5. Paul & Paul

The odd sensation was over and Paul opened his eyes. As expected, he saw himself. The experiment was a success.

The beam caused his molecules to vibrate and separate, creating two versions of himself with temporary artificially manufactured molecules filling in the void in both bodies. The end result is that for the next two minutes there were two of him. Not a clone, not an alternate universe version. It was him twice; exactly the same person existing side by side for a short period of time.

The two Pauls stood naked inside the small room and stared at each other.

“It worked” Paul was awestruck.

“You knew it would.” Other Paul replied. “Well, we knew it would.”

“Two minutes, huh?” Paul said, then silence.

Paul thought it was odd to have an awkward silence with yourself and wondered if other Paul thought the same thing.

“It’s not entirely what I expected.” Paul said.

“What do you mean?” Other Paul raised an eyebrow.

“That! Exactly that.” Paul said, making other Paul look even more confused. “We are the same person. Exactly the same person. I expected us to talk at the same time saying the same thing, complete each other’s sentences. But we don’t…”

“Well, we are technically made out of halves. We share molecules from the same body, but we don’t even have one molecule in common. Maybe that’s enough to throw us out of sync just a bit.”

Other Paul delivered his explanation with a little patronizing smile, as if it was utterly obvious and didn’t need to be said. That was annoying. Was that something Paul also did unknowingly? Probably.

“Well, one minute left.” Paul glanced at the flat digital clock stuck to the wall. “We should take advantage of this situation.”

Other Paul looked around. “We’re stuck in here. There’s nothing we can do but wait. If we’re too far from each other when time runs out and we can’t merge back, we’ll die.”

“Wow, we really are on different wavelengths.” Paul chuckled. “How often do you get to spend time with yourself?”

“All the time?”

“Not like this! We’re here as two different people who know each other better than anyone else. There is nothing about me you don’t know. Nothing. And vice versa.”

Paul got closer to other Paul and whispered in his ear. “I know every single one of your secrets.”

At that other Paul got visibly nervous which amused Paul to no end.

“What are you worrying about?” Paul laughed. “I’m you! What do you think I am going to do with your – our – secrets other than keep them to myself?”

Other Paul relaxed and smiled. “I see your point. It’s nice to be with someone you have absolutely nothing to hide from them.”

 The two hugged, their naked warm bodies pressing against each other and they kissed passionately, their slippery tongues wrestling playfully. Paul grabbed other Paul’s ass and gave it a firm squeeze as their flesh started merging back together.