Shortlist – 2026 Gooseberry Pie Annual Writing Competition
by Jessica Klimesh
Chloe awakes in a panic that quickly shifts to irritation when she sees another Chloe standing next to her bed yelling get up get up get up, and Chloe’s just about to slug the other Chloe and go back to sleep when she remembers the presentation she has to give this afternoon—on imposter syndrome in the workplace—which she has stayed up late for three weeks preparing for after her boss hinted that her job was on the line, this’ll make or break your career, but which she still feels unready for—not to mention exhausted—and now there’s this second Chloe in her room, the absolute last thing she needs today.
It’s happened before, another Chloe showing up at an inopportune time, like in college when a duplicate Chloe sat behind her during finals, taunting, you’re going to fail, but this time, to make matters worse, after Chloe shoves her way past the second Chloe, she finds a third one in her kitchen—there’s never been more than one before!
When a fourth Chloe appears, hangry and anxious about a presentation she has to give, Chloe rubs her eyes, wonders if she even slept last night, and then the Chloes all look in the refrigerator, only to find it completely empty, to which a fifth Chloe says, sorry, my bad, finishing a bite of egg, explaining that she also has an important presentation this afternoon, there’ll be no time for lunch, and then a sixth and seventh chime in, both saying that they’ll be canned if they bomb their presentations.
They somehow all squeeze into Chloe’s Ford Fiesta, everybody elbowing each other, ouch, could you please scootch over, then cram themselves into Chloe’s office, pummeling Chloe with questions and insults while she reviews her slides yet again, and it’s not long before there are at least fifty more Chloes loitering outside Chloe’s office, all yammering about their respective presentations.
It’s only afterwards—after the smooth Q&A and after her boss commends her performance and mentions a promotion, you’re definitely going places!—that Chloe witnesses, with both horror and relief, the throng of Chloes fusing into one another, fwup fwup fwup, until there’s only one imposter left.
She and Chloe lock eyes and the clone snorts, says, a promotion, wow!—guess I’ll be staying around a while.
Jessica Klimesh (she/her) is a US-based writer and writing coach whose creative work has appeared or is forthcoming in Fractured Lit, Flash Frog, Moon City Review, and Ghost Parachute, among others. Learn more at jessicaklimesh.com.
Photo by Maxim Tolchinskiy on Unsplash
