Finally (continued...)

She was hugging me. I don't hug. I shrugged out of her embrace politely and asked, "I have a twin?"

"Correction, sister, I have a twin!" she said.

What was her game? She seemed a little too...peppy to be a part of my family.

"Is this a trick?" I asked. Maybe I was captured by my father once again. If that were the case, relief would sweep over my body and I would be able to talk Sicarius down from what ever plans he had for me.

Her expression became quizzical. "Trick? I don't understand..."

It was confirmed. This was not a trick. If I were in captivity, I wouldn't have gotten a hair-brained answer.

"I'm so glad I found you!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, of course you are."


I looked around the coffee house. People were staring. I could see an over-weight man in the corner looking over his newspaper, with a jelly donut in his hand. I knew it was a jelly donut by the ooze that was smeared down his cheek. I shot him a look and he quickly adjusted himself and continued reading his articles.


"We should sit down.." I said, as I motioned to my booth. She looked at the booth and saw my coffee mug.


"Great! Then we can tell each other all about our lives!"


"Great.." I said with little enthusiasm. We sat down and she continued to drone on and on about her life..How she graduated top of her class and went to Harvard, how she started her own practice and ended up saving a ghetto town from destroying itself, and how when she wakes up each morning and looks herself in the mirror she's proud to say she's done something special with her life and continues to do so through the zoo she bought a couple of years ago and can now talk to monkeys. Then, she went on about how the monkeys she talks to have become so advanced that they might be able to replace soldiers in Afghanistan.


How could anyone acknowledge her life as appealing? She's a lawyer. Those type of people despise what I do, and I despise them. She doesn't commit crimes, she doesn't physically fight it, and she talks to monkeys. How pointless.. You don't send a monkey to do a man's job! That's what women are for!


Then she went into her personal life...I don't think I should mention much about that...


After she finished talking, I took in the sounds of Tre Cafe. How comforting it was to hear the  music in the background, the dinging of the bell at the entrance and the sound of espresso machines brewing their contents.


"So, what do you do?" she asked. My meditation was broken.


"I don't talk to monkeys." I said. This should have been a satisfactory answer. But, she pressed on.


"Seriously," she said. "I've told you all about my life. I want to hear everything about yours!"


"Yes," I said. "You definitely told me a lot. And that part about you successfully delivering eleven babies from six different women, all at one time, was fascinating, to say the least."


"THAT was a great day!" she said smiling.


"Yes...but, I don't speak of the things I do. Especially to your kind."


"My kind?" she said in confusion.


"Yes," I said, "You and 'your kind' don't exactly approve of the things that I do. We're pretty much hot-wired to hate each other." I waited. She has to figure this out.


"I don't understand...I'm just a lawyer. The only 'mortal' enemies we have are the..." She stopped.


She stared at me for a while. I guess she was trying to figure it out. Then, a look of pure realization came over her. She slid out of the booth, stood up and faced me. She put her finger up, hesitated, turned and started walking away. I smiled.


That was all I had to do? I was so relieved that she was leaving, I didn't notice her walking back.


"We're sisters!" she said, "I at least need to know your name! The only way I found you was through our mother."


Our mother? I shot a look at her and she took a step back, as if I were going to attack her.


"What? You found Delorcita?" I was flabber-ghasted! I had been searching for my mother for years. And a lawyer finds her?


"Found her? I live with her. I found some legal documents, with my name on them, hidden in a box she keeps under her bed. I didn't think anything of them until I observed that right next to my name was the words 'and identical twin sister.' When I asked mother about it she only said so much about you and fell silent for the rest of the evening. But, I really just want to know your name." She looked at me as if I were a puzzle she was trying to put together. The same look I imagine I had most of the night.


"She didn't tell you?"I asked as I took a sip of my coffee. It was getting cold and I cringed a bit.


"Tell me what?"


"Dear sister, I have no name."


And with that, she left. But, before she did, she gave me her name and said that if I ever needed anything or had any questions from her kind, just to look her up. She told me that I could trust her. Trust her? I don't think I could trust someone with a name like "Jaxynda Benscum".

Finally

It was a bright, sunny day; or at least it would have been if I were telling the truth.

To be completely honest, it was a dark and stormy night.

I was walking down the city streets, and a man walks up to me and asks,"Do you need an umbrella?" My only response was silence. In my silence I glared. He got a bit nervous and walked away.

How dare he just walk up and ask me something like that. I was soaking wet! Of course I needed an umbrella! So did he.

Anyhow, I continued walking. I was about to meet someone who had contacted me online. She says she has new information on my family. That I have a relative I don't know about. For some reason, this peaked my interest.

I believe I must disclose. My family is a bit far from the average. We don't have a last name. My mother, Delorcita, who is supposedly Italian, had to give up her last name, Kordare when she married my father, "Sicarius". I don't know much about my parents. They were a secretive couple. I barely saw them when I was growing up. All I know is, I must hide from them. My father is to be feared, and my mother is to be ignored; as it is in most families. The difference in my family is that it's taken to the extreme. My mother is in witness protection, I don't know where she is, and my father is an ingenious super-assassin...I don't know where he is either, and I think he's after me. When I was born, my parents didn't know what to name me, so they decided not to.

Then, I found out about ten years ago that I had a half-sister named Toshlin. Of course, we share the same father, so she has no last name either. I know nothing else of her family, for it does not hold my interest. I'm sure I have other relatives, but unless they commit a crime or fight it, I don't care.

Now that you're up to speed, I will continue.

I was to meet up with this woman at Tre Cafe. So, I walked in and sat in the most hidden booth. There, I waited.

