The Identical Boy Read Online Free Page A

playground, leaving behind the concerned shouts of the teacher and the insults of the gang of boys. Out through the gate and down the street he went, smiling so hugely that it hurt his face, his stomach churning like it was the night before Christmas.
    His friend was coming to stay.
    The boy remembered would now Awake.
     
    ***
     
    Sam let himself into his empty house; his parents were both at work. It felt wrong and wonderful and exciting to be there when he shouldn't be. Would he be in trouble? Probably, but what did that matter? This was the only thing that mattered.
    He took the stairs two at a time. 'Hello? I'm here! I remember! I remember you!'
    There was no answer; the house was empty. Was he crazy after all? Was this all in his head? No, not anymore, he was certain. What could be remembered could be made alive. His friend would be here. His friend would be waiting for him in his bedroom, his Awake bedroom.
    Sam burst into his room, 'Hello? Where are you?'
    Sam stopped and blinked twice.
    There was an egg on his pillow.
    Not like a chicken egg, or a snake egg, or any sort of egg he'd ever seen before, but an egg nonetheless. It was about the size of a bowling ball. Rather than brittle shell, it looked to be fashioned from an ancient, dark green leather.
    'What can be remembered can be made alive,' said Sam. 'Well I remember! I remember you.'
    The egg lurched, rolling off the pillow and coming to a stop on Sam's duvet. It began to rock and jump as if something inside fought to escape its bonds. A split appeared and tore the egg in two, and out of it crawled the most extraordinary thing. It was like a baby, but also not at all like a baby. Small and sharp and grey and mewling. It flexed its twisted limbs straight, snapping bones into joints, and then opened eyes that were too large for its misshapen head. Arching its back, it thrust its face towards the ceiling and let out a piercing scream from a mouth that ripped its way into raw reality across its face.
    The creature sagged and panted, breathing air for the first time, gulping it down in a greedy rush.
    Sam approached the creature, reaching out a hand to brush away the last remnants of the leathery egg that clung sticky to its sickly-hued skin.
    'Hello, friend. I remembered you.'
    The creature at last brought its breathing under control and curled into a foetal position, a satisfied smile on its face.
    ‘I remembered you, at last.’
    The creature moved, turning its head to look up at Sam. 'Awake,' it said, with a voice that seemed to scrape its way uncomfortably out of its throat. 'Awake.'

~Chapter Seven~
     
     
    'You'v e got nothing to say for yourself, then? Typical, absolutely typical.'
    Sam sat, quite calm and content, as his parents paced before him, red-faced and spittle-flecked. The school had, of course, informed them about his escape and failure to return.
    Sam didn’t care.
    He had a friend.
    'What did you get up to, that's what I want to know,' said Dad. 'Stealing was it? Or just laying about the house like you usually do?'
    Sam didn't mind the anger, the shouting, the accusations, because everything was different now.
    Before he was a small boy alone. At school and at home. Alone and small and empty and sad. But now friendship and wonder and hope reached across the formerly dark sky like the most colourful rainbow you ever did see.
    It hadn't been exactly as he’d expected of course. As soon as he'd remembered the boy he'd expected to race home to find him standing there, in his bedroom, just like he had Between. Same age as him. Same.
    He thought of the small, odd creature that was curled atop a towel in a box under the bed. In the few hours since it had hatched, it had already grown noticeably larger, perhaps by an inch or three, and its eyes had become more in proportion to its gradually less-misshapen head.
    None of this struck Sam as odd. Which he was aware enough to think was odd in and of itself. But he shrugged it off. His friend was finally