Twelve Years Ago

Identical twins Anaelle and Marielle played in the family room of the Renard home. Not yet three years old, they moved in mirror-like fashion. Their strange mirror-like behavior appeared most unsettling when they danced with each other. Because they moved in perfect synchronization, it must have been after the mysterious death and re-animation of Marielle in which Dr. Renard used the power of teleportation to copy a template of Anaelle and merge that template with Marielle’s body bringing Marielle back to life. At first, Leandre and Elise thought that Marielle had returned to them from the dead, but with each passing day, doubts grew in Elise.

One day, Elise and Leandre watched their children read a picture book. They sat side-by-side to read it. As they looked at the pictures, their eyes moved together. They leaned in the same direction while reading one side of the page and they leaned in the same direction the opposite way whey they reached the end of the other page. To turn a page, one of them started the page flip and the other helped to finish it. This eerie new connectedness between Anaelle and Marielle upset Elise a lot. Before Marielle was re-animated, she moved independently of her sister Anaelle. They were able to play different activities from each other. Marielle, as Elise remembered, was the rambunctious one who sometimes would not behave, while Anaelle was the more responsible one and listened to her mother. Now, it appeared as if the unique individual originally known as Marielle may have indeed perished and was not resurrected as assumed by teleportation. Elise wrestled with this unsettling possibility.

“Leandre, look at them. Something is just not right. They never used to behave this way. It’s as if Anaelle was split in half with each half occupying a separate body. What about Marielle? Is she still there inside her body or is she really gone forever?” Elise could not bear the thought of losing Marielle.

“They’re identical twins,” reasoned Leandre. “It was only because they were identical that I was able to use teleportation to re-animate Marielle from Anaelle’s ‘template.’ They were a perfect match. If they were not identical twins, the re-animation may not have been successful. If there were a lot of dissimilarities between the scanned Anaelle and the entangled body of Marielle, those differences would have to be controlled for. The teleportation may have gone haywire trying to reconcile the dissimilarities. Who knows what we would have gotten inside the target chamber after reconstitution? The best case would have been another dead corpse. We could have created an awful monster if the two were very different. We were lucky, in fact, with the result.”

Elise was still not comforted. “But that’s not the Marielle I know! A mother knows her children and this new Marielle is not the same as the old Marielle. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that this is not Marielle at all. My poor Marielle! She’s really gone and there’s nothing that will bring her back!”

Elise buried her face in her hands and shook her head from side-to-side. She convinced herself that Marielle really was dead and she despaired over this realization. Leandre did not want to see his wife cry. He had done his best. He used the miraculous power of the technology he invented to bring the dead back to life. And still, it was not good enough to assuage a grieving mother who believed she had lost her child.

“Elise, please, don’t dwell on it too much. We have Marielle back. That’s all that matters right now. She may not be exactly the same as before, but she’s alive and with us. Anaelle and Marielle were identical twins when they were born and they are still identical twins now. It is a miracle that Marielle came back from the dead to us. Let’s be thankful for this second chance.”

But Elise was a strong, independent minded woman. She was not convinced by Leandre’s soothing words that Marielle had indeed returned.

Later that week, Leandre worked in a physics lab conducting small experiments on quantum particles. Elise would be at his side, but she had not been seen the entire week. The staff noticed the conspicuous absence of Elise and the staff also noticed that their leader, the genius Leandre Renard, was less enthusiastic about his work. He moved slower than before and his eyes drooped with weariness. His drive and ambition to perfect teleportation technology waned and his staff was concerned. One of his more courageous lab assistants broached the subject.

“Dr. Renard? Not to pry, but will Dr. Brillant be returning to work soon?”

Leandre was not expecting such a personal question. “Uh, yes. Yes, she will. She’s been under the weather these past several days. Should clear up soon.”

“Wonderful to hear that the two of you will be working together again soon. All of us who admire your vision and support your efforts think that the two of you make the best team and you’re so much happier when she’s here with you.”

“Thank you for your concern.” Leandre was dismissive. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to analyze this data.”

“Of course. Sorry for the interruption,” said the lab assistant and he slunk away out of sight.

Leandre had not told the full truth. He did not want anyone to know that Elise had been gripped by a terrible depression and would not get out of bed each morning. When she did pull herself together enough to take care of the children, she did not feel like coming in to work at all. She had lost the will to carry on. She was mourning the loss of Marielle and sometimes, her grief would overwhelm her and she would cry in hour long bouts for no reason at all. There was nothing Leandre could to help get past her loss.

A day or two passed and the situation at home was not getting any better. Leandre worked late into the night past midnight in the Physics department laboratory. Bleary eyed and worn out from a long day, he worked alone in the building, his staff having left much earlier that evening.

I’d better give up and go home. It’s late and I haven’t seen my wife or children all day. Leandre felt a twinge of guilt for avoiding home.

Leandre believed he was alone by himself, but he heard a bump in the hallway which startled him. He called out. “Hello? Who’s there?”

A weak female voice responded. “It’s me, Leandre. It’s me, Elise.”

Leandre recognized Elise’s voice in an instant he rushed to open the door to the laboratory and ran into the hallway where he encountered a weak and stumbling Elise. She leaned on the handrail in order to steady herself as she struggled to make her way over to the door.

Upon seeing her weak condition, Leandre rushed to join her and caught her just before she collapsed to the floor. He held her from touching the ground, but Leandre wondered why she became so weak. He noticed that Elise’s breathing was labored and shallow. Confused and worried, Leandre did not know what to do.

“Elise, why are you here? What’s the matter with you?”

“You didn’t come home and I wanted to say goodbye.”

“What are you talking about?” Leandre was worried.

“I’m sorry, Leandre. I can’t go on without one of my children. No parent should have to live to see the death of a daughter. I’m sorry to do this to you and Anaelle, but I just can’t live with the pain anymore.”

“What did you do? Did you take an overdose of medication or a poison?”

“Something like that. I’ll finally be at peace soon.”

“No! Why are you leaving me behind? I still need you! I still love you!”

“I know, but I can’t stop thinking about Marielle, but soon, I’ll see her again. I’m sorry, Leandre.”

With these final words, Elise’s body went limp and her breathing stopped. Leandre realized Elise died from suicide because of her unrelenting grief. A sadness he had never felt before gripped him and he wept tears that fell down onto Elise who he still held in his arms. Leandre had never felt so hopeless before. He had lost Elise even though he and the children still needed her. Their work in teleportation still needed her. Leandre lost not only a wife and a friend, but also his equal half. No, he lost his better half.