Some push for what they need; some push for what they want. Some people, like Peter Jay Novins, just push. If they do it hard enough and long enough, something might just push back . . . from the Twilight Zone.
Peter Jay Novins calls his home phone number accidentally and reaches . . .  himself!
Peter can't believe who's on the other end of the line, and thinks that someone is playing a trick on him. He eventually begins to believe that his other self is on the line.
The new Peter, safe and secure in their apartment, tells his doppelganger what a loser he is. He's tired of Peter ruining their life, so he took over.
Peter leaves the bar and calls his apartment again, hoping that no one will answer this time.  But…
…the new Peter chastises his counterpart about how he's treated the people in his life.  He tells him that his mother is coming to stay with him for awhile and that he's trying to patch up things between him and his ex-wife.  The old Peter is in terrible mental turmoil.

The new Peter looks out at the old Peter standing cold and forlorn in the rain . . .
The old Peter stands in the rain and stares up at his apartment, longing to get back into his own home.
The old Peter spends a lot of his time in a hotel room, trying to get the deliveries to his apartment canceled, hoping to starve out his other self.  But in the end, it does no good.  He begins to get sick and goes downhill over several days.
The old Peter is gradually disappearing from existence as the new Peter becomes more entrenched in his life.
Now the stronger of the two, the new Peter confronts his old self and tells him not to worry, that he'll take good care of his mother and his child, and his life.
The two Peter's shake hands.
The old Peter fades into nothingness as the confident new Peter walks out of the room.
Peter Jay Novins, both victor and victim, of a brief struggle for custody of a man's soul. A man who lost himself . . . and found himself . . . on a lonely battlefield, somewhere in the Twilight Zone.

 

 



Last revised: Sunday, April 28, 2002