I was on my sixth cup of coffee when she walked in. I knew right away it was her. How? She looked exactly like me, except, she looked...preppy.

As she walked toward me I stood up. I noticed she was looking around eagerly. And when she finally found me...

"Oh, my G-NESS!" she exclaimed. All I could do was stare in shock. "I finally found you!"

I snapped out of it. "Yes, finally." I said.

(To be continued...)

Pillow Talk

I watched. I watched everything. I saw how they threw their arms around each other and started kissing. I observed how the woman cried as he held her close saying,"I'll never leave you again!"

"I hate movies like this..." I said as I looked over at Toshlin, who at the moment was occupied with a tissue in her hands and tears streaming down her puffy cheeks. "It's just so special!", she said.

I rolled my eyes and stood up.

This movie was pointless. "This is not how life plays out, Toshlin." She looked at me with frustration in her eyes."You don't know how life plays out in these situations. You've never been in a serious relationship."

Oh, but I have been. The dear, plump Toshlin just wasn't around for it.

The year was 1932, and I was just beginning my job at Mystery, Co. when I was partnered up with The Mystery Man. We were the first two employees working there and the only two employees who kept their identities a secret. Our team name was, 'The M.D. (The Mystery Duo)'. Anyway, we were on our second case and the man we were chasing was a pillow thief. Somehow, we had gotten split up. I was walking down a long hallway, when a pillow hit me in the face. I immediately started snorting, then laughing. I looked over and it was the thief. I put my gun away and we started talking. He was funny and handsome.

A couple of days later we went out for coffee. Then we started dating. After 8 months, he asked me to marry him and I accepted.

We were married for two years when he died. Some say he died peacefully in his sleep, some say he loved pillows so much that he ended up eating one. But, the autopsy report says that his obsession of pillows was so difficult for his wife to bear that she smothered him in his sleep with the thing he loved even more than her. I was so upset when I found out he had a second wife.

Yes, Toshlin doesn't know about my being a widow to a previously married man, but, she doesn't need to know.

In Which the Phone Rings (continued...)

[You caught me.]

I was still on the phone.

There was something about his voice. Something familiar.

"Yes, I caught you...Who is this?" My curiosity got the best of me. I felt as though I should know who I was speaking with. It was an odd feeling...one I just couldn't shake.

[That's need-to-know, my dear.] I felt as though I needed to know.

"I don't need to know?" I asked.

[My dear, you should already know.]

This conversation was going no where. I obviously wasn't going to find out who this man was. I took in my surroundings once more. That's right, I was in a strange condo. I woke up at 2pm, the clock was missing.

[My dear?]

"I'm here."

[I was afraid that you hung up on me.]

"Hmmm...Yes, well, why would I do that?"

[That, my dear, is a good question.] Then it hit me. 'My dear...'

I knew exactly who this man was. Why the clock was gone. I knew where I was. I knew how I got here. I knew what was going on, what his motives were.

I was afraid. My heart began to race. I was panicking.

[My de...]

I hung up and backed away from the phone.

*Ring*...*Ring*...*Ring*...

There was no sense in trying to figure everything out anymore. The more I tried the more confusing it would get.

*Ring*...*Ring*...*Ring*...*Ring*

Only one man could make things this confusing.

...*Ring*...*Ring*...*Ring*...

Only one man could be this ingenious.

*Ring*...*Ring*...*Ri..* I held the phone to my ear.

[You figured it out.]

"Dad?" My voice cracked.

[Didn't I say I would find you?]

"So, you did."

[Yes...so,I did. You made it too easy.] He seemed irritated.

"I apologize. If you give me a second chance, I'll make it more difficult."

[Oh, I'm going to let you go, since it's you. But, my dear?]

"What?"

[Next time, I will not hold back.]

[toooooooooooonnnnnnnnne]

I, then, felt a sharp pain in my neck and blacked out.

In Which the Phone Rings

*Ring*... *Ring*...*Ring*...*Ring*...

"Ugh..." I wake up. 'What happened?'

*Ring*...*Ring*...*Ring*...*Ring*...

'How did I get home?'

*Ring*...*Ring*...*Ring*...*Ring*

"Toshlin! ANSWER THE PHONE!"

...*Ring*...*Ring*...*Ring*...

"TOSHLIN!"...*Ring* 'Where is she?' *Ring*

I get out of bed and walk to the phone in the living room and pick it up.

"Hello?"

[Hey, I've been trying to get a hold of you...]

"Toshlin?" I look around the condo, confused.

[Yeah, who else?] Who else, indeed...Toshlin's deep, hefty voice was very distinctive.

"Where are you?"

[I'm at the new coffee shop,'Tre Cafe'. We were supposed to meet, remember?]

'Meet? I don't recall that. ' I don't recall anything. I look around once more.

"No...I, actually, don't even know how I got home last night."

[Did you just wake up? You, do realize what time it is don't you?]

I look at the clock...or I would be looking at the clock if someone hadn't taken it down. 'Where the heck is the clock?? Wasn't it on the wall above the stand?'

"Um...no. Where's the clock?"

[Good grief, it's 2pm!]

This is weird... Something is off. WAY off. I look around the condo again, this time slowly.

"Toshlin, did you do something with the clock?"

[Of course not. Just get dressed and meet me here. You do know where it is don't you?]

"Yes...can I ask you something?"

[What is it?]

"When did we get a condo?"

[...............]

I stayed calm. I knew I was on to something, so I smiled.

"Toshlin? Are you there?"

[Alright,] It was a different voice. A man's voice.

[You caught me.]

(To be continued...)