Perception

1

It shouldn't have been so much of a shock. I mean, it's not as if I don't know what it's like to see the impossible before you. I work for the Special Branch, for heaven's sake! I should be used to it by nw. I remember one time when someone stole a house, along with the potting shed, the lawn and the apple tree in the garden. By the time we got there all that was left was a fence around a bare patch of earth! And on another case, there was a burglary that could only have happened if they'd been invisible. Actually, we didn't catch that one, but the point is this case should've been every day for me. I don't understand how it was done, but then that's not the sort of question you ask in my job. But yeah, it really creeped me out, and a lot of other people as well.

It started out as a routine exercise for the team. We heard of some less than savoury experiments going on at this lab, and they'd made the mistake of not paying enough to the government, so it was quite easy for the legal team to get a warrant. Then it was the turn of the swatties, as we call them in the office, to go in and find some good evidence to close the lot of them down for good. They drove off in their black van, I got a cup of tea and we settled down to wait. As I said, everyday procedure.

They found them in a cell, apparently. Healthy, but thin and scared-looking, like a couple of frightened rabbits caught in a trap. Which I suppose they were really. Anyway, the guys weren't fazed by them at all. I don't know why; seen too much I guess. They just took a couple of snaps for the court and bundled then off back to me at the office. I'm the humanitarian side of things, you see. Probably the only one who won't pull a gun on you as soon as look at you. It falls to me to comfort those who've seen the impossible, to slowly introduce the victims back to normal life, and generally try to fix as many of those sorry, broken lives as possible. Everyone thinks I've got the hardest job, and personally, I agree.

Anyway, one of the swatties had had the brain power to radio me in advance, so when they turned up I was ready with my brightest smile and a microphone behind my ear. You can never be too careful with this line of work. We're prepared for everything, we are. We have to be. We even have a couple of bedrooms upstairs which we keep for emergencies, so anyone too traumatised could stay here until we found friends or family, or at the very least, a good asylum.

I must say, it was a big shock when they walked in. Really scary. I mean, the swatties had told me they were identical, but this was nothing like identical twins. This was like someone had clicked 'copy' on a seventeen-year-old girl. Almost made me drop my 'Welcome Smile' for the first time in almost thirty years. But you don't keep this job for long if you can't adapt fast to any situation, so it wasn't long before both of them were sitting in my office with a blanket and a hot drink each.

Then the story started to come out, and my 'Welcome Smile' vanished, as if it had never existed.