Like Twins

Articles

Holly Winter
Living The Life Of Holly

Like Twins
June 14, 2003

“Could you take our picture?” I asked.

“Sure. Do you want a sunset background?”

“Um. Yes… Thanks...”

Darlin-man and I stood at the front of the boat with the sun setting nicely behind us. She fiddled with my camera, trying to figure out whether that big button was really the button that would, in fact, make the magic happen. I was sure that by the time she took the picture, which would only take 1/125 of a second, the sun would be a dim memory.

“Wow.” She said to our frozen smiles. “You two look like twins.” Pause. Click.

I know. It’s a strange thing to say right as you are freezing a memory. I mean. I thought that she would say something like, “Step back a few paces.” So we might fall overboard. You know. To make us smile. Something a bit more upscale than the typical ‘cheese’ that’s so overrated. Cheese is too high fat to say these days when you are taking a picture. Just saying it would cause the people posing to gain ten pounds. Yeah. No. She didn’t suggest dairy products.

Twins? Darlin-man and I lost our picture perfect poses. Well. That’s putting it lightly. Oh. You know. Mouths hanging, brows wrinkled, eyes wide open. No. She wasn’t a master manipulator. I considered that. I thought she might like to cut smiles from happy couple’s and paste them over with a sturdy look of shock, without the need of a fancy computer program. I know. Clever idea. But. No. She wasn’t that premeditated.

I mean. Darlin-man is a really tall guy and almost completely gray. And I wouldn’t be considered tall or gray, although I have found one gray strand right in the middle of my head that I have been proudly showing off to people. But. Still. Um. Twins. Us? Twins?

Thing is. That wasn’t the first time someone has suggested that we must have a similar branch on some genealogical tree. Still. We were stooped.

Oh. We let her escape back to her circle of friends where she could laugh and giggle with them, as we watched the sun trudge towards setting. But. It was too much to resist. Twins? Could she explain? We tracked her down. Come on. The sailboat wasn’t that big.

“Um. How do we resemble twins?” We asked, together.

“Well. Your skin tone. And your teeth. And your eyes.”

Oh. That. That?

We had another rum punch to celebrate our defined twin status and found a place to hang out on deck.

“Is there anything more relaxing than being on a sailboat during sunset?” I asked my wonderful boyfriend.

“No. This is my favorite time too.” He said, pulling me onto his lap. We sat and watched as the red horizon relaxed into the night. Even though it was a sunset party boat, we mostly ignored the people around us. We were lucky that the earlier rains had kept the other boats from sailing. Our boat was the only one floating on the whole big bay.

“Let’s stay out here on the bay when the rest of our cruise returns.” I suggested.

“Ok.” He agreed. “But I’m not sure how we can manage that.”

A twenty something boy interrupted us. “So. How long have you two been married?” He asked.

We tensed. That M word is the one word that sends shivers down both our spines and makes us sputter during conversations. He smiled. “We’re not married.” His voice remained steady, which I thought was pretty good.

The young man was massaging oil onto his girlfriend’s over sunned stomach. “No. Really.” He laughed. “How long have you been married? You still look so happy together.”

Hey. It’s not my fault that Darlin-man has established himself as a jokester. Nope. This is one thing that he couldn’t joke his way out of. In fact he had stopped breathing. I was ready to start artificial resuscitation on him, knowing that he would die from lack of oxygen if I didn’t. He cleared his throat. “Really, man, we’re not married.”

Yeah. It did sound a bit more like pleading. The young couple’s laughter was drawing a crowd as our audience decided that there was nothing funnier than Darlin-man denying our marriage.

Yeah. It might have gotten ugly. I stepped in. “We’re dating. A couple of months. How long have YOU two been together?”

Ah. Saved. The Twenty something gave a detailed rundown about meeting her in Canada where he was a professor, dating her, teaching her English, and taking her to the Caymans on vacation. Yes. It was a stimulating account of boy meets girl.

I was sure that Darlin-man would thank me later for saving him. Um. No.

“How come you said that we had only been dating for a few months?” He wanted to know.

“I was brilliantly changing the subject.”

“A few months? It’s way longer than that.” He pointed out.

“Way longer?”

“Yes.” He said, maybe a little hurt.

“Now when you say way longer, you’re not subscribing to her theory that we’re twins, are you? Because there’s no way that we could have been reared in the same playpen.” I teased. “You’re way older than I am.”

“We have been dating for more than two months.” He said, twinkling those eyes that matched my eye color perfectly. “And. It wouldn’t surprise me if we were twins. Didn’t you know? The dominant twin, or smarter twin is always born first.”

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About the author: Holly Winter is a teacher and a writer and a flight attendant living in Denver, Colorado, USA. She can be reached at her website or email: Holly@livingthelifeofholly.com

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