The Midlife Protection Program

My Double?

It was last December and I was checking in at the Roanoke Airport. I was looking forward to a little jaunt to Las Vegas and I was excited because I was planning to absorb a little atmosphere for a novel I was thinking of writing.

One of my writing quirks is that I like to place myself in a position of mixing fact with fiction and make myself the subject of dark and self-deprecating humor. I had an idea of writing a book about a character named Sam Krisch and his encounter with his double Sam KIRSCH, a spelling and pronunciation of my last name I have encountered my entire life. I had in mind an entertaining book in the vein of Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock, Jose Saramago’s The Double, or Chuck Paliniuk’s Fight Club, all of which are entertaining, provocative narratives that play with identity and create humor or horror with the confusion and interplay between the “real” person and his “double.”

I took my bag to TSA inspection. The agent placed the bag on the inspection station and looked at it. He paused and checked a list on a clipboard. He looked at the bag again. He put a pair of rubber gloves on and said to me: “Sir, is there anything sharp in the bag? I’m going to have to inspect it.” I shook my head and said no, and I wasn’t worried because I had nothing to hide. He took his time and unzipped the bag and called over another agent. They very gingerly took everything out of my bag and carefully examined the contents. They then took their Stridex pads and wiped them on every seam, every zipper, and both of them nervously placed their hands in each of the exterior pockets. The machine showed no evidence of any problem with the bag.

They gave me a second look and said: “Okay. You can go now.”

I smiled and walked to security to get on the plane.  What was all that about?

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Two days before the encounter at the airport, I had seen a report on television about John Darwin, a man who had disappeared five years before and turned up with great fanfare, claiming that he had been separated from his family because of amnesia.

John Darwin, Canoe Accident "Amnesiac" (Google Images)

The report said an investigation by police had shown that Mr. Darwin faked his own death and then went into hiding for five years. His wife had collected on his life insurance policies and had moved to Panama. The couple ultimately received sentences of 6 1/2 years and both cases are currently under appeal. The reporter talked about a crime called “identicide” in which people simply disappear, assume new identities, and live without detection.  Often, loved ones are in collusion and collect on insurance policies. People change identities to escape prosecution, bill collectors, or live a new life with someone other than their spouse.  The reporter mentioned several books about how to assume a second identity. I will not mention the titles, but feel free to Google them, if the rest of this paragraph doesn’t faze you. I had ordered the books through Amazon and upon my return I read in one of the books that one of the reasons to keep either a second identity or to simply to leave the old one behind was because of increased surveillance by the government under the Patriot Act.

Could my order through Amazon have placed me on a watch list?

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Steve Fossett: Millionaire Adventurer and Missing Person (Google Images)

When word came earlier this year about Steve Fossett’s disappearance, my mind started to wander. This was a man who had traveled the world in a hot air balloon and suddenly went missing without a trace. A massive search had revealed nothing. I couldn’t believe that an experienced pilot would simply vanish into thin air. Perhaps he had some crime to conceal. Perhaps he had a second family sequestered under an assumed name. There were mistresses and there was a fortune. Mr. Fossett was a wily trader; perhaps there are laundered offshore accounts.

I fantasized about him flying VFR under radar to the sea. He had survived several water landings during his attempts to fly around the world. He could have flown to a specific coordinate, ditched his plane in the water, met a waiting boat, and reemerged with a new identity elsewhere.

Recently, Mr. Fossett’s identification, enclosed in plastic, and a wad of $100 bills were found off trail by a day hiker. The plane’s wreckage was found at another location nearby. There were some remains found. Case closed?

Times Online contains a story: “Facts ruin otherwise good Steve Fossett conspiracy theories”. The article points out the holes in theories like mine, but the article ends with the thought that at the time of publication, the remains have not been positively identified. Maybe reports of Steve Fossett’s death are greatly exaggerated.

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Le Béret, an alter ego, and a "guest contributor" (Photo: Sarah Hazlegrove)

Now I am off to Argentina to learn about a foreign culture, a foreign language, and the Tango. I am performing a disappearing act of my own, except I am traveling under my own passport. I am doing that other thing, the escape that almost everyone thinks about in midlife.

My friends are enthusiastic about my trip and they say I will come back a changed man.

Will I meet my double while abroad? Will he assume my identity and travel back using my passport? Has he already assumed my identity and is going in my place? Is the “I” who is writing this actually Sam Krisch, or is it a different writer using a pseudonym? We will find out.

SEE ALSO: “STEVE FOSSETT: The Aviator” The New York Times, December 23, 2008