"The 2nd Floor Doppleganger"

"The 2nd Floor Doppleganger"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

This story occured more than a decade ago. During that time we still had a parlor business and my cousin Gabriel was a mere baby.

It was the first time in weeks that things slowed down in the parlor that was situated in the first floor of our three storey townhouse. It was a lazy afternoon and my Tita Alpha was helping out with the house and so she left Gabriel with a border of pillows all around as he slept.

I was in the 2nd floor with Gabriel and was reading when I saw one of our Beauticians (he was one of those gay parloristas with long hair and muscular arms) come up , kneeled and gave Baby Gabriel a kiss.He also slept on the pallette near the baby. I paid this no mind and continued with my reading. I also fell asleep on the couch. I woke up and looked at my watch , it was around 5:30pm.I slept for about 4 hours. My tita went up by this time so I went down to look for food.

I was surprised to see the same beautician sleeping at the back room of the parlor. I told my mom that I saw him sleeping upstairs near the baby as well. My mom told me that he has been there since early morning and has never gone up to the 2nd floor even once.My tita confirmed this because she has been downstairs the whole time as well.

Just another entity in our house. Its not really hostile or malevolent. It probably just found my cousin so adorable as a baby.I'm just happy it didn't find me adorable.