Hey everyone, sorry about the delay in Short Story Sunday, but been busy, so it’s a little later than usual I guess. Anyways, it’s still Sunday. Here’s one I wrote early last year. Hope you like it.

The Man Who Never Was

At one point in the not so distant past, there was a man who went by the name of Micah. Micah was not a normal human being. He had his defects. Well, in saying that, I guess you could say every human being has their defects. In simple terms, Micah was deaf, but also had an asthma problem. He was from Eastern Europe, although nobody really knew exactly which country he had come from. He had moved to Sydney, Australia in 2012 for a new start to life. He had bought himself a motorcycle, & had enrolled in an educational course in Western Sydney in order to gain knew knowledge & in an attempt to meet new people & maybe, just maybe, make a few friends.

At the time around which Micah had enrolled in a university in Western Sydney, there was a woman by the name of Jane, who had recently begun working in the same university as a learning & support officer, who was an expert in sign language. Jane had started out doing a spot of acting for a short period of time, a few months at least, & had gone to an improvisation night in the western suburbs of Sydney, before deciding ultimately that she wanted to begin studying sign language. So she studied the mechanism of talking for the deaf, & found she had quite the natural talent for it. She did a spot of interpreting for the deaf at different conventions & gatherings every now & then, before deciding to take up a full time job as a student learning & support officer at Western Sydney University, helping the deaf to learn & get though the educational courses they had chosen to study.

It is at this point in our story that our two characters first meet. Jane went into work one day, & had been told she had a new student to assist & support. This student went by the name of Micah. Micah, meanwhile, had filled out all the forms for the uni. He had been required to list an emergency contact number in case something sudden or unexpected happened to him at the university. He decided to list his brother as that contact. A few moments later, Micah had a woman coming up to greet him. She greeted him with the proper sign language for ‘Hello, how are you?’ & then told him her name was Jane. Micah greeted her in return, telling her he was well. Despite being deaf, Micah could still speak, & so was quite open & outspoken. Anyway, Micah was taken to his first class at university by Jane, who was interested to get to know this mystery man a little more. Jane helped him get through that first day at the university, & he enjoyed every minute of it. Jane walked him out to his car, well, at least she thought she was going to see a car, but she was mistaken, because instead she was walked over to a motorcycle, & a nice one at that. The two farewelled each other for the day & Micah headed home. Jane on the other hand was amazed at what she had witnessed today. She was intrigued by this man whom she had never met before today, someone who should have been just another student to her, but seemed to encompass so much more.

Over the next few weeks, Micah enjoyed each new day he had at Western Sydney University. Jane & Micah worked well as a pair. Jane was his ears, & he was a great learner. He gained much newfound knowledge, & just wanted to always keep learning. And Jane continued to be amazed, not only at his fast learning & skills, but at him & his personality. For a deaf man, he was so outspoken, so intellectual. She wanted to learn more about him, but she didn’t want to invade his own personal space. After many many weeks at the university, with Micah turning up every single day without fail, there was one day when he didn’t. Jane found he wasn’t there & so, just to be safe, decided to ring the contact number that Micah had given the uni. She rang the number & after about three rings, someone picked up on the other line. “Hello?” It was a man’s voice on the other side of the line. “Hello, this is Jane from Western Sydney University. I work with Micah as a learning & support officer. I noticed he hadn’t turned up today & just decided to ring to make sure he is ok.” The male voice on the other side of the line spoke back to Jane, “Oh yeah, Micah, he’s alright. He had a bad asthma attack this morning & decided not to go in today. He’s just having a lie down at the moment. Sorry, yeah, I should’ve called. I’m his twin brother by the way in case you were wondering.” Jane replied, “Oh, that’s alright, just checking to make sure everything’s ok. I didn’t know he had a twin brother. Anyway, I won’t take up any more of your time. Hope he is better soon. Have a great day.” “Thank you, you too,” said Micah’s twin brother. Jane hung up & got back to work. She thought about what she had just heard. Micah had a twin brother. Well, he was a man of mystery. Micah returned to uni the next day, & life went on as usual.

A few months went by, & then the unthinkable happened. The university got a phone call letting them know that Micah had been involved in a motorcycle accident, & had sadly passed away on the scene. When Jane heard the news, she was shocked. Many of the support staff members were to attend the funeral, however, Jane was unable to attend as she was required to stay at work as everyone else was going. The funeral was later described to Jane. There had been all the deaf people & the support officers on one side of the church, & then, on the other side, all normal people listening to a live rock band playing in front of them. There was a lot of confusion between the two groups as to why each other group was there. What was even stranger was that Micah’s twin brother never turned up to the funeral. Jane was shocked when she heard this. If your sibling had dies, particularly your twin, wouldn’t you be the first person through the church doors? But what was even stranger was the reason why he hadn’t turned up. Micah had never had a twin brother. This didn’t make sense, because Jane talked to him on the phone that day. But it was true. And what was even more astounding was this. Micah never had a twin brother, because he was his twin brother. He was both a deaf man with asthma who owned a motorcycle, & a normal human being who was a part of a rock band. The reason: split personality. Jane was absolutely astounded when she found out, even more so the others who heard the story. But that’s what it was. Micah had been the man she knew, but also the man who never was.

And there you go. Killer ending eh? Hope you enjoyed the read. Stay tuned for more things on the blog in the next couple weeks. And, as always, have a good one!

JJ