[“Had I another life! Another lifetime! … Or, what is better, a parallel life. Simultaneous with this.” – Joyce Carol Oates]
It’s like having an identical twin, y’know, or a clone; my parallel life, I mean. But that’s not quite it: it’s my parallel self, alright, but it’s not really me. Pete-2’s done quite a few things I haven’t and vice versa, after the big split – that happened the day he took that transfer to Atlanta and I turned it down.
I hadn’t married yet back then, and it was interesting to follow up with him and see how Pete-2 was dating, and getting older and discouraged and finally marrying that mistake called Judy and having all those kids who never seemed thankful.
Of course I had mostly the same life and married my own Judy – Pete-2 and I are parallel, after all. My Judy, though, wasn’t all that bad. I put up with her pretty well, I guess, and our kids too.
Overall, I think I got a better deal out of life than Parallel Pete did.
But I don’t think we’ve ever forgiven us.
Memorable Fancies 
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