Novel

FORM 3 NOVEL

HOW I

MET

MYSELF

[pic] PLOT SUMMARY

CHAPTER 1: A STRANGE MEETING

John Taylor is walking home from his office as usual. It is a cold dark and snowy evening

and there are not many people walking on the narrow streets in the Thirteenth District of

Budapest at that moment. Suddenly, in a very dark part of one street, John hears the loud

sound of a door shutting from inside a building and a person running. The street door opens

abruptly and a man runs into him. John falls down and shouts at the man. The man

apologises in Hungarian and then quickly walks away. John finds it strange as the man looks

exactly like him.

CHAPTER 2: GETTING TO KNOW ME

John Taylor is a 34-year-old Englishman who is presently working in Budapest as a

computer programmer. He learns to speak Hungarian from a pretty teacher named Andrea

whom he falls in love with and later marries. They live in the Thirteenth District on the Pest

side of Budapest. Andrea teaches Hungarian to foreigners in a number of schools and

companies as well as to some students at home.

CHAPTER 3: A SEARCH

John Taylor wonders where the man who looks like him has gone. He notices just in time as

the man turns right at the next corner. John runs after him and sees him entering the

doorway of a wine cellar under a block of flats. Upon reaching the door, John is confused

when he does not see any of the man’s footprints in the snow. He decides to go into the

wine cellar to look for the man. John asks the barman whether he has seen anyone entering

the cellar but there is no such a person. John then checks the toilet but to no avail. When he

gets home, he lies to Andrea about what he has been doing and does not tell her about his

strange encounter.

CHAPTER 4: 7 FELKA UTCA

The next day after work, John goes back to the same place where the strange encounter

occurred. The door is number 7 Felka utca. The street is flanked with blocks of flats that had

been built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. They still display gunshot holes

that were made during the fights in either World War II or the 1956 revolution. However,

John waits in vain and is unable to gather any enlightening information. John then walks

along Felka utca and goes into the bar of the previous night in Gergely utca. The barman

says that he does not see anyone who looks like John. That night, John has a strange

dream about the man and that frightens him.

CHAPTER 5: I TELL ANDREA

John lingers outside number 7 Felka utca and hangs out in the bar everyday for a week

without explaining things to Andrea. He is even afraid to go to sleep because of the recurring

dreams of his strange encounter. That Friday, when John gets home, he finds Andrea in

tears because she cannot understand what is happening, so he finally tells her everything.

Andrea proves to be a very understanding wife and she promises to go with John to help him

investigate the mysterious man the next day.

CHAPTER 6: TALKING TO THE HOUSEKEEPERS

John has a good night’s sleep after telling Andrea about the man. The next day, they go to

number 7 Felka utca. They question two housekeepers regarding the man. But the

housekeepers claim that they have never seen such a person. Then, the couple goes for a

drink in the bar at Gergely utca. John believes the man whom he has seen is actually

himself; he wonders whether that man is someone who is still alive or dead.

CHAPTER 7: DOPPELGÄNGER

John’s recurring dreams seem to have stopped and he does not go to the bar as often.

Soon, John and Andrea receive good news that Andrea is pregnant. The next day however,

Andrea loses her biggest teaching job with an international bank. Zsolt, the owner of the

wine cellar bar offers her a job to give the place a woman’s touch. Andrea’s ideas to give the

place a different look helps bring in more customers and women start going to the bar as

well. Despite the changes in their lives, John still has not forgotten his encounter and he also

finds out that his double is called a doppelgänger.

CHAPTER 8: A HOLIDAY

In August, Andrea stops working for Zsolt to prepare for her delivery. On 16 September, a

baby girl named Kati is born. John is so busy that he forgets about the incident at Felka utca.

Then, John and his family travel to England to celebrate Christmas. At the village pub, John

meets up with his old friend Paul Harris, a journalist. He believes in John’s story about the

doppelgänger but warns him to be careful. At the end of December, John and his family fly

back to Hungary to celebrate their New Year holidays there. John starts thinking about his

doppelgänger again and Andrea gets angry when John is distracted and starts to neglect his

family.

CHAPTER 9: THE DATE GETS CLOSER AGAIN

On 11 January, John wakes up in the morning feeling afraid. He has had the dream again.

He checks his diary and realises that the strange meeting had happened on 18 January the

year before. He decides to go to Felka utca on that same date. Andrea is very upset that

John is still obsessed with the doppelgänger but when John persuades her to accompany

him to witness any incident that might occur, she obliges him. Petra, Andrea’s old friend

agrees to babysit Kati. That night, John has the same dream again and again.

CHAPTER 10: 18 JANUARY

On Sunday, 18 January, John and Andrea stand opposite number 7 Felka utca at half past

six. The street is dark as usual. He decides to stand outside the door while she stands on

the other side of the street. At ten to seven, John suddenly hears a noise and the sound of

someone running. The door opens and a man runs into John and knocks him down. John is

stunned because the man looks exactly like him. John gives a shout. The man apologises in

Hungarian and dashes off. John shouts for Andrea to follow the man whom he sees running

up to the end of the street and entering the bar. Pulling Andrea’s hand, John rushes to the

bar only to find the door locked. Andrea says she did not see anyone or hear anything. From

that night onwards, John’s dreams recur but the noise gets louder with each dream and he

wakes up in fear.

