Just when you think you may have had a twin brother...

It turns out----you DID! But he died in utero, and got absorbed in your spine. It is a fairly weird phenomenon, but also fairly common, it seems. And one day in your early twenties, you wake up and nearly shout because of the pain, and can hardly put your pants on. And the doctor in emergency looks at you and says, 'Why didn't you TELL me your ass is swollen.' And I'm thinking, 'Wha???' And I said, 'I don't normally LOOK at my ass in a mirror, so how would I be ABLE to tell?' (The guy must had issues, asking that question in the first place.) There IS a point to this, keep reading.

Well, I had the best insurance policy at the time, and had co-pay for ten per cent of all costs, for two days in the hospital and the operation. One THOUSAND dollars in 1972. Which is why I had to get a government loan to study in Salzburg. Whatever, he explained that I would have had a twin brother. But I guess I killed him. It was odd and with a sense of loss attached. All I could think of was Cain and Abel. Oddly, three other co-students my age in my clique had to have the same operation at the same time. We used to run to classes at UNH with donuts in pillow cases to sit on for seminars. Unpleasant? You bet. But we laughed muchly. I was lucky. Mine nested himself at the end of the spine above the anus. The others, well, they had to go inside and that was infinitely worse.

Today, I read THIS, and thought, if my twin brother had lived, that would be him, because it reflects exactly what I think.

That is how he would have been....

Just sayin' I am a shadow of that.