After selecting the save button, Jeff waited eagerly for the program to activate. As he had not physically been in the same room when any of the previous changes occurred, he was not sure what to expect. Was there going to be a flash of light, or was his brain going to painfully split into two. He knew there had to be some sign that the Chronivac settings had saved, but as the seconds passed by, nothing seemed different. The screen showed his and his would-be twin's joint profile. It was greyed out with a timer running, the 12-hour cool down.
"Why didn't it work?" a voice sighed from beside him.
Jeff's head whipped around to find the source of the voice, smacking into something. Simultaneously, he jumped out of his chair. Or at least, he tried to jump out of his chair. He was halfway off of the chair when his body got caught by something. He heard the voice yelp in surprise, and then he began to fall sideways, off-balanced. Jeff tumbled onto the carpeted floor.
It took a moment for Jeff's mind to process what had happened. He turned his head slowly toward the left, towards to source of the sound. Beside him was a face, identical to his own. The face seemed to have a matching expression of surprise. Jeff realized at once that the Chronivac had worked, even though it had given no initial sign. The identical head was attached to a neck which was joined to his body, just to left of his own head. Blood rushed to Jeff's cheeks, suddenly embarrassed for his actions. "Sorry... I can't believe I jumped... Cam."
His would-be twin smiled, "I probably would have done the same, so no problem... Jeff"
It was eerie hearing someone else speak with his voice. Jeff wondered if all twins felt like that, or maybe just twins reunited after being separated from birth. Twins raised together should have be used to someone else sounding just like them. Twins meeting each other for the first time would have a lot to adjust to. Jeff realized that, in a sense, he and Cameron were just like twins separated at birth; only their reunion was much more... extreme.
"Is this how Chris and Josh feel, or... don't feel?" Cameron asked aloud. He was staring their body, sprawled on the floor. Jeff noticed that his brother had pressed his elbow into the carpet, to half-raise their chest.
At first Jeff did not understand what his twin was referring to, and he did not understand why his brother was making only half of their torso raise off the ground, uncomfortably. Then he remembered his elder twin brothers. He had theorized that Chris and Josh only controlled half of their joint body, each. It was the same for himself and Cameron. Jeff mirrored Cameron's action and pushed his elbow into the carpet, making their torso lift, upright. As Jeff stared at their feet, he realized he could not feel his twin's half of their body. He could clearly see a single, complete body, and he saw the toes of their left foot wiggle. But, he could not feel the left half, Cameron's half of their body. "Shit..." Jeff sighed, "I wanted to know what it was like to be a conjoined twin, like them... I guess I got what I asked for."
"You used the Chronivac to make you into a conjoined twin?" Cameron asked quizzically.
"Yeah..." Jeff looked at his twin's expression, unsure what he was thinking.
"I used the Chronivac to make myself into a conjoined twin... I wanted to know what it was like for Chris and Josh too. I typed my twin's name as Jeffery..." Cameron stated.
Jeff's mind reeled for a few moments, trying to process his brother's statement. Did the Chronivac create Cameron from scratch, copying and altering Jeff's memories into his brother's. Or, did the program draw Cameron and himself from two parallel realities, and plop them together into the same reality. The possibilities flew through his mind. A glance at his twin indicated that Cameron was also puzzling over all of the possible scenarios. "Well how the Chronivac works, does not really matter much right now." Jeff stated after few moments. "We can discuss that later. Right now, we need to figure out how this body, our body, works."
Cameron nodded in agreement. "Clearly, we both know how our lives were before using the program, but now... I don't know how my life... our lives... are now. We must have been born joined together, like Chris and Josh, but I don't remember living a life sharing a body with you."
Jeff shook his head, as he did not have those memories either. "Shit..." Jeff swore again. "And everyone else will remember us being born as conjoined twins." Suddenly, the 12-hour cool down seemed much longer.