The Twins

Some time later Payton found herself swimming back upstream towards consciousness. Even before she was fully alert she began to be aware of pains in disconnected parts of her body. Her back ached as if she’d just climbed a mountain with a 50-pound bag of rocks on each shoulder. Her right ankle throbbed. Her left hip felt as if there were a thousand tiny needles in it. Payton groaned, opened her eyes reluctantly and lay on her back totally occupied by the simple mechanics of breathing.

After a few minutes, she felt a little better – a little more focused and she decided to stand up. She quickly discovered that she was still a little unsteady.

“First things first”, thought Payton. “Maybe I should just try sitting.”

With more effort than she had ever imagined could be possible to accomplish so simple a task as sitting up, Payton managed to prop herself against a wall. She sat there, feeling more than a little like a large sack of potatoes, gathering strength.

“Breathe. Just breathe” Payton reminded herself.

“You’ll never be able to do that properly!” a voice giggled from somewhere out in front of her.

“Too right!” chimed in a twittering tone. “And if she doesn’t manage to do such a simple thing right, just think of what people will say!”

Both voices dissolved into gales of laughter.

“Who’s there?” called Payton. “Come on – who’s there?”

“What’s a silly twit like you care?” came the giggling response.

“You’ll never be up to snuff anyway!” chimed in the second voice.

“That’s not true,” said Payton to the air at large, with a marked lack of conviction.

“Oh yes it is!” and the owner of the voice stepped forward into Payton’s line of vision. It was a tiny little imp of a being dressed all in red with sharp black eyes and an ear-to-ear sneer. “You’re not as good as other people, you know. Not as smart, not as pretty, not as talented. You’re not a bit clever. You haven’t got what it takes – the real stuff!”

“But you already know that,” said the owner of voice number 2, the twitterer, as it too stepped forward. It was an exact double of the other imp. Payton couldn’t tell them apart. “What’s more people don’t respect you because you’re nothing of value. They laugh at you at best and merely tolerate you at worst.”

“Where the heck did you two smart-alecks come from and who are you?” demanded Payton.

They both giggled some more and then bowed. “We’re your two best friends. I’m Insecurity and this is my twin Self-doubt. We’re so hurt that you didn’t recognize us!” And the two of them skipped off into the darkness, arm in arm.