… The wind shook the kiss from your mouth before I could learn whose Twin I was …
“Mum used to say we were the same soul split in two and walking around on four legs. It seems unnatural being born together and then dying apart.”
Ramone, Melodie. (2014). After Forever Ends. Gingersnap Press.
__________
Settling in to watch Attack on Titan with Kaitlyn, Jacob idly commented, “You really are like a sister to me.”
And then, Jacob started to change again …
This time, the transformation was less dramatic. He remained the same age and gender, but the features on his face began to rearrange themselves. His nose moved down a bit, his ears moved up a bit, his forehead shifted slightly in relation to his chin. His height, weight, and body mass all subtly adjusted themselves likewise. And at a microscopic level, Jacob's very genetic makeup was transforming as well. Already changed to an XX chromosome pattern, his DNA now morphed wildly as allele after allele was altered into an exact duplicate of Kaitlyn's gene pattern.
I'm Kaitlyn's twin sister, thought Jacob. My name is Jennifer Johnson. I'm thirteen years old. My twin sister is Kaitlyn Johnson. My parents are Melissa and Jason Johnson. My arrogant, mean, bitchy older sister is Emily. She's a popular, pretty, girly girl. But me and Kaitlyn are unabashed otaku – anime/manga fangirls, and proud of it! I love having a twin sister. I love being a twin sister. I would do anything for my twin; and I know she'd return the favor.
Kaitlyn and “Jenny” exchanged weird, knowing glances – then resumed watching their program.
My name is Jenny, and I've always been a girl, thought Jacob. I have a big crush on Ethan Walker. Ohmigosh! He is, like, so totally cute. If only he knew I exist. Kaitlyn thinks he's hot, too. But she doesn't have a crush on him. So it's okay. Because I would totally step aside for my twin and let her have any boy that she wanted. We've agreed, since were were little girls, that no boy will ever, ever, ever break the bonds of sisterhood between us. Besides, she likes Ryan Clark. He's just meh. I mean, he's okay. But Ethan totally has like mondo personality. I wish I were braver and had the courage to go up and talk to him.
Something wasn't right about all this.
But Jacob couldn't see it.
In fact, “Jacob” was now a foggy, fuzzy, distant daydream of a cloud.
Jenny was real.
“Jacob” was just something trapped, dusty and forgotten, deep in the basement of Jenny's subconscious. Maybe twenty or thirty years from now, some psychiatrist would let “Jacob” free. But for now, Jenny was utterly in control. And why shouldn't she be? This was her house, her body, her life, her mind!
“Jacob” was nothing but a faraway figment of Jenny's imagination. Oh, years ago she and Kaitlyn used to play “What If” and pretend they were other people. Jenny would always pretend to be a fifteen-year boy named Jacob – an overweight, shy, loser who secretly wanted to date their older sister Emily.
WOW! that was majorly, majorly weird.
Definitely some fertile territory there for a psychiatrist to someday mine.
But for the moment, fantasies of “Jacob” were buried and forgotten as Jenny and her sister settled in for an evening of watching anime together.
And a strange, tarnished copper ring originating from a parallel universe softly fell, unobserved, to the carpeted living room floor of the Johnson family living room, whereupon it silently rolled under the couch.
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