Mom was being a royal pain in the arse.
It had been two weeks since I moved in with my twin brother, Ty. And for 14 mornings our mother would barge in unannounced, at different times, with breakfast, an offer to clear our apartment, just wanting to say hi, or some other ridiculous thing. I figured it because I hadn't been home in years and she missed me. But it was becoming a problem.
She had nearly caught Ty and I in the middle of lovemaking twelve times. Finally, we had learned to keep our secret life as lovers as a nighttime thing. On the fifth morning, she had come far too close. I had to jump out of bed and hide in the closet naked because she let herself into Ty's room. Ty pretended like he was just getting dressed for the day and told our mother I was out.
Today, Ty and I were sitting at the table enjoying toast when Mom showed up. She used her key to let herself in, and today, she was holding a cardboard box. Spotting us, she frowned for a brief second, but then shook her head and smiled.
What was that about?
"I brought some things I thought you might want," Mom said, holding up the box.
Curious, Ty and I moved to the living room and sat around each other on the floor. Mom put down the box and opened it. She started pulling out some of our childhood things. Mostly old photographs of us with goofy faces, some old tapes that I was sure were filled with us acting like fools doing the weirdest crap, and our favourite toys.
"Awe look, remember him?" Mom asked, pulling a raggy-looking and slightly stinky stuffed white... well now grey... rabbit.
"Of course I remember Mr. Hoppers," I said with a smile as Mom handed him to me.
"You took that thing everywhere," Ty said.
"Yeah, well at least I outgrew him. Unlike you and that hideous sweater," I teased.
Ty looked down at his orange sweater. "Why do you hate this thing so much?" He asked.
I laughed and then noticed mom seemed to be watching us very closely. She quickly looked into the box and pulled out some pictures with Dad in them. One of him and mom, surrounded by other people. People I didn't know directly, but had seen and heard about.
"Grandma and grandpa?" I asked, looking up at Mom.
Mom nodded and said, "And my brother Ben."
Ty and I looked at the picture with curious expressions.
"I thought you left home before you met Dad," I said.
"No. I've known your father my whole life. We left together. This was the last picture we have with them. It was at Ben's graduation party."
"Both of you look, I don't know, sad?" Ty said.
"It was a difficult time for us," Mom explained.
"Why did we never meet them? I asked.
"Well, they didn't approve of your father and I."
"Why?" Ty asked.
"Why were you hiding your sister in your closet when I came over a couple weeks ago?"
I jumped backwards and Ty's mouth dropped open.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Ty said. But it was too late, our reactions had already given us away.
Mom let out a laugh. "Oh come on, give me some credit. I'm your mother, I know my kids better than anyone else, including yourselves."
She paused for a second before admitting, "I saw your sister's clothes peeking out from under the bed."
Ah crap. We were not getting out of this. But why was Mom acting so cool about it? And that's when I realized the truth.
"Mom, are you and dad... brother and sister?"
A huge smile took up our mother's face.
"Twins," she said.
I couldn't believe it. My entire life, my whole family, it was all a forbidden lie. It was true that Mom and Dad had never given us kids many details about their life together, and they always used vague details like, "We've known each other forever."
But then, one comment Dad made once came to mind. "We've always been close, even before we started dating. You would have thought we were siblings."
"Is that why you keep barging in here?" Ty asked, interrupting my thoughts.
"I wanted to be sure before I said anything."
Ty crossed his arms. "No, it seems more like you were trying to catch us in the act."
I pinched my face in disgust. "Ew, Mom. Gross."
