy and Chuck, "I don't suppose your hotel room can handle one more?"
"Um, I guess," Iggy said. "It's a suite, so if there isn't an extra bed, I suppose you could always sleep on the couch."
"Perfect." Teddy hopped into the back seat. "I'll pay you back."