"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 Makes them think that someone they know has been replaced by an identical impostor.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.
My wife only had a worried and upset expression on her face and said nothing. "Everyone be quiet!" I screamed at them. "I don't know what happened to you guys but let me get one thing straight. She is your mother," I said pointing to my wife. Jake made up his face and Matthew looked on the floor hopelessly.
"What's happening? Why is this... This whole situation happening?" I asked. Matthew looked up and just as he opened his mouth to speak Jake blurted out. "I saw them! Switch I saw her switching with mommy in the backyard by the sandbox. She told me if I told that she would hurt me!". My wife's face turned red and quietly got up and left the room.
I turned to him with an angry frown on my face. "It's true," was the only thing he could muster. I sent all of them to bed after that. I was tired of all of it. Although my wife was there I felt like all the responsibility of parenting was on me because of their refusal to accept their mother.
I tried to console my wife, but it was no use. She was extremely hurt and felt horrible that the children no longer loved her. After my failed attempt to make her feel better she went in the backyard and sat on the lawn chair and stared into the night sky and whispered to herself.
I never knew what she was doing, but I thought that she probably needed some time to herself. I closed the backyard door and went to bed.
In the morning I realised my wife had not come to bed and went to check on her. She was still outside. I opened the door and asked her if she had been out all night but got no reply.
I asked her some other questions but got no replies so I just went inside and got a coat and put it around her. I went upstairs and knocked on Matthew's door.
"Hey, I have to leave early today. Your mother's in the backyard, she never made breakfast so can you make breakfast for Jake and Lilian and walk Jake to school?"
"I'm sick and Jake's not feeling well either, I think he caught my cold," he replied.
"You can play those games on your mother but not me," I shouted through the door.
There was no response.
I threw open the door and stepped inside. All the children were in there. Lilian was on the floor playing with her favourite stuffed animal on some sheets, Jake was sitting on the bottom bunk trying to hide in the sheets and Matthew was frantically ripping off papers that had been tapped to the wall.
"Stop!" I said as I grabbed him. I looked at the wall. Now I realised where the stack of papers I had brought in last week had gone. There were papers everywhere. On the tables and walls. Even some on the part of the ceiling that could be reached by standing on the top bunk.
On all the papers were notes. Blue prints of every area of the house. Ideas for booby traps. Notes on how to get me and their mother out of the house and how to get her to confess. I angrily stomped over to the window where a wire that was attached to an mp3 player that was hanging a few feet above Eve's head.
"You guys are spying on her?" I asked, "and you have Lilian in here? I told you not to take her out of her crib. Did you have her sleeping on the floor? What's gotten in to you guys? Are you insane! What's wrong with you?!"
"Dad, we couldn't leave Lilian alone she might hurt her. Just listen to what she's been saying she said it all night! I recorded it!" Matthew spit out before he showed me a recording on his phone.
On the phone my wife was repeatedly saying, I'm sorry.
"Isn't that strange?" he asked in a timid voice. "Jesus, you guys probably have her on the edge of a mental breakdown? Do you have any idea how stressful this is for her?"
"But Dad!" Jake cried.
"But nothing, I don't have time for this. I want all these papers down by the time I get back from work and you two need to apologize!"
Just then I heard the backyard door open. My wife entered and I heard her beginning to prepare breakfast. "Do I have to go to school today?" Jake asked.
I honestly was to stressed to care and just told him to make sure he ate breakfast. I walked outside the room and as I did Jake ran past me and into the backyard. I sighed and gathered my things for work. I decided to walk the long way around to my car through the backyard to check on Jake before I left.
He was digging in the sandbox and when I questioned him about it, he said he was looking for his mother. I just left.
I arrived late for my boss' surprise birthday party but other than that, the day onwards was alright. One time during the evening, as I decided to stay late to catch up on some extra work and avoid the problems at home, Eve called me and asked where the spare key was as the kids had locked her out when she had went back into the backyard. I told her where it was and tried to think of what to do when I got home. I had never been in this situation before. how would I get them to stop?
It was when I decided to go home was when the real problems stirred. I was halfway home when Matthew called me. "Dad! I'm in the park at the oak tree. Come quick and get me! Hurry please I don't have much time!" "What?" I screamed into the phone as he hung up. I didn't know what was happening but I wasn't taken any chances. I turned my car around and drove to the park.
When I got there, I found a note on the oak tree only saying I'm sorry come back now. I sped home as fast as I could. When I got inside, there were up turned thumb tacks spread across the floor and marbles at the bottom of the stairs. "I hate you! I wish you would die!" I heard coming from the basement.
I ran down there as fast as I could but stopped dead in my tracks when I saw what was happening down there I stopped dead in my tracks. There, my wife was sitting tied to a chair with skipping rope.
Jake was sitting in a corner crying and Lilian sat innocently in her high chair not realising what was happening.
Matthew had my hand pistol in his hand and was pointing at Eve. "Matthew please put the gun down," I asked but he screamed over me, "Tell him! Tell him everything."
"Matthew," I shouted trying to scare him into listening to me but to my surprise Eve screamed, "I'm not your wife!"
I was confused. I had told her before not to feed their imaginations by confirming their beliefs. My wife wouldn't do that. "I'm... I'm your wife's sister. I'm so sorry I just wanted to know what it was like to have a family.
I remembered the time my wife had told me that she had a sister but she got taken to a metal asylum when she was younger and she hadn't seen her since. I had no idea that she had an identical twin.
The subtle differences I didn't even realise before. Her hair was shorter, her voice was higher, she was a bit taller. I stood dumbfounded looking at her. "W-Where's my wife?" was all I could say.
She shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, she was only supposed to be in the sandbox for a while. But she was in there for too long..." Matthew took the safety off the gun. "Let me do it Dad, let me do it." but I just backed away and ran out of the basement.
I held back tears as I dashed into the backyard and began digging frantically in the sandbox. In dismay I found my wife's body. She must have been dead for weeks and I couldn't understand how I never smelled her earlier.
I felt the tears racing down my face as I clutched my dead wife's body. Not even the sound of a gunshot could shake me out of my state, as the shocking realisation of everything that had happened fell on me. I left my kids with a stranger. I ate with a stranger. I slept beside a stranger. I had been living my life with an impostor