On The Wright track

Maybe the clickety-clack sounds of the train running rapidly over the track was the biggest factor of why Brad Wright suddenly awakened; but in all likelihood, it was the uneasy feeling that one gets when they feel like they are being watched. That uneasy feeling was made even more heart wrenching for Brad because of an unmitigated circumstance; Brad was nearly all alone, on a speeding train, with only one other person in sight, his estranged, identical twin, Chad, who was standing over him.

Brad interrupted the monotonous tone of the grizzled train wheels, gliding over the rusty tracks, to address his brother. "I would say that I'm glad to see you, but we both know that would be a lie; and I would jump up from this seat to give you a hug, but these cuffs are preventing that, well, that, and my utter disgust at seeing your face." Chad responded with a smirk/grin on his face and addressed Brad's statement. "Careful there, bro, you do realize that you see this same face every time you look in the mirror?" Without hesitation, Brad offered his rebuttal. "Yea, I know, it's the main reason that I don't have any mirrors in my house." Chad couldn't resist the opportunity to return a verbal volley, in keeping with their normal repartee. "I bet you keep at least one mirror in your place, and a few straws, or rolled up bills." Brad took the inference with his usual aplomb and preceded to vent his frustrations in his brother's direction. "I see nothing has changed with you, always so judgmental and verbose; what you should be doing is explaining to me why I'm in these cuffs and why are we on this train." Chad took a moment to let the inquiry marinate in his mind for a moment; he had an answer to part of Brad's dilemma, but, as for the other half, he was just as much in the dark. Chad put his hands to his temples and then slowly moved them down to scratch his salt and peppered, scruff of a beard, as he carefully measured what he would say; much like Brad, they shared one grave concern. "The cuffs, we can broach that subject later, right now, we should delve into our shared concern of, why we are hurtling across the countryside, on what seems like a runaway train, with an apparent, runaway conductor." Brad sat up straight, well, as straight as he could while being under the constraints of a pair of handcuffs, which are strategically attached in the one place on his seat that makes his right hand obsolete. Brad uses his weathered left hand to smooth the wrinkles from his khakis and lightly swipe some invisible dust from his heavily starched, houndstooth shirt. "Well, if you will take off this hardware, we can find out exactly what is going on." Chad listened to Brad campaigning to be set free; and offered up his assessment of the situation. "As much as I have fantasized about putting a pair of cuffs on you, I'm not here in a official capacity, those are not my cuffs and I didn't come here to arrest you, not this time." Brad listened to his brother, intently, but couldn't hide the skepticism from piercing his face. "Come on man, get real; even when we were kids playing cops and robbers, you would even try and arrest me when you were playing the robber, so I find it hard to believe that you aren't trying to pad your resume by reeling in a big fish." Chad put his hand over his mouth to muffle a bit of the laughter that Brad's comments produced. "You, a big fish, more like a small sardine; flatter yourself all you want, but I have real criminals to pursue. Bringing you in wouldn't even move the needle; I would get more cred if I brought in that old lady that I saw running a red light on her scooter the other day." Brad responded with a smirk on his face, but quickly pivoted back to his main objective of finding out why and how he came to be here. "If you didn't do this, who did, and where are we headed; and where is the conductor?" Chad tried to temper his response, because he knew the situation called for answers, it's just that he didn't have any. "Hold up, hold up, I have the same questions that you have, and as much as we might not like it, we are probably going to have to work together to get some answers." Brad ingested all that Chad had to say and knew that his brother was right; and in true twin fashion, the brothers simultaneously placed a hand on their respective chins and let out a sigh.

After several minutes of Chad pacing back and forth and constantly checking the door handle to the locomotive to see if it had miraculously, somehow unlocked itself; Chad walked over to Brad and sat down beside him. He then mustered the courage to ask a question that he had wanted to ask for most of his adult life; now seemed like as good a time as any. "Where did we go wrong bro, what happened to us?" Brad looked solemnly into Chad's eyes as he prepared his response. "That is hard to say, cause I was the one who always had to be the cop when we played cops and robbers; I still haven't grasped that irony yet." Chad let out a muted chuckle and interjected a response. "Well, I never read much into that, because if you will recall, I spent a considerable amount of time growing up, wanting to be a mime." Brad let out a hearty, full throated laugh, which proved to be contagious. After the twins gathered themselves and locked back into the mission at hand, the stakes of the journey, and necessity for an immediate solution was paramount with each passing moment; especially judging by what Chad witnessed as he made another sojourn to the door leading to the locomotive. Looking through the window, Chad became startled at what he was seeing; he turns to Brad with an ashen look on his face. Brad noticed and became instantly concerned. "What is it, you look like you saw a ghost?" Chad responded immediately, just as the severity of the moment warranted. "In a few minutes, we will; do you remember that time when I threatened to arrest you and you said, "over my dead body"? Brad thought about the question, then gave his response. "Yea, I do, why?" Chad responded without hesitation. "Well, I have some good news and some bad news, which do you want first?" Brad thought for a second, but didn't want to waste much time due to his growing anxiety." "The bad news." Chad countered rapidly. "The bad news, that dead body part, we are about to experience; because there is another train on this track, headed in our direction." Brad's mouth dropped open in absolute exasperation. "What, are you kidding me; what could possibly be the good news?" Chad snapped back his response. "With your free hand, you can feel free to flip me off to your heart's content on our way out." Chad began frantically grabbing at the door knob, shaking and pulling it, to no avail. As the approaching train drew ever closer, so did the sense of impending doom that the twins were now feeling. Chad's desperation was palpable, and was matched only by the intensity Brad displayed as he tried to break free from his restraints. The oncoming locomotive was about fifty yards away when Chad let out, what could only be described as a blood curdling scream, prompting Brad to respond in kind. "Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! Noooooooo........."

"Okay, Brad, we have to bring this session to a close, but we can pick up where we left off, next week." Brad sat up on the couch and began to gently massage his temples in deep contemplation. "Wait, so the cuffs, the runaway train, the, the..... twin brother; it means what?" Brad's therapist cleared her throat, then went into her prognosis. "The cuffs, in my opinion, represent something in your life that you feel is holding you back from doing what you want to do; the runaway train could very well be your life, you feel is running out of control. The twin brother, that, to me, is the most obvious; it represents the struggle between who you are and who you want to be." Brad stood on his feet with a resolute look on his face, he nods intently towards his therapist as he walks towards the door; as he reaches for the door knob he turns to address the therapist one last time. "I trust your analysis, but it all seemed so real." The therapist removes her leopard print glasses and responds to Brad in a short, and succinct manner. "I know, in a way, it is real; it's your mind and emotions." Brad nods and walks out the door with his head down; just as he lifts his head up, his jaw drops as he comes face to face with a man wearing khakis and a houndstooth shirt....... that looks exactly like him.