short fiction
The Doppelganger
An unemployed pianist finds companionship—and something stranger—in the music next door.
Louis was practising a new piece of sheet music given to him by his mentor. He had always been fond of the piano and its music. Throughout his five-year journey, he kept setting new milestones to surpass the ones before. His mentor knew this and trained him without making him feel overwhelmed.
Louis was happy with what he had been given. He had always wanted to play a piece by Liszt. As he sat down to play, he heard faint piano music coming from next door. He stopped for a moment and listened. It was as he had guessed: someone was playing a piano. He could make out the faint tune of “River Flows in You.”
As he listened, the music stopped, as if the player expected him to continue where they had left off. So he did. Louis enjoyed the tune. He had played it over and over again and knew it by heart. While concentrating, he thought about what had happened earlier and stopped. A moment later, the person in the other room picked it up.
Louis was duetting with a complete stranger, and it made him ecstatic.
After the song ended, Louis went to bed thinking about what had happened. Although he had forgotten about the sheet music his mentor gave him, he had found a new affection for the stranger on the other side of the wall. As he drifted off to sleep, he could hear the music serenading him.
Louis woke to the warmth of the sun. He had been laid off a few days earlier, and playing the piano was his only way of coping. It kept his mind off everything else as he searched for jobs online. After another disappointing search, Louis sat down to play. This time, he heard “Clair de Lune,” another of his favourites. As before, it quickly became a back-and-forth between Louis and the stranger. He enjoyed every second of it.
After they finished, Louis stepped out for some fresh air. As he passed the door of his playing partner, he wanted to knock. But something stopped him—perhaps it was the anonymity, not knowing who had brought this unexpected pleasure into the past two days. He left the building and kept walking.
When he returned, he saw that his neighbour’s door was ajar.
“Maybe a peek won’t hurt?” Louis thought to himself.
He knocked and announced himself as he walked inside, but there was no sign that anyone lived there. When he opened the door to the room beside his own, Louis was shocked by what he saw.
It was like a mirrored room—exactly like Louis’s, but without him in it. He rushed outside in disbelief, returned to his room, and sat on the piano stool, trying to understand what he had seen. Then he heard faint piano music from the other side. This time, it was a new tune he had never heard before. Curious, he picked up the sheet music his mentor had given him a few days earlier. “Der Doppelgänger,” it read at the top. Above the piano, he could hear someone singing.
Louis didn’t know what he was experiencing. He went pale as the last few moments replayed in his mind. If only he knew what lay behind the magnificent piece now playing inside his head.