Man Suddenly Remembers Who He Is, Solves His Own Cold Case

It was a no-brainer: he looked in the mirror and saw what he could see inside the fog. And there he was! Or at least he thought he could be. Why not? Twenty years vanished in quicksilver. He was back! It was as easy as 1-2-3. It was the aftermath that was difficult. All the usual paparazzi buzzing outside when he brought out the trash. The proposals for marriage. In time, the man couldn’t remember how he ever forgot himself. He had been there all the time, hadn’t he? Maybe not. Maybe he was a stand-in for someone else. Or someone else was standing in for him. It made his head hurt. Had he been hit in the head? Was that it? Did a vase drop from a balcony window and clunk him on the head? It would explain a lot. But not the letters piling up in his hallway with strangers claiming to be kin. Long lost brother. Absent father. Surely, he couldn’t be all those people? Could he? The man began to wish he never discovered himself again in the mirror. It would all be so much easier if he remained in the dark. And therefore he refused to turn on any more lights. Gradually, everyone went away. Now the man could move freely again in his apartment. His face in the mirror dark as a hooded hawk.