Multiplication is the name of my particular game.  Before you read this, you need to know about my doppelganger (or rather, his doppelganger: me).  Note that not a single person I've told this story to has been uninterested, however, so it might be worth your while to catch up.

Since the last time I wrote about this situation, the plot has thickened (which my doppel would note is a process liable to remind one of Dickens, discotheques, and brown-stallion-horses with skates on).  I've not previously mentioned my double by his name, which is Jerome.

After profusely thanking my second self for the birthday present he left for me, we went about our daily routines, which are a bit opaque to one another but probably primarily involve careers, dependents, and metabolic processes that are less than negotiable.

Then, last night, I went to the Manship theater to see a new movie about, well, about life and human experience but set in New Orleans after Katrina.  This excellent film, Low and Behold, was made by Zack Godshall, and I went with my friend Will, who knows him.  While waiting for the feature to start, I told Will and his wife about my doppelganger and the presents and the shared tastes and so on.  They were a/be/mused.

Afterward, I went home and Zack spent the night with Will and his wife, Heather.  I'll let Will's email to me explain their morning:

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mills,

had some coffee with zack this morning.  one of the first things he asked me was if i knew this guy, who was married, had a young son, and was in law school...and was named jerome.  whoah.  jerome had shared the story with zack.  in fact, they walked by the "doppleganger's" house one time--maybe the time you described last night.  just thought you should know that you are being talked about as the doppelganger.  really strange to hear this after your story.

we had a good time with you last night. see you saturday.

will

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Rad.  So I sent Jerome a message describing this latest bit of clearly scripted intrigue; I detect the work of an Intelligent Designer with a hackneyed sense of plot pacing.  His reaction:

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Okay Mills.

This is now getting weird. Yesterday I was going to write you an email telling you to go see Low and Behold since my friend Zack Godshall--who, as you know now, spends every Monday night with my us--was showing it. Yet exam demands being what they are, I was forced to spend yestervesper in the liberry. But of course you went to the film!

One more. We play different music for my son constantly. All types. (Since three months in the womb--samples: Aphex Twin SAW vol 2; Minor Threat, etc. etc). Anyhow, a month or so back I had been playing him Spottottiedopaliscious [sic] pretty regularly one week. He danced to it tottering like a pendulum. It had been on my mind and at points the spirit so moved me. I would holler to my wife the line about the plot thickening and giving Andre X000 the Dickens reminiscing of Charles. (I am white). And then your status about a sojourn to Atlanta, I presume.

So did you get to meet Zack? He's a fine person. We talked last Monday night into the late hours about making a movie about a person who is trying to make a movie that cannot be shot. Do you have any ideas?

Uncannily,

Jerome M.

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Superb (I would follow through the gates of Hell anyone who writes "Andre X000").  Later that day, my doppelganger met my friend Will, who described the encounter, at the Law Library, in fascinating detail.  Will is now taking a rather executive approach the situation, and has decided to facilitate a meeting of the doubles as soon as a thematically appropriate venue can be determined.  Notably, he will be bringing Zack as well.

Zack is the Will to Jerome; together, Zack and Will function, in Will's word, as "seconds," which will be useful if Jerome and I need to kill one another.  That's not particularly far-fetched, I'm sorry to say.

Wikipedia notes, for example, that "when a person's doppelgänger is seen, the person him/herself will die shortly. It is considered unwise to try to communicate with a doppelgänger."  On the other hand, this quote is immediately followed by a declaration that a "citations [is] needed."  But I'm not taking any chances.

Jerome has a family, and I already like him more than most of my friends (John, I'm thinking of you here), but it's not like my dogs can take care of themselves, and there's a lot of work to be done around the house, and I was really looking forward to the new Cohen brothers film, so now isn't a convenient time to die.

If it is to be Jerome or I, my second and I will be more than ready.  But there should be no violence until we can film some experiments to determine which of us has primacy:

    -Which of us casts a shadow?

    -Which has a reflection in the water?

    -Which is being stimulated in the left temporoparietal junction?

I'll let you know as soon as I do.