CHAPTER 11: A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

John’s boss allows him to go off in the afternoons, and he spends his time at the Budapest

City Library. He searches for information on everything that happened in Budapest’s

Thirteenth District on every 18 January of the past years. However, he does not find any

information about Felka utca. On Saturday, he tells Andrea that he needs to go for a meeting

at work but he goes to the library instead. Just before closing time, he comes across a

newspaper clipping in Hungarian with the heading: “Young Mother and Child Killed as

Fighting Ends in Pest”. A Russian bomb that hit a Gergely utca building; it did not explode

but it destroyed the cellar, killing Mrs. Szabó and her daughter on 18 January 1945. The

cellar is presently Zsolt’s bar. When John reaches home, Andrea scolds him for lying to her

about his whereabouts and is even more furious when he shows her a copy of the

newspaper clipping. She refuses to help him in any further investigations on the Szabó

family.

CHAPTER 12: LOOKING FOR THE TRUTH

At number 7 Felka utca, John finds out that the Szabó family living on the third floor is not

the Szabó he is looking for. However, a Mrs. Fischer on the fourth floor tells John about

János Szabó, who lived there during World War II. János Szabó had not been healthy so he

did not fight in the war. In 1943, János’s wife delivered a baby girl. Sadly, on the last day of

the war in January 1945, János received news that his wife and baby girl were killed when a

Russian bomb destroyed the cellar where his wife worked. János was distraught and lost all

hope. He finally died fighting in the streets in the 1956 Revolution.

CHAPTER 13: PROBLEMS AT HOME

When Andrea gets home that night, John tells her about János Szabó but she is too upset to

listen and is not convinced. Meanwhile, John believes that 18 January 1945 is a significant

date and that the doppelgänger is trying to tell him something.

CHAPTER 14: ANOTHER YEAR

GOES BYThe year passes quickly. The strained relationship takes a turn for the better in August when

they take Kati for a second visit to England. John’s focus on important work at the office

makes him forget about the doppelgänger. Andrea also starts working again while Kati goes

to a very nice school for small children. The family spends Christmas at home and later, with

Andrea’s family for the New Year. John goes back to work on 6 January and then he

suddenly realises that 18 January is around the corner. John desperately wants to talk to

Andrea about the date but he does not want to ruin the happiness that they have now. That

night, he has the doppelgänger dream again. In the dream, he follows the doppelgänger and

watches him looking for something in the destroyed cellar in Gergely utca. John wakes up

with a horrible feeling that the dream is a premonition about Andrea.

CHAPTER 15: I DISCOVER SOME MORE FACTS

The next day, on the way home from work, John sees a new sign with the word Szabó on it.

He realizes that Szabó means tailor in English. It is then that he connects János Szabó

means John the tailor in English. John Taylor! Immediately, he realizes that is his

doppelgänger and he shares the same name. He goes to see Mrs Fischer again and she

tells John that he looks like János. Further questioning reveals to John that János’ wife and

daughter were also named Andrea and Kati respectively. The following week, John

discovers from the Public Records Office that János Szabó also shared his birth date which

is 23 October. John believes that the similarities between him and János are not

coincidental. He has a strong feeling that the doppelgänger is trying to convey an important

message to him. He also knows it is impossible to tell Andrea about this just yet.

CHAPTER 16: IT ALL HAPPENS AGAIN

Frightening dreams have been tormenting John. Although he does not tell Andrea anything

yet, he knows that she is aware and worried about him. On Saturday 18 January, he has to

go to work at the office. When he reaches home at half past six, he finds Andrea’s note on

the table, informing him that she is replacing Zsolt at the bar. She is taking Kati along as

Petra is not available. John panics and runs to the bar. On reaching number 7 Felka utca, he

hears a very loud explosion in Gergely utca. Frantic, John runs straight into someone and

knocks him down. He looks down and sees himself lying on the ground. John apologises in

Hungarian and continues running to Gergely utca.

CHAPTER 17: WE MUST GET THEM OUT!

When John arrives at Gergely utca, he stops running, as the smoke and stench from the gas

are overpowering. He suspects that the explosion could have started from a broken gas

pipe. He needs to get to Zsolt’s bar as he knows that Andrea and Kati are trapped there.

He quickly assembles a line of bystanders to help clear the doorway of the bar but he is

stopped by a fireman from entering the cellar. John collapses and is given first aid treatment.

He keeps insisting that his wife and daughter are inside the bar and need to be rescued.

Later, a policeman notes down facts and dates about John and his family before advising

him to wait at home for further development. When he gets down from the police van, he

realizes that no one could have survived the explosion and blames himself for not telling

Andrea about what he had seen in his dreams and discovered through Mrs. Fischer. John

feels that he has destroyed his family and his life.

CHAPTER 18: UNEXPECTED HELP

As John walks slowly along Gergely utca, he suddenly bumps into a man who looks like him.

It is his doppelgänger again. The man points to a woman and child at the end of the street.

John is suprised to see that they are Andrea and Kati. Andrea explains that after Zsolt left,

she saw John standing and blocking her way into the bar. At first she did not understand

what was happening, but when Kati insisted that the man was not her “Daddy”, she realised

that he must be the doppelgänger. Andrea relates her experience to John and together, they

go home.

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By David A. Hill