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Identical twins share everything.
Clothes, hairstyles, a secret language, mannerisms, trains of thought, even lovers on occasion.
Not cancer, though. They don’t share that.
Right now, Karen is looking down at Lisa in the hospital bed. For the first time in their entire lives, they don’t look like each other anymore. A stranger might be able to guess that they were related.
Lisa is like a kite now; a bit of skin stretched around a few struts of bone. At first, it seemed a mercy that the cancer was staying away from her brain. Now it seems like a curse that Lisa is cognizant and aware for all of this.
The jokes that she was turning into a supermodel or that she could now marry Jack Skellington were way past being funny. Soon enough, Lisa will be gone. It was no longer a matter or months or even weeks. It could happen today.
Karen is thinking that it’s like watching a mirror die.
Karen understands the word deathwatch now because it’s all you can do. Watch. Just watch.
Now you see her and now you don’t. It’s always amazed Karen how fast kids grow. It’s amazing her now how fast her twin sister Lisa is disappearing.
“Karen?” Lisa’s eyes flicker open.
“Yes, Lisa?” Karen leans forward to look at her sister. She can smell her hot, dying body. She pictures Dali-style watches melting over her sister’s ribs.
“How will I know you?” asks Lisa.
Karen doesn’t need to ask what she means. Lisa means that when she dies and goes to whatever’s next, she doesn’t know if they’ll look the same as they do now. She wants to know that the two of them will be reunited when her sister dies, whenever that will be.
She wants to be able to recognize her twin in the afterlife.
“Here. Take this.” Says Karen. She takes her necklace off. It’s a necklace of thin gold with a pendant in the shape of a tiny fairy. It was a gift from a friend’s child a few years ago.
She tucks it into her dying twin’s hand.
“Wear this. It’s that fairy necklace from Jake’s daughter. Take it with you and wear it when you get there.” She says. “That way, I’ll be able to recognize you. I’ll find you.”
“Okay.” Says Lisa with a big smile. It’s a horrendous thing on her skull of a face but it’s beautiful to Karen. She goes to sleep with the ghost of that grin still on her face.
She dies two hours later.
Before the orderlies take her away, Karen uncurls her twin sister’s cooling hand but the necklace is gone.
tags
Clothes, hairstyles, a secret language, mannerisms, trains of thought, even lovers on occasion.
Not cancer, though. They don’t share that.
Right now, Karen is looking down at Lisa in the hospital bed. For the first time in their entire lives, they don’t look like each other anymore. A stranger might be able to guess that they were related.
Lisa is like a kite now; a bit of skin stretched around a few struts of bone. At first, it seemed a mercy that the cancer was staying away from her brain. Now it seems like a curse that Lisa is cognizant and aware for all of this.
The jokes that she was turning into a supermodel or that she could now marry Jack Skellington were way past being funny. Soon enough, Lisa will be gone. It was no longer a matter or months or even weeks. It could happen today.
Karen is thinking that it’s like watching a mirror die.
Karen understands the word deathwatch now because it’s all you can do. Watch. Just watch.
Now you see her and now you don’t. It’s always amazed Karen how fast kids grow. It’s amazing her now how fast her twin sister Lisa is disappearing.
“Karen?” Lisa’s eyes flicker open.
“Yes, Lisa?” Karen leans forward to look at her sister. She can smell her hot, dying body. She pictures Dali-style watches melting over her sister’s ribs.
“How will I know you?” asks Lisa.
Karen doesn’t need to ask what she means. Lisa means that when she dies and goes to whatever’s next, she doesn’t know if they’ll look the same as they do now. She wants to know that the two of them will be reunited when her sister dies, whenever that will be.
She wants to be able to recognize her twin in the afterlife.
“Here. Take this.” Says Karen. She takes her necklace off. It’s a necklace of thin gold with a pendant in the shape of a tiny fairy. It was a gift from a friend’s child a few years ago.
She tucks it into her dying twin’s hand.
“Wear this. It’s that fairy necklace from Jake’s daughter. Take it with you and wear it when you get there.” She says. “That way, I’ll be able to recognize you. I’ll find you.”
“Okay.” Says Lisa with a big smile. It’s a horrendous thing on her skull of a face but it’s beautiful to Karen. She goes to sleep with the ghost of that grin still on her face.
She dies two hours later.
Before the orderlies take her away, Karen uncurls her twin sister’s cooling hand but the necklace is gone.
tags