Déjà vu

I moved with my family to a new city, a different country, hoping to start a fresh life. At first, everything went as usual: a new house, a new job, new people around me. But the more I settled in and the better I understood the local language, the stronger the strange feeling of déjà vu that haunted me. Initially, I noticed that some houses and streets were eerily similar to those in my hometown. The same outlines, the same details - as if someone had transported a piece of my past into the present. I chalked it up to coincidences and my imagination, until I began to recognize old acquaintances among the passersby. One day in a café, I struck up a conversation with a man who bore a striking resemblance to my friend who had died in a car accident before my eyes several years ago. I could not believe my eyes! The same gestures, the same mannerisms. Goosebumps ran down my spine. Could it be him? Or his doppelganger from a parallel reality? But the most shocking revelation was yet to come. My new acquaintance recounted an inexplicable incident that had happened to him a few years earlier. He had been standing at a crosswalk when suddenly something had stopped him. He had literally frozen, unable to move. And when the state had passed, he had witnessed his friend being killed under the wheels of a large black car that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He talked, while increasingly noting that I also looked like his dead friend. His deceased friend and I had similar hobbies, only I played the guitar, and his deceased friend played the piano. We both loved to play sports. Our wives had similar names... Shaken, I returned home, eager to share this incredible story with my wife and children. But their reaction left me baffled. "You're just tired, you've been working too much," they said, shrugging their shoulders. "Get some rest on the weekend, take a vacation. Maybe you should see a doctor, just in case." They did not believe me. Or did not want to believe me. I felt like I was going crazy. Could it all be just a figment of my imagination? But the meetings with doubles continued. I saw my school teacher, my neighbor in the old house, even my first love. They did not recognize me, but I recognized them. Some of them behaved very strangely. For example, walking towards me, they would suddenly turn sharply to the side, quickly disappear into the entrance, get into a taxi and quickly drive away... Or they would pass by me like mechanical robots, without responding, without turning their heads, and, it seems, even... without blinking. What was it - mysticism, a game of the subconscious, or parallel worlds in which I accidentally found myself? I did not know. But I was determined to understand this mystery, no matter what it cost me. After all, not only my story was at stake, but, perhaps, reality itself as we know it. And have you ever encountered something similar?!