Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Letter From A Twin

I came across this little missive today, laying haphazardly under Dominic's bed, and have been carrying it around in my pocket ever since. I'll tell you what it says, but first I need to contextualize the relationship of the writer (Katie) to the writee (Dominic)...

Katie and Dominic are twins. I have no idea what life is like when you're a twin, not being one myself, but I pride myself on being ever-so-slightly more observant than most people, so I will say that life for my twins is fraught with complications of love and dislike, resentment and pride, companionship and suffocation, and, occasionally, intense devotion. In other words, typical sibling stuff.

For the most part they get along fine, even though they couldn't be more different. Katie lives to read, and reads as well as her 10 year old brother, while Dominic, well, let's just say that on a good day Dominic has no trouble recognizing the word "CAT." It's not that he's not capable, per se, it's just that he can't be bothered learning how to read when he has several adults and two older siblings ready to do it for him. Ahem.

Anyhow, the relationship between these two often leads to lots of skirmishes on the Sibling Front. Katie can be Terribly Imperious ("I want to do that!") and Dominic can be Terribly Manipulative ("Katie, you have to give me that Lego piece or I won't let Cushion have a sleep-over"), while I can be Terribly Despairing ("Oh WHY do you two have to fight all the bloody time?"). But then I come across little tender love letters (because that is what this is) like this:

"To Dominic, I am sorry because I did not listen to you so this is why I am writing to you. From your twin sister, love Katie"

And the most beautifully rendered smiling Halloween pumpkin sitting next to these words. I don't know about Dominic, but it melted my heart. See, they do love each other...once in a while.

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