Music Track list: Welcome to the Pleasure Dome
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David’s POV
I walked over to myself?? WHAT THE FUCK?? on unsteady legs, feeling dizzy and my soul beginning to separate its hold from the spine of this body. Keep it together, David! Keep it together….
I sat down in the booth opposite to my other, who stared at me with that same shit-eating grin, like he enjoyed watching my brain assplode all over itself a little too much. He was every inch of me, only perhaps a bit more sculpted. His hair was neater than mine currently was. Like a man full of swagger and not baby spittle.
“Welcome to the Pleasure Dome,” my other self said.
I snorted and stared at him, trying not to speak through gritted teeth, “You for real?”
“What you don’t believe your own eyes?” my other self said.
“I believe my eyes. Not the line,” I snapped back. Can you believe this mofo? Questioning my perception of reality?
“Just making sure. You don’t always know who I am,” he said.
“You mean…you’ve met me before?” I asked.
He leaned back into his seat in that jovial relaxed way, taking his time to answer. Slinging his arm round the seat to be certain I would be irritated by his nonchalance. I wanted to punch that smug jaw of his. Then I wondered if I would feel it. Then I began to think about the Crimson twins, Tomax and Xamot, from GI Joe that could feel each other’s pain, and that one episode where they blasted the skulls off an army of attacking corpses and then my train of thought unravelled from there.
Dav—The Other David grinned at me, and I could sense he was pleased with my destabilization. I gripped the edge of the red Formica table to keep myself steady and…unviolent.
He smiled with that infuriating smarmy smile…really, do I fucking look like this asshat when I smile? and said, “I’ve met several of us, David. Not all of them take it so well. You know, having their entire paradigm challenged after being so long in a psychic and spiritual slumber.”
The waitress suddenly appeared to place a turkey sandwich in front of me. She arched an eyebrow at me, but carried on wordlessly away from our table. I stared after her wondering what she must think. And what could she do if she guessed correctly? It’s not like there is a reality police you can call in suspicious times like these. The Other David paused until she was out of earshot before assuring, “She guesses we are twins.”
I nodded and waited for him to continue. “So far,” The Other David said, “You are taking it well. I see this isn’t all new to you.”
“I’ve been around the block once or twice,” I nodded.
“More than that, I bet,” he said and then gestured for me to dig into the turkey sandwich. After noticing my hesitation he said, “Eat. Don’t let yourself get lightheaded. You’ll lose all control. The soul needs the strength of the body to hold onto.”
I acquiesced and took a bite of the goddamn sandwich, and it was most good. I forgot how enjoyable eating was, I move around so much it’s hard to remember when the last time I ate was. But he was right, I seemed to slip out more during moments of bodily weakness or stress.
“So,” I said between mouthfuls, trying not to spit on myself, “Riddle me this. Emma is cheating on me with you, myself? Does she think we are twins? Or how does that work?”
David laughed a throaty laugh, “It’s a matter of perspective. I would say, from where you are sitting, she’s cheating on not you but the body whose soul you’ve unceremoniously kicked out for however long this jaunt is. And cheating with your soul if you stay long enough in the poor shmuck’s body. Which is your plan all along right? To reap the rewards of some other David’s efforts?”
I chewed on this question and my turkey sandwich – the mustard had the most amazing smoky flavour, and the lettuce was so crispy. He did have a bit of a point. And I also wondered: just how much did my actions impact my hosts’ lives positively or negatively when they returned. What must that feel like for them, to return after having blacked out, I assumed, to be regaled of tales how they acted out of character? Did they have any memory of me at all? Or are they prisoners in their own mind watching my every move and frozen to stop me and take control? Were other David’s travelling like this one? Travelling into my body and messing with my world? I wasn’t sure I liked the sounds of that…who the fuck were they to take me over?
I looked at David who was studying at me intently with warm brown eyes: watching my thought process as I mulled all this over. With my attention on him anew, he continued while I took another bite.
“From other perspectives, depending on which world vantage point, Emma is cheating on me with you. Or sometimes Paul, on Paul with Paul and every variation of. Sometimes she cheats with…well, you’ll find out soon enough, and certain secrets are too bold for even me to tell. Sometimes you cheat on her and with her on others…”
“Pepper,” I said aloud, not even realizing she was on my mind.
