The Terrible Two

Two Fridays ago, my twin sister and I met up with our friends, Izana for tea to celebrate her birthday (albeit two days late). As we sat there in Choc’z, this chic chocolatiér cum café, Izana opened as wont the birthday cards we bought for her. Lo and behold, my twin and I had picked the same card!!! That was maddeningly eerie! We screamed in delight at the bizarre coincidence.

What is the odd of that happening? One in a gazillion! Funny that even though we are married and live separately, the twin vibes are still alive and kicking. The card has a cat motif that Izana likes but there is an array of feline-filled cards in the market. It’s from Memory Lane but still there are many cute-cat covers to choose from. You get a rough idea where this is going…

Similar psychic connection almost took place when I wore this ensemble which she also liked and nearly thought of buying. And early in June, both of us agonized over our toothache at the same time. My molar was throbbing inside the right side of my mouth whilst hers was on the left side. Mirror image perhaps? This surreal phenomenon brings me to an interesting topic of the day: My Amusing Facts on the State of Twinhood

1) As a twin, when you come upon your twin’s friend or acquaintance who’s wondering if it’s you or your twin, you have this strange yet mechanical tendency to quickly correct the person first by gesticulating frantically with your hands “No, I’m not Nina, I’m the twin,” Duh! I know it’s uncalled for but bad habits die hard, I’m afraid. I’d rather put the person to right first before they utter the predictable lines “Nina, is it?” and so forth. Let’s just say it’s my idiosyncratic way – twin civic duty, if you may – of saving these people from embarrassment of mistaken identity;
2) You have this strong (or annoying, take your pick) affinity to finish each other’s sentences and humming/singing the tune that the other is thinking in her head;
3) During a chance encounter with someone you either don’t like or want to avoid, you can feign ignorance or nonchalance by pretending to be the other twin. This however takes a lot of practice in order to do it with a straight face. Hehe;
4) You have a love-hate relationship about having a twin. You loathe the comparison and sweeping generalizations made by people but love the attention and privileges bestowed on twins; And
5) Despite your natural inclination to be different from each other – went to different countries and took different courses to study, amongst others – in the end you still gravitate towards one another like peas in the pod that you used to be in. The main reason for this unaffected pull is that fundamentally both of you are the ‘same’ – purchasing the same cards, penchant for like interests such as the same type of clothing, movie genre and writing – in spite of your great efforts to be two disparate individuals. Your physical likeness does resemble your inner psyche, I suppose.

On a more personal note, since my husband and I have the genetic code for twins (he has twin nephews), the proclivity and likelihood to beget twins are high. Yikes! If I were to give birth to a set of twins, I’d make sure that they invariably foster good relations with one another and that their inherent competitive spirits remain healthy. After all, isn’t it all in the genes? J