•L.1.F.3.•MeMe•E-Zine•

[37]. Doppleganger

When I was 13 years old I had just moved to a new area and was living a few blocks from where I would be going to school when summer vacation ended in the coming weeks. Anxious to get a head start on the lay of the land and possibly acquaint myself with potential new associates and friends, I decided to walk to the new school and do some exploring. 15 minutes from home and wandering the perimeter of Morganton Junior High School, I was aware that someone was calling to someone else nearby,

"Everette! Hey Everette! ...I know you hear me calling you man... Everette!"

My name is Kenn. It didn't occur to me at the time that whoever was calling Everette was actually addressing me until the kid doing the calling actually walked up to me, tapped me on the shoulder and said, right in my face...

"Everette! What's wrong with you man? Didn't you hear me calling you?"

My name is Kenn. I didn't know anyone in this new town so, understandably I was confused when I said to the kid,

"Uhhh... I'm not Everette! My name is Kenn..." The other kid was just as confused as I was for a moment before he did a double take, realizing his mistake but he was also, mysteriously to me, amazed as well.

"Man... you look just like Everette Keeter, bro! I'm sorry... But dude! You and Everette could be brothers! You walk like him... Dress like him... you even sound like him... Wow!"

Being new in town, I had no idea who this mysterious Everette Keeter was but this kid had been convinced, that I was this enigmatic individual who I'd never met before. Over the following two plus decades, living in Morganton, NC, I found myself repeatedly mixed up with this guy, Everette Keeter, whom I had never met and had only ever heard of second hand, whenever I would be periodically mistaken for him. From these second hand accounts I discovered many things about this guy that caused the mistaken identity on a consistent basis: Apparently we both were of similar height and build, shared many of the same mannerisms and gestures when observed from a distance, we dressed alike and both of us have always shared a tendency to walk or ride bikes rather than drive.

Even when people who mistook me for my mysterious doppelganger approached my personal space the accidental identity theft would often continue as old friends of Everette would keep right on rolling with,

"Hey Everette! Long time no see man, what have you been into..." or, "Dude! I didn't know you were still in town or I would have come by to check you out before now..." to which I always replied, "My name is Kenn. I'm not Everette Keeter!"

Once I was even attacked by a couple of guys who thought I was Everette, the absentee Keeter apparently having stolen from one of the two disgruntled individuals. They'd already thrown several blows and knocked me to the ground before one of them realized I wasn't the guy they were mad at.

"Oh man! We're sorry dude! We thought you were Everette Keeter!"

"My name is Kenn! I am NOT EVERETTE KEETER!"

It wasn't until 2008 that I finally met the guy. It turned out that my wife had actually gone to school with the guy and, according to her, she couldn't understand why people always mistook me for him but, knowing that so many others were constantly confusing the two of us, she ran into him one day and asked Everette to come by my job for comparison...

When my wife showed up with the man in question, before I noticed for myself, I actually heard a couple of my co-workers comment, "Hey? What's Kenn doing out in the lobby? I thought he was on back line today..." At which point I looked up from my register station and saw the man for the first time...

There stood a slightly older version of myself next to my wife. He and I stood staring at one another for what felt like several minutes even though it couldn't have been any more that 15 seconds. The resemblance was stunning! He stood like me, had the same cut of hair, the same eye coloration and even the same cocky half smile. It was crazy! After nearly 25 years of being mistaken for this guy I finally got to see, first hand, exactly what all the hoopla and circumstance had been about. After that initial, speechless moment of flabbergasted understanding, the first words out of my mouth to the Mysterious Everette Keeter were...

"Dude! You got your butt kicked and didn't even know it... because some joker thought I was you!"