Life is an anecdote | #7 | Who’s that girl?

It is the summer of 2011, I work in an office I don’t want to stay working too long. But as a just starting psychologist jobs are not available in abundance so here I am, wasting my time and earning some money.

At the office I work with doctors and psychologists. One of the doctors visits me from time to time for a chat in my room. A cheerful man, a bit confused, absent-minded. Sometimes I stand in the kitchen and he speaks to me all of a sudden; whole stories are shared, clearly building on a conversation that we had not had together. I nod at his words, don’t try to engage too much, and try to finish my tea as quick as possible to escape the conversation I don’t feel part of.

It took me a while to realize that he is mistaking me for someone else.

Another young woman of about my height and with blonde curls and light eyes like me also works at our office. She does other work, and in her position she speaks to the doctor more often than I do. I gained my insight in how he must have mistaken me for her only when I see them talking together one day. I laughed, quietly. I find it funny how some people have trouble keeping faces apart and apparently don’t see the difference between my dark blonde curls and her light blonde or the fact her nose doesn’t curve.

A few weeks later I give up my job at that office. It’s finally time to start a new challenge, leaving the office, the doctor and my double ganger colleague behind. De doctor and I share one more chat at the reception of the office. From the corridor I see my double ganger with light blonde curls approaching us. Suddenly the doctor finds himself positioned between me and her.

He looks at his left, to her. He looks at his right, to me. His face is showing his obvious surprise.

It was only the day that I left the office this poor man realized why he sometimes got these vague responses while talking with ‘the girl with the curls’.

I say goodbye and leave with the feeling I’ve just made the life of at least one person a whole lot easier.

Standard