All Things Go Bump In The Night

A Fake Life

"No!" my son screamed across the table at me. "Jake you're going to have to go to school with your mother today, no exceptions," I replied nonchalantly, already used to his frequent outburst by now. "Why can't you drop me off daddy?" he asked. I sighed, "Because I have a business meeting today? Okay?"

My son only slouched in his chair and made up his face even more and looked directly at my wife. "I don't wanna go with her, she's not even my mom!" he said.

I slammed my coffee mug on the table. "Don't start with this nonsense again Jake. Now I'm leaving and if you cause any problems you'll be sorry." I scolded loudly so everyone's attention was on me.

I had no idea where this crazy misconception about my wife's identity. It started a couple weeks again with Jake and then Lilian, the baby, and although he initially was on my side, my eldest son Matthew had also begun to believe the nonsense as well. He was so bad that he wouldn't come down for breakfast and stayed in his room all the time. He had also recently begun to skip school.

"Now apologize," I continued. "I'm sorry," he mumbled under his breath. Knowing that that was the most I could get out of him, I said goodbye to my wife and kissed her and  Lilian goodbye before grabbing my coat and heading out.

On my lunch break I got a call from my wife detailing how the kids acted while I was gone. Jake had put up a fit and refused to be taken to school and wouldn't even let her touch him.

She eventually had to carry him out of the house into the car where he screamed so much on the way there, that she got stopped by the police and had to show her identification to prove she was his mother and not some kidnapper.

Even Lilian would scream and cry in the presence of her. I sighed and told her I would talk to Jake when I got home. I sighed and my co-worker Mark walked up to my desk.

"What's wrong?" he asked, seeing the disappointment and stress on my face. "It's my kids, I don't know what happened to them. A couple weeks ago they were fine, but now they keep saying that Eve isn't their mom."

"Eve, that's your wife's name right? Is she their step-mom?" he asked. "No she is their mother. I just don't know what's gotten into them,"

"Capgras," He said.

"What?" I asked. He seemed a bit startled by my response but he replied, "It's like some mental disease or delusion someone gets. Makes them think that someone they know has been replaced by an identical impostor. Pretty ridiculous huh?"

He chuckled to himself but when he realised how seriously I was taking it began again. "I was joking, your kids are fine. Probably just got in trouble or something. I don't even think it can happen in groups like that,"

"Yeah, yeah your probably right. Thanks Mark," I said. He nodded and walked away leaving me to my thoughts. I decided that when I went home I would have a talk with all of them. We would sort things out and everything would go back to normal... Eventually.

As soon as I came home Jake ran from upstairs into my arms and tightly hugged me, followed by eldest son Matthew holding Lilian. They all remained close to me as I went to find my wife in the kitchen, but backed out as I went to embrace her. As I left the kitchen they all circled me and began to warn me about staying away from her.

I had enough and after scolding them I had everyone gather in the living room. I sat on a small chair in front of the couch where my children and wife sat, all of them uncomfortable and trying to stay as far away from her as possible.

"We all need to talk," I said but was only met with shouting. "I don't wanna talk to her," cried Jake. "Dad, just let us talk we're on to something," Matthew shouted through the noise and eventually Lilian began to cry.