The Other David cast his eyes downward, and said in a gentle cryptic voice, “Pepper…doesn’t always exist...”
I snapped my attention at him and set down my sandwich –
“…in all the worlds, I mean,” he clarified but I wasn’t so sure about it. It felt like he was covering for something, and I furrowed my brow. “But to answer your question, the Emma you saw this morning who kissed you on the cheek goodbye is not necessarily the same Emma who just left the table. And maybe not even the same Emma waiting for me in our room. It’s…a complicated geography.”
I picked up the sandwich and took another bite, thinking about something that was said once…a long time ago, what was it? You pick the turkey sandwich and your chance for the presidency…
“Look,” I heard his voice continue, “Things aren’t always as they appear. There is slippage. Sometimes: reconstruction. Sometimes: dissolution. Sometimes: regeneration. You need to start seeing things clearly. Through the prism. Navigate the fractures between worlds. And they are getting worse.”
I looked up from my sandwich to see the Other David had put cop shades on, and I realized where I had seen him before. “You were on the street,” I blurted, “That one time…with Emma…near the market…I saw you in the reflection…”
“Slippage,” David said tapping the table, “Fault lines.”
“More of them are appearing,” Atticus said, and I blinked and stared. He was sitting just where I had been, or rather, my other self had, only seconds before. I looked around the diner. It was almost the same as it had been only not.
“David, you have to stop this,” Pepper said in a controlled concerned voice, suddenly taking Atticus place in the booth, “Your relentless pursuit of her is causing rifts…”
“David,” Atticus resumed Pepper’s seat as my brain began to get weary of the shifting personas in front of me. I felt like the remote control on reality was on scan and I couldn’t get it to stop. “Don’t listen to her, she is just jealous,” the old man said in his snake oil voice, “You need to unite with The One. It is imperative. It is your destiny.”
“Your mind is opening,” myself said from across the table, “That is good. It’s confusing at first, but helpful. Giving into chaos is the only pathway to control.”
He reached across the table and handed me a scrap piece of paper with a phone number on it.
“What is it?” I asked while glancing over the numbers: 319-555-8709.
“It’s her number. You know who,” David said with a serious face like he had just imparted me with the sacred secret to all mankind, “Emma, but…this one…you haven’t met yet, or you would know. She’s…different than the rest. She’ll help you see, show you the way. Keep calling until you get an answer.” Then he struck a broad smile and touched his teeth with his thumb, caught up in some secret nostalgia.
“What,” I pressed.
“Nothing,” he shrugged, his eyes steady on mine again. “You’ll enjoy her. She’ll give you quite the ride.”
I looked back at the piece of paper in my hand, only instead of a phone number it was a fortune cookie message. And it said: Your name will go down in history, David Blunt.
An my lucky numbers were 31 95 55 87 09.
He suddenly stood to rise, paying for both our bills, which seemed unnecessary considering the lack of consequences for our actions both of us now faced through these shifting realities. Perhaps…he was just greasing the wheels of good karma.
“Wait!” I shouted. “Who are you? What I mean is: where are you from?”
He smiled slowly and said softly, “I’m you David. Our journey started out very much the same. I’m just quicker, faster and smarter. Mom gave me more vitamins I guess. But I love Emma every bit as much as you, if not more so and I will find her. And she will love me,” his eyes were wistful for a second and then sad, “She will love me for me, and not just for a quick seedy fuck or whatever.” He shrugged and then started to walk away from the booth towards the exit of the diner, towards the room where Emma was waiting, or another Emma was waiting. And I realized at that moment that none of them was the Emma we both were looking for.
The Emma I was looking for was the one back in my home world.
I looked back at my half-eaten turkey, and wondered: just how many other David’s were out there, looking for the one. Looking for my Emma.
And would they find her first and make her love them before I made my way back to her?
//
A/N
Wow you guys really pulled together some votes and comments. They really do go along way to make me feel this story is wanted and valued. When I get hardly any comments or votes I begin to slow down. It definitly goes along way to pump me up and get writing when I see so many who love the story.
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C