Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

He couldn’t believe his eyes!

The old black and white photo in the store window at Troubadour’s Military Antiques was of a Confederate Civil War soldier standing next to a cannon. The caption read “Colonel Benjamin Sikes” of the Army of Northern Virginia – dated June 30th, 1863. A brief explanation stated that Colonel Sikes had been killed in action at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2nd, 1863.

To Ben, the man in the photograph looked exactly like him – it was like looking in a mirror. Was it just a coincidence? He was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts and to the best of his knowledge, all his ancestors were New Englanders. He wasn’t even aware of any of them fighting in the Civil War, never mind for the Confederacy.

Ben entered the store to see if he could find out any more information. Walking over to the window, he found that the photograph was part of a larger collection of Civil War memorabilia. Searching through some of the information in the display, he discovered that Colonel Sikes had been struck by a Union bullet in the head, knocking him off his horse onto a cart road, and killing him instantly, on the second day of the battle.

Shockingly, Sikes’ birthday was April 18th, 1823. Ben’s birthday was also April 18th . Strangely, he had been having reoccurring headaches most of his adult life and, in fact, had a small circular birth mark on the side of his head in the same general location Sikes had been struck. Ben also had frequent nightmares that seemed to vividly depict war-time battle scenes. Ben had never even been in the military and had chocked up the nightmares to movies had had seen.

Ben didn’t believe in past lives, but still…?


298 words