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\u201cNo!\u201d he all but shouted, then shrunk back into himself as he realized that people had turned to look. \u201cNo, it\u2019s not that,\u201d he said more quietly, clutching at the table, \u201cit\u2019s just\u2026 I didn\u2019t think I would have one. And I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what he was.\u201d
\u201cSilly. Ev-er-y-bo-dy has one. This is the new way.\u201d
\u201cNo. No, not my double. I mean\u2026\u201d He shook his head.
\u201cThey\u2019re always somewhere,\u201d Lily told him patiently, as if she were lecturing a petulant pre-schooler, \u201cjust maybe not here, maybe not so ob-vi-ous, so you can find them like that.\u201d
\u201cNo, look, I think I was him. I think I still am. And he\u2026\u201d
But despite his growing anxiety, Lily pulled open her composition book and wrote, with her slim, black ballpoint pen, Boy went to the fence, where he found his other self, and he was a soldier\u2026 And when her eyes rolled upward to look at him again (whites\u2019 gleaming undersides marked in the tiniest of veins) he was paler than before (he was already very pale to begin with) but silent, staring at her in disbelief.

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