In “The Prince and the Pauper” Mark Twain wrote a story about two people who looked alike. One of them was royal and the other was common. I have gained a new appreciation for Twain’s story and others about mistaken identity. I have met my double.

I watch this man across the room studying the map, and I see myself. The shape of his head, his nose, and his balding head are the ones I see when I look at a photograph of myself or when I watch myself in a movie. It’s no surprise that people ask us if we are twins. They are incredulous when I say that we are not even brothers. When, on our way down from the Northwest to Central California, we saw members of my family, they joked that I had found my twin.