It had been three months since we moved Dad into Fairview Manor. His memory was slipping fast, but he still recognized me most days. I visited every Sunday with empanadas and old photos, trying to hold onto what little he had left.

That day, when I walked into his room, he was already smiling. But not at me.

At the man standing beside him.

“I want you to meet my new roommate,” he said, “Eduardo.”

I laughed at first—Dad never had a roommate. He was in a single room, and I’d been paying extra for it. But there the guy was, grinning ear to ear, hand resting on Dad’s shoulder like they were old friends.

And the weirdest part?

He looked just like him. Same cheekbones, same smirk, even the same vein pattern in the hands. Just… stronger. Tanned. Like Dad if he’d taken a different path.

I asked where he was from.

He said, “I used to live on the other side.”

I thought he meant the other wing of the care home. But something about how he said it made my skin crawl. Like he wasn’t talking about buildings.

Still, I smiled politely, shook his hand, and sat beside Dad. We ate the empanadas. Dad kept calling me “Carlos,” which isn’t my name, but I let it slide. He’d been doing that lately.

Eduardo told stories while we ate. About growing up on a mango farm, about getting into fights at school, about running away when he was sixteen. None of it made sense with Dad’s real life.

Dad grew up in New Jersey. He worked for the city council for thirty years. Never been in a fight, never grew a mango, and definitely never ran away.

But Eduardo told the stories like he was there.

And Dad? He nodded like he remembered every word.

Later, when I pulled the nurse aside to ask about Eduardo, she looked confused.

“There’s no Eduardo in that room,” she said.

I showed her the photo I had just taken with my phone. Dad, smiling. And Eduardo, arm slung casually across the back of Dad’s chair.

She stared at it, then back at me.

“There’s nobody else in that room,” she said slowly. “There never has been.”

I left feeling unsettled. Maybe it was a prank. Maybe a wandering patient slipped in. But why would the nurse lie? Why would she pretend she didn’t see him?

The next week, Eduardo was there again.

Same grin. Same warmth in his voice. And Dad lit up when he saw him.

“I told you he’d be back,” Eduardo said.

This time, I pressed him more.

“Where are you from, really?”

He leaned forward, eyes locked on mine. “Let’s just say… I’m part of him.”

I swallowed. “Like… a twin?”

He laughed, the sound too young for a man his age. “Not quite.”

That night, I went through old photo albums. Nothing. No long-lost brother, no family mystery. But in one photo—an old one, from before I was born—I saw a man in the background who looked like Eduardo. Just barely. Almost hidden. Like a ghost caught on film.

I asked my aunt the next day. She froze when I showed her the picture.

“That’s not your dad,” she whispered. “That’s—” She stopped herself. “Never mind. Just forget it.”

I couldn’t.

The week after that, Eduardo was gone.

Dad seemed different. Quieter. Like a light had gone out.

When I asked about Eduardo, he blinked slowly. “Who?”

“Your roommate.”

He shook his head. “Don’t know him.”

The photo was still on my phone. I showed it to Dad.

He stared at it. Frowned.

“That’s me,” he said.

“No, that’s Eduardo.”

He looked closer. “That’s me. That’s from… before.”

He wouldn’t say more. Just stared out the window, eyes glassy.

That night, I had a dream.

In it, Eduardo stood beside me, hands in his pockets.

“You’re asking the wrong questions,” he said.

“Then what should I ask?”

“Ask why your father regrets.”

I woke up sweating.

The next visit, I came with a recorder.

I didn’t tell Dad. I just let it run while we ate. I asked about Eduardo again.

He didn’t remember.

But halfway through the meal, his voice shifted.

Softer. Stronger.

“Regret is heavy,” he said suddenly.

I looked up. He was still staring at his plate. But his tone had changed.

“I could’ve been more. I could’ve been honest. I could’ve gone.”

“Gone where?”

He looked up. “To the other side.”

I played the tape later that night. His voice cracked halfway through. And just for a second—just one—there was a second voice under his. Whispering.

Saying the same words.

I started digging.

I found a man named Eduardo Alvarez who went missing in 1963. Last seen in Florida. Born the same year as Dad. Looked just like him in the photos.

But there was no record of him after that.

I called the local records office. They confirmed something strange: Eduardo Alvarez had the same birth date, same place of birth, same parents.

Same full name as my dad.

Except my dad was never listed as a twin.

When I brought this to my dad, he was quiet.

Then he whispered, “I wasn’t supposed to stay.”

“What do you mean?”

“I left him behind. I walked away from the accident. He didn’t.”

There was a pause.

“Who?”

“Eduardo.”

I felt cold. “You mean… you had a twin? And he died?”

Dad shook his head.

“No. I mean… I was Eduardo. But I became someone else.”

I didn’t understand. Not fully.

But over the next few weeks, the story came out.

There’d been an accident when they were young. Two boys, nearly identical, had switched names as a joke. Eduardo became Carlos. Carlos became Eduardo.

Then one of them vanished.

And the one who stayed kept the name he wasn’t born with.

He built a life, got married, had a kid.

Me.

And all that time, he carried the guilt.

I asked him why.

He just said, “I didn’t think anyone would believe the truth. And by then, I’d already lived it.”

It sounded impossible. But the more I listened, the more I realized something.

It didn’t matter if it was real or not.

It was real to him.

And then… Eduardo came back.

I walked in one Sunday, and he was there again.

This time, Dad wasn’t smiling.

They were arguing. Quietly. Like brothers.

I froze in the doorway.

Eduardo turned and looked at me.

“Ask him what he’s afraid of.”

Dad wouldn’t meet my eyes.

I asked him later.

He said, “I’m afraid I wasted it. That I lived someone else’s life… and still didn’t do it right.”

That hit me hard.

Because all my life, I’d seen him as steady. Boring, maybe, but safe. He was the kind of dad who fixed faucets and overwatered plants. Who never raised his voice.

But maybe he was hiding.

Maybe we all were.

A week later, Eduardo visited me.

Not in the home. In my apartment.

He knocked on the door. Same clothes, same smile.

“How did you find me?” I asked.

He didn’t answer.

Just said, “Your dad’s ready now.”

“For what?”

“To make peace.”

We drove back together. Silent most of the way.

When we walked into Dad’s room, he looked calm.

Like he’d been waiting.

They didn’t speak much.

Just nodded.

Then Dad said, “I’m sorry. I should’ve lived more truthfully.”

Eduardo smiled.

“That’s all I needed.”

Then he was gone.

I never saw him again.

Two days later, Dad passed away in his sleep.

Peaceful. No pain.

I kept the photo on my desk. The one with both of them.

Sometimes, I stared at it and wondered if I imagined everything.

But deep down, I don’t think I did.

Because when I cleaned out his room, I found a note in his drawer.

It just said:

“To my other self—thank you for letting me try.”

And folded inside it was an old, faded ID.

With the name Eduardo Alvarez.

Same face as Dad.

Same eyes.

That’s when I stopped trying to make sense of it.

Sometimes, life gives us second chances in ways we don’t understand.

Maybe Eduardo wasn’t a ghost.

Maybe he was the part of Dad that never left. The truth he buried. The life he could’ve lived.

And maybe, just maybe, coming back was his way of setting things right.

The lesson?

It’s never too late to be honest. To forgive yourself. To face the parts of you that you’ve buried.

Even if it takes a lifetime.

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