Marlo felt dizzy. It couldn't be true. She read the email again and opened the attachments to view the photos. A forgery...they had to be. But they looked unbelievably real. More attachments, this time documents. A birth certificate scan, from the very same hospital, same date, same time in the chaotic state of California. And then, simply to drive the point home, a scan of a social security card complete with number. In all, the information could be proven or disproven beyond of a shadow of a doubt. But then sender, named Eva, seemed all but certain by the way of photographic and documented proof. Marlo had a twin sister....born just before her only 22 short years ago and separated at birth.
She could only think about what she knew about her own history. Born and raised by an adoptive family in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Marlo was told her mother didn't make it and it was simply one of those things. She was adopted right at birth and accepted this. No other siblings, never any questions about the blood father, nothing. She had a happy childhood and grew up to aspire to be an actress. She went to UCLA but discovered acting is a passion that nearly everyone in California shares, and competition was fierce amongst the populace of starving artists and perpetual dreamers. She endeavored to act – but also pay the rent. Switching her degree to business, she graduated UCLA and took a job as a trader in an established west coast brokerage right in Los Angeles. The starving artist gig was not for Marlo.
Her looks didn't hurt her advancement, although she was smart enough and needed no favors from corporate America. She settled for a nice home in Santa Monica where she lived by herself and liked it that way. The acting bug fading, she was consumed with the stock market and the money to be made. If she learned anything in life, it was to make her own money and that looks would not last forever. She was a slender 5'8 long haired brunette and was a bona fide head turner. She was friendly enough but was all business at work. At night, she was fine to follow the day's business news and indulge in mindless television. Sure, she had friends....not a loner by any stretch but she didn't need them as much as they needed her. She was the pillar of strength, decisive, and could handle just about anything.
So she thought.
The picture of Eva was a warm one, depicting her and a handsome young man in warm embrace smiling broadly for the camera. It chilled Marlo to the bone, however, staring back at her own face in the arms of a man she'd never met. And it wasn't her own face despite it being identical.
Eva introduced herself in the email. Her story was not unlike Marlo's. Eva was also adopted at birth and brought to New York where she lived all her life. Her adopted parents were civil union workers and didn't have very much money, so she bravely ventured the New York City school system at a very early age. She graduated high school and decided New York was not the place for her. She told her adopted parents she wanted to go to law school in the state of her birth. She returned to California at the very young age of 18, student loaned her way through college to end up at Loyola Law School with a concentration in criminal justice. She said she never looked back since.
Eva stated she was told from an early age she had a twin sister and that when she was old enough, her adopted parents would help her find her lost sister. Eva's adopted parents were of limited resources, and even shorter on knowledge. The promise, never delivered. Eva took it upon herself to trace back her birth certificate where the hospital confirmed there was another. They could only provide the name for Marlo, nothing more. Lucky enough, the adopted parents on both sides honored the mother's wish to keep the names she had chosen before passing – so that they would maybe, just maybe, find each other in this big world. And yet today, only a driving distance away. It was too much to comprehend or fathom in one simple Outlook email, but there it was.
Life suddenly changed one random Wednesday evening in California.
**
Marlo walked out on her balcony to feel the warm night ocean breeze caressing its way over the California coast. Two glasses of wine in, she wasn't any more at ease. Work would come very early, but it was midnight and it didn't seem like she would be sleeping tonight.
For once, work did not preoccupy her thoughts. She thought of her sister.....did she just think sister?....and the meeting they set up at her house for Friday night. Would she come asking for money? No, it didn't seem like that...this is a situation of poor sibling finds well-to-do sibling. Eva had a path of her own, and Marlo felt somewhat ashamed of thinking it was anything less than it was. A reunification of siblings. She should be happy at this life changing event.
She hadn't spoken to her on the phone. Marlo tended to follow a hard path as she felt it built character...no, no teary phone conversations for a woman who shared her face but never met. It was all or nothing. Marlo hated the emotion of it all, and wanted to get past t so she could get her life and career going again. Even a two-day standstill made her nerves stand on edge.
The night air took a gentle hold of her hair and made it wave over her shoulders. Her light camisole nightgown clung to her frame, and she closed her eyes to feel the enveloping warmth of the midnight breeze. She wore nothing under her camisole, and the wind swept between her legs, giving her a tender touch on her skin and labia. Her nipples began to tingle and she let out a sigh, and she parted legs a little bit while tightening her thigh muscles. She enjoyed this sensation and how the natural elements stirred her body and desires. When the breeze finally finished roaming her body, as soon as it came, it left. She opened her eyes dreamily, wishing she were in the Mediterranean the more exotic breezes of a distance shore. But her body felt alive, but then her mind took over. No, there would be no time for any of that tonight.
It would have to wait until more careless times.
**
The CFO nearly fainted and checked his pulse when Marlo asked for Friday off. She didn't explain what she was doing or whom she was meeting. It wasn't like her to ask for a personal day, so his first question was where she was interviewing. She laughed and said no, she'd rather stay at one company and continue to get abused.
At home, she wasn't so confident. As Eva would arrive at 3pm, she scrambled to ensure her home was in order and she wore the right thing, of course. This wasn't a business dinner. And this was her home. She settled on a pair of jean shorts and a simple Abercrombie t-shirt. She wasn't about to stand on ceremony and would probably fall apart if there was any more formality added.
And before she knew it the doorbell rang. 2:53pm...no, she would not have that extra 7 minutes of her old life. She was denied and it was time....and the old life's chapter closed for good when she opened the door when she made eye-to-eye contact with her sister Eva.
Eva stood there smiling and simply said "Holy fuck. Hi. I'm Eva. You look familiar." And indeed she did. Eva was an identical twin, and even the hair seemed to closely match. They seem to share the same sense of style too. Marlo noticed this immediately and subconsciously, quickly noting the tight turtle-neck t-shirt that hugged Eva's size 2 body, and the equally tight pair of Lucky jeans and heels. Purely California, her newly found sister was no vagabond. She would not be asking for money.
Eva quickly hugged a speechless Marlo, who seemed still stood in shock. It was real. This wasn't a dream.
She could only whisper in Eva's ear, "Where have you been sister?"
**
They settled on Marlo's porch overlooking Santa Monica and the Pacific in the not-too far distance. They traded stories all the while marveling at mirror image before them. Both equally beautiful, the same face, strikingly the same even though they grew up without the influence of the other. They talked but certainly not wasting time with small talk. They talked of their mother, knowing that she was dying and had to give them up. Why the hospital allowed them to be separated. And, unfair that they were robbed of 22 years of each other.
