The Imposter Page #3

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I would jump on a f***ing plane.

I didn't sleep for two days

before I got on the plane.

Fear, but also anticipation,

'cause you want to get there, get there.

You want to see him, hold him,

smell him, just get there.

You can't prepare to play a role

of a person that you don't know.

I couldn't be Nicholas Barclay

because I didn't know Nicholas Barclay.

I didn't even know at that moment

if he was left or right-handed.

So, er, that was a problem.

I got on the plane and tried to sleep.

Didn't work.

The director...

This is Nick, mwhah.

He thought he was an adult.

We called him 13 going on 30.

Very difficult to discipline him.

If he made up his mind

he was gonna do something,

pretty much there wasn't a lot you could do.

Put the lighter down.

He'd run away before

for a night or two, mad at Mom.

"I'm leaving, I'll find a new mom, a new home.

Kiss my ass," kind of thing.

And he, you know... would leave

and she would hunt him down

and find out where he is

and he'd show up the next day.

He was not, um, you know,

this perfect nice sweet innocent,

he was a very street-smart city boy.

- It's nice to meet ya. I am the director.

- In here, Nick.

See, ain't I beautiful?

He had beautiful blond hair.

Kind of looked like, erm, a little pixie.

He had blond hair and blue eyes

and a bit of a gap between his teeth.

When he smiled, you could see it.

Finally I'm on the ground.

"Who, who, who am I looking for?

What do they look like? Are they in suits?

Oh, damn, you can smoke here. Thank God!"

The air smelt different.

Erm,

it was a lot less crowded than I thought.

I did everything I could

to give myself a chance.

I bought product to color my hair totally blond.

The gentlemen and a lady approached me,

'cause I wasn't sure where to go

and we went straight into a car

and started driving.

On the flyers it said that Nicholas Barclay

had three tattoos.

There was a girl inside the shelter

that did small tattoos just like that.

She was no pro, she was just a kid.

And I asked her to put those tattoos

that were on the flyers on me.

I was quiet and that's when

the lady started talking to me.

She kept my mind busy

with explaining the countryside to me

the whole way down there on the drive.

I took big sunglasses, I took a hat,

I took a scarf, I took a glove.

I thought that if she couldn't see me,

then she wouldn't be able to say

I'm not her brother.

We stopped for a Coca-Cola,

which I thought was really cool.

They had coke there and it was

the anxiety of how long it was taking.

Minutes before she arrived

I was convinced it was finished.

That I was gonna get arrested

and maybe beat up also

because they were

not going to be happy about it.

I remember going into like a waiting area.

I'm speaking with a couple of people from

the home saying that he was in his room.

He'd been locked in his room all day.

He wouldn't let anyone go in.

Finally when I heard someone

knocking at the door and saying,

"Hey, Nicholas, your sister is downstairs,

er... she's waiting for you, she's there..."

I went downstairs

and into like a courtyard.

There were some kids playing

like ball against a wall

and looked up at the window

and told him,

"I'm here, come here. I want to see you,

I want to hold you."

I remember seeing him look out the window.

I was sure that as soon as the sister

was gonna see me,

she was going to say

"What the f*** is that?" You know.

That's not... that's not Nicholas.

I waited maybe 10 minutes.

I knew I was about to lose everything.

I knew I couldn't wait no more,

that I couldn't go away,

that I couldn't just disappear,

so I opened the door and I went down.

It was just this sense of immense relief.

Just seeing, touching,

kissing, holding him.

I said, "What the hell?" You know.

He's here, we're here, I have him.

She didn't even wait a second

or two seconds.

She jump on me, she jump on me,

she took me in her arms

and she said, "Nicholas, oh, and you

were afraid I wouldn't recognize you.

I would remember that nose."

So I just... I remember touching his nose

and telling him, um,

"I remember that nose,

you kind of look like your Uncle Pat."

She said, "Don't worry," like she always say,

"everything is going to be fine.

Everything is going to be perfect.

I know it's you."

He was just... just basically

told me he loved me,

and he didn't say a whole lot

until all the people left.

Only God know why she would

do something like that,

but... but I know one thing for sure

is there was no other way.

She came for me and she wanted me back.

We went to the visit room

and she showed me dozens of pictures.

Pictures, pictures, pictures.

You remember, this was with Mom

at the, at the house we were living in

before you, you went missing.

Remember this was

when you were playing with Scotty.

Remember this was...

And he was like, "Jason looks the same,

Codey's gotten pretty big, huh?

Mom, God, Mom looks exactly the same.

Has she put on weight?

Wanted to know if Grandpa

was still an a**hole,

um, told me how much he loved Grandma

and he missed her.

I remember seeing the tattoo,

the cross between his, you know,

right here on his hand.

I just kept thinking

how much he looks like Uncle Pat

and how mom was going to be

really surprised how tall he was.

She said that he looked very different,

that he had, you know, grown up...

...and erm...

he's very quiet,

you know, kinda held back.

He talked with a funny accent.

But it was always a whisper and very quiet

like he was hiding from something.

I mean, God,

look what he had been through.

He wasn't the same person.

He wasn't the same Nicholas

that disappeared four years before.

He had been held and tortured

and God knows what else.

He wasn't that same person.

The judge in Linares wanted to make sure

that there was in fact some legal basis

for Nicholas claiming to be er...

Carey Gibson's lost brother.

So now the problem was that they

had the sister and the embassy official

that were swearing

that I was Nicholas Barclay

and there was the police

and the prosecutor

and the judge

who were not convinced at all.

The judge insisted on separate interviews

and part of the evidence that was in those

interviews was a family photo album.

And the judge said, "Listen,

the only way for you to prove

that you're really Nicholas

is we got pictures here

that you've never seen before.

I'm gonna show you five of them."

Number one, OK.

Number two, OK.

Number three, OK.

Number four, OK.

On the five one I made a mistake,

but it was too late.

She was already convinced

I was Nicholas Barclay.

At that point I didn't see how I could

not document him as a US citizen.

I would not have been able to do anything

if Carey didn't show me those pictures.

They took picture of me,

with no hat, with nothing.

Which was, you know, they saw my eyes.

Erm, the constitution of the United States.

I swear to be a US citizen.

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