I Should Have

‘The Imposter’

She tiptoed carefully across the landing the feeling of horror rising in her stomach again and peered over the banister at the imposter standing in their hallway.
It looked like him. It was identical, it was wearing his clothes. His deep grey suit and pink tie. She bought him that tie for his fiftieth. He could always pull off pink. It wore his big brown shoes. His expensive ones. Her husband didn’t buy things like that often but scarcely and real quality when he did. Money was no object.
Edward the real Edward would say ‘built to last,’ they were the same ones her real husband wore every time he had an important meeting.
This imposter knew what her husband liked to wear, when and what for. She stared at him hard. She did that when he wasn’t looking. It messed up the knot in his tie – Just like him! He stood there still humming along to Edwards shower song inspecting himself in the mirror.
It was the mirror image exactly the same but not real. The resemblance was uncanny. No not uncanny identical. It sprayed his perfume down each side then one for luck. Edward always did that, she knew that about him. She knew everything about him.
She stood back the moment he picked up his briefcase .If it was imitating the real Edward then he would call her to say he were leaving then shout, ‘I love you,’
‘Leaving now. Love you.’ The words were exactly the same but hollow somehow. Unfeeling.
“I love you,” she called holding her breath from the doorway. She wondered if it knew, she knew it were different.
It closed the door – it didn't seem so.
Every time it looked at her with its china doll eyes and crocodile smile she had to compose herself and not let on she it were an imposter.
Smiles could be faked but the eyes would never cooperate. Eyes were the windows to the soul but nobody was in.
She wondered if she tapped him would he break into a million little pieces and reveal the hollow emptiness inside.
There's no such thing as a perfect crime everyone makes mistakes. Crimes of passion were no exception. This thief who had stolen Edward were no exception.
The devil was in the detail and this devil who had replaced Edward revealed kept messing up the little things
Receipts end marriages!
It had topped up in different petrol stations on routes the real Edward never usually drove on. It ate at restaurants he never usually went too. It thought it were the perfect copy. The problem with perfect copies were that an expert could always tell the difference.
It agreed with her plans - it never made any. Holidays, theatre tickets the new curtains. The real him would have never agreed to go to and see a musical. Passivity breeds contempt. The real him had opinions a mind of his own. Cantankerous and caring
This impersonator got silly things mixed up. He bought her lingerie and perfume but hid them in unusual places. Not his normal hiding places then he forgot to give them to her.
She wondered when he'd been replaced. Changed. Swapped. Somewhere along the line she must have stopped paying attention. She never should have stopped paying attention. Never - ever stop paying attention to someone you love.
There were flickers of the real him like breath in the cold you could see it, almost feel it then it were gone.
This fake Edward now faced away from her while they drifted asleep. Did it dream? what did it dream about? Who did it dream about?
The real Edward used to say she were a dream come true in the days when he was pursuing her. Courting her. So many men so many competitors. She’d toyed with them all , led them up the garden path, then back around for good measure. She was young and beautiful enough to play those games back then
Power really is such a terribly fickle thing. She wished youth lasted as long as regrets.
She thought about sitting in the restaurant last night. The imposter had pulled out her chair just like Edward then taken off her coat. He always heard every word she said but he never really listened.
Did it care? Was the fake Edward capable of caring.
‘’Sorry for being late. I got held up at the office.’’ It had begun to make more and more mistakes. Complentacy was basically carelessness.
She mulled over the theory that she had become just as much of an imposter as it. They were both pretending to be happy. Pretending not to know.
''Love you,’said the imposter.
“Love you more,’’ I had replied.
If she could get the real Edward back shed pay so much attention this time. She would change everything about her. Her clothes her laugh the way she looked. Anything. I should have paid more attention she thought.
She looked the imposter in the eye and smiled. She wondered if the real Edward would return. If she could get him back. The old Edward the one that loved her.