I heard a fair bit of things about the doppleganger which had impersonated me back then. ‘She’ dared move around in broad daylight, within the building in which I worked (and am still working in). A few of my colleagues claimed to have seen me walk past them without so much as acknowledging their presence. Some others said ‘I’ would merely turn my head and smile at them when they called out to ‘me’ from a distance. Although they DID admit ‘my’ smile didn’t sit too well with them. When I asked like just how not too well, they said it gave them the creeps. 1 or 2 of them got a good look at ‘her’ one day and still they insisted it was me - whereas at that same time I had been upstairs in my own Dept, busy with photocopying and binding info booklets.

The best claims probably would have been: “How did you get here so fast? And how come you’ve changed (clothing)?”, AND “What do you mean you don’t know what I’m talking about? I just spoke with you on the phone not more than 2 mins ago!”

Know how far ’she’ went? ‘She’ had called up Class 95FM (I assumed ’she’ did), probably had chatted with DJs Flying Dutchman and Joe Augustin, made some ludicrous claim, then left my name and office contact number. Because I returned to my seat just in time to receive a call from Joe Augustin himself, out of the blue. Gee I thought I’d won something but hell no, Joe said I had spoken with him. I had SPOKEN with him. Me: “Excuse me but just what the hell are you talking about? What are you saying? Of course I DIDN’T call you!” And of course he being who and what he is, Joe spouted very direct remarks which - if it weren’t for the fact that I’d been hunting down this ‘thing’ for only God Knows how long - would have had me split my sides laughing and assuring him no no no it wasn’t me, he’s got the wrong person. Unfortunately he only got me much more distressed. He said I shouldn’t be pulling of such pranks, he said I could fool anyone else if I wanted to but he’d had years of experience as a sound engineer, he’s got a keen sense of hearing and he knew it was me who had called earlier… That “distressed” emotion weighing me down had quickly turned into “incredibly bloody mighty pissed off”.

I called up my godsis right after I’d hung up with MR Augustin. I wanted to hear that thing’s voice for myself. The DJs would have had something recorded, right? Both my godsis and I took urgent leave, headed straight down to the radio station, asked to see MR Augustin who was already off the air by the time we arrived. He met us at the lobby. He couldn’t give us the recorded tape. He said it had been recorded over as was the usual way these things were done in the studios. Was the trip wasted? I don’t know. I was so angry back then, the gears working my brain were probably heard working overtime at double-speed.

I took the rest of the day off, my godsis kept me company, then when I felt collected enough to head for home, I did. So many things had been happening to me prior to that incident; those were so much heavier. This doppleganger issue should’ve been nothing. I could’ve handle it. That very night I wrote an email to MR Augustin, explained to him why this whole incident distressed me so, I practically begged him for his cooperation that if he were to receive any more phone calls from ‘her’, to quickly contact me or my godsis. I gave him our contact numbers and the email address through which he could reach me. He didn’t. He called my godsis instead; I KNEW he would do that. How did I know that? Well, if someone could have perfect hearing and be Mr 6-Million $ Man, I could also have perfect fore/hindsight and play a psychic variation of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. Oh by the way, he even told my godsis to watch out for ME, be careful around ME, amongst having said other absolutely maddening crap about me.

What? First there was someone or something running around with my face and more or less similar mannerisms; now I am told I have a multiple-personality disorder? So now I’m mentally unstable? Okay, fine. Be that way if you will. So much for trusting a (supposedly) level-headed man to assist me with this sort of thing.

It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? It sounds like no big deal. Hell, it even sounds like it’s not about the doppleganger, but more about my still-seething thoughts where Joe Augustin is concerned. Now I don’t give a rat’s fart about what people like Joe Augustin want to think of me. All of the above was just the sugar-coated surface. You haven’t heard the deeper end of it. It reached a certain level where it got me so bloody pissed off. Spiritually, emotionally, mentally I was a walking volcano (that’s what a late-friend had said). Like Darren Soh said, you can’t possibly imagine what it felt like to know how someone or something is out there. Looks just like you, moves like you. Even talks like you. Only ‘his’ or ‘her’ smile has no human soul in it.

I remember spilling tears when I faced MR Augustin with my tale. I hadn’t known how else to describe the situation to him; I hadn’t known where to start so he would know it’s serious. I have heard other foreign encounters where it had turned fatal. Now when I hear his voice on the TV (I don’t tune in to the radio station he’s currently with - it used to be my fave station, damn it), I just pray HE doesn’t get his own doppleganger. Don’t get me wrong; being furious with the man doesn’t mean I blame him. You get nothing out of finger-pointing. I’ve long thanked him in my prayers for having been a catalyst, he churned out a spiritually stronger ME. Plus I also no longer trust folks like him. You’re better off trusting the dead.

As for the doppleganger, didn’t hear jacksh*t about ‘her’ after a while. It was like ’she’ had disappeared. Not for long, apparently. Recently I heard again how contacts from abroad have SEEN ‘me’ there where they are, whilst in truth I was a thousand miles away doing something else, some place else. I never stepped out from Singapore, never physically travelled elsewhere. Unless I have the ability to astral project, or haunt people in their dreams while they sleep, then I still don’t know who or what it was my contacts had seen.

They know better now how to deal with ‘her’.