The Plateye Twin

 

       Emmie Sue had a problem.

       Emmie Sue knew exactly what the problem was; she just did not know what to do about it. It was something she had just learned to live with. It. It had always been there.

       The knock at her door turned out to be Mrs. Jerusha Evans Mills, faithful member of Emmie Sue's church. She said she had come bearing messages.

       Emmie Sue smiled as she listened to her friend compliment her on her singing at the church last Sunday. Her friend said no one had ever sung Amazing Grace in such a moving manner. The whole congregation was in awe.

       Her caller told her that she should have stuck around to be congratulated. That was why Jerusha Evans was here today. She was carrying the congregation’s well wishes and compliments to Emmie Sue about her wonderful performance.

       Emmie Sue nodded and thanked her for coming by. After seeing Mrs. Mills to the door, she leaned against it after she had closed it, and sighed. Things like this had been happening all her life. Emmie Sue had not gone to church in two weeks. Yet she had been seen there those two Sundays...

       Life got a little complicated when one had a plateye attached to them like glue. Well, at least this time it was something good and not like last month when everyone was sure they had seen Emmie Sue drunk and bawdy at the neighborhood saloon.

       She had never in her life been to the Starlite Saloon. It was that plateye that had been there, looking just like Emmie Sue.

       Her plateye was a cross between angel and devil and had been around ever since Emmie Sue could remember. She used to think when she was very young that it was a twin sister.

       Emmie Sue soon had learned she had no sisters. The plateye was always there and most of the time looked identical to her.

       The shape shifter had a sense of humor, too. Emmie Sue had a terrible crush on Jason Collier and one day he started paying Emmie Sue loads of attention. He even lured her over to the corner of the school playground and attempted to kiss her.

       Emmie Sue had closed her eyes and waited for the kiss. When it never came, she had opened her eyes, to be met with her own laughing face. That had been cruel, but that was how the plateyes did things.

       Sometimes they were good and sometimes they were bad.

       The plateye had come to the pond where Emmie Sue, Jason and some other children were swimming. It had held Jason’s head under the water until he was almost dead. Everyone had thought it was Emmie Sue who had tried to drown Jason.

       The children avoided her after that incident and Jason’s family had almost had her committed to an institution for disturbed children. Had it not been for her mother’s pleas, they would have. She had been placed under a doctor's care.

       Emmie Sue had tried to tell Dr. James about her plateye but to no avail. He gave her pills to take and her mother made sure she took them. They made Emmie Sue drowsy and gave the plateye almost free rein.

       Life was not easy with a plateye for a companion, especially when no one else could see it.

       Years had passed and Emmie Sue`s plateye showed no inclination to leave her.

       Over time there had been many troubles and tragedies associated with her.

       Word always seemed to get around. In this little town everyone knew everything about their neighbors and all their history, and Emmie Sue was often a topic of their small talk.

       Emmie Sue had loved her father dearly. One afternoon as Emmie Sue's mother had sat in the cool on the patio, waiting for them to join her, she heard a cry and saw her father pitch headlong down the steps of the open porch.

       He had tumbled in what seemed slow motion, until he had hit the patio blocks below with a sickening crunch of his dear head.

       Emmie Sue, screaming in horror, had seen a form upon the steps. It instantly faded and she knew it was the plateye. The plateye had tripped her father, just as she herself had followed him out the front door.

       After the funeral, Emmie Sue had had to have her medicine increased because of such agitated and extreme grief. There had also been speculation in the small town as to her father having been pushed to his death by her.

       No one would listen to her about the plateye... not even her mother or Dr. James.

       Her mother had enrolled her in the local sanitarium after that, and that's where Emmie Sue had spent several years until her mother had died and Dr. James had released her on her own, to be seen at the local clinic on a regular basis.

       Seemingly they had made progress, as she no longer talked about the plateye.

       Her life had been a series of small misunderstandings because of her plateye's shenanigans. Most of her time was spent alone except for church occasionally, and of course, her clinic visits.

       Emmie Sue waited in the lounge for her monthly appointment with Dr. James and leafed through a magazine to pass the time. There were several other patients there and it might be a long wait.

       The door to Dr. James' office swung open to let a patient exit and as it did, Emmie Sue saw her plateye already inside with the doctor.

       At that exact moment there was the sound of a struggle coming from the office and attendants went rushing through the lounge to the office where the violent sounds were coming from. Emmie Sue saw her plateye bent over Dr. Evans as the attendants rushed in to grab her.

       Suddenly, there were rough hands pulling at Emmie Sue and, in surprise and shock, she looked down and saw her own hands clinched tightly around old Dr. James' bony throat, just below his bluish gray face...

       Quickly looking up again, just as she felt the prick of the needle, she saw through the still open door, her plateye sitting in the lounge, with her legs sedately crossed, reading a magazine.

       As Emmie Sue watched, stunned, her plateye lifted its eyes from the magazine that it was reading and smiled at her above it, knowingly.


The End