Two Much Alike

“He fell asleep. I left the windows down.”

That information had the woman hurrying back to the battered old station wagon parked next to his SUV. “Are you two brother and sister?” he asked the pair now standing before him, gazing at him as if he were the villain in a horror film.

“As if you don’t know,” the boy said with derision.

“We’re twins,” the girl said.

“Do you think we wouldn’t recognize our own dad when we saw him?” the boy continued.

“I may look like him, but I’m not him,” he replied, as the pair continued to scrutinize him. “My name is Joe Smith.”

“That sounds like a made-up name to me,” the boy said.

“It’s not. If you wait just a minute, I’ll go inside and get my wallet. It has my driver’s license in it,” he told them.

“It’s probably a fake,” the boy countered.

“If you’re not going to take my driver’s license as proof, what will satisfy you?”

The little girl whispered something to her brother, who then said, “Take off your shirt.”

“What?” Joe almost chuckled at the absurdity of the request.

“I said, take off your shirt,” the boy repeated.

“Look, I told you I’m not your father,” Joe said, trying not to lose patience with the kids.

“Then take off your shirt and prove it,” the boy challenged him. “Or are you chicken?”

Joe could hardly believe what was happening. He was being confronted by two kids who were accusing him of being their deadbeat dad and demanding that he take off his shirt. “No, I’m not chicken, but I’m not your father, either,” he said evenly.

“Then, why won’t you take off your shirt?” the boy persisted.

Joe decided to humor the kids rather than stand there arguing with them. If it took revealing his bare chest to convince these two that he wasn’t their father, he’d do it. He unbuttoned his shirt and took it off, leaving him bare-chested and the object of their wide-eyed stares.

“Oh my gosh! It is him!” The little girl stared at him as if she’d seen a ghost, then went running back to the car.

“And you said you weren’t him!” the boy accused him before racing after his sister. They met their mother, who was coming toward them with an even younger child in tow. The two jumped up and down excitedly and pointed in Joe’s direction. Joe couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it was enough to stiffen their mother’s shoulders and put a frown on her face.

She approached him cautiously, carrying a sleepy child in her arms. She looked like a mother hen about to do battle for her chicks.

He put his shirt back on, unsure what it was that had triggered such a response in the kids. “If these are your biological children, you must know that I’m not their father.”

From her expression, he could see that she didn’t.

“Dennis, if you’re playing some kind of joke with these kids, it’s not funny.” A shadow in her eyes told him that whoever this Dennis was, he’d hurt her badly.

“I’m not Dennis and I wouldn’t play such a cruel trick on any children,” he answered a bit impatiently. “My name is Joe Smith. I don’t have any kids. If I had, I wouldn’t deny their existence. Surely you, their mother, must see that I’m not the man they think I am.”

“Stop lying!” she shouted. He could see that she was close to losing control. “You’ve been running and lying all your life. Just for once tell the truth.”

He ran a hand over his hair in exasperation. “I’m not their father. Whatever it was they saw when I took off my shirt…it doesn’t mean I’m their father.”

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at him. “They saw your tattoo.”

Suddenly he realized the reason behind the children’s demand. It had been to see if he had a tattoo on his upper arm. He wasted no time in explaining. “You can’t possibly think I’m their father because I have the same tattoo as he does on my arm. Do you know how many sailors get tattoos while they’re in the Navy?”

“Let me see it,” she said quietly.

This time he didn’t take off his shirt, but pushed up the sleeve until the anchor with the letters USN could be seen. She took one glance, then looked away, her teeth tugging on her upper lip.

“If it’s the same as your husband’s—”

“My ex- husband,” she corrected defiantly, as if reminding him she couldn’t stand to be around him. “Ex-husband,” she repeated like a warning.

“If it’s the same tattoo, it’s a coincidence.” He stared into deep blue eyes. What he saw in them was contempt, and it annoyed him that those beautiful eyes contained such venom toward him because of what another man had done. “Look. All you have to do is come inside and I’ll show you proof of who I am.”

“Now that is something I will not do,” she said through clenched teeth.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. Joe glanced at the sky, then said, “I think you’d better come inside just the same. There’s a storm moving in. You’re welcome to stay until it passes.”

“I will not stay anywhere with you. All I want is to get as far away from here as possible,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. She called to her kids, “We have to get in the car. It’s going to rain.”

“Are we going to call the police?” Joe heard the boy asked.

Police. Joe knew he needed to convince this woman that he was not her ex-husband. What he didn’t need was for some kid to mistake him for a man who was in trouble with the law. He had his own past to haunt him. He didn’t need another man’s.

“Would you people listen to me?” he said in frustration as big raindrops began to pepper the earth. “I am not the man you’re looking for.”

A gust of wind sent the boy’s baseball cap sailing through the air. He went chasing after it, but it kept tumbling on the wind.

“Don’t worry about the hat, Alex. Just get in the car,” the woman said, as a sudden downpour pelted them. She herded her kids toward the station wagon.

Joe watched them struggle to reach the car, the gusty winds impeding their progress. Then he took another look at the sky and knew he couldn’t let this woman and her children leave. He caught up with her and grabbed her by the arm.

She flinched when he touched her, and he immediately let go. “You can’t drive in this,” he said as large raindrops stung his cheeks and dampened their clothing. “Please. Come inside. Your children will be safer in the house.”