Nov. 8 Twin ladders

 

 

This month I am part of a group that is doing a flash fiction piece a day. We have prompts. Today's was the word ladders. Flash fiction is usually a complete story under 750 words. One of the most famous which may or may not have been written by Hemingway. Baby shoes. For sale. Never worn."

Nina and Jana were identical twins. Their mother dressed them identically. The twins adored that no one could tell them apart and were a bit annoyed when their school put them in separate classes.

At one point, the teachers insisted that their mother send them to school in different colored sweaters so the staff could think Nina Orange, Jana Blue. The girls would meet in the toilet and switch sweaters and classrooms. In high school Nina, who was better in math, took math classes for both of them, while Jana took history. Both earned A’s in the two courses.

When they graduated from high school, there wasn’t enough money to send them to university. Nina applied for a job at an insurance company. The HR director was a bit taken back when both showed up for the job interview, but since they had two openings in the filing department, they were hired.

Like when they were little, the girls always dressed identically to go to work. The company gave them name tags. They would switch those and do each other's work.

One day, when Jana was home with a bad cold, Phil, who worked across the hall, sat with Nina at lunch. He asked her out to dinner. That was the first date she’d ever been on. Although the twins were attractive, they put up an unseen barrier that kept potential friends, boys and girls, from approaching.

For the first time Nina wondered what it would be like to be a whole single unit, not a half of a twin set. She started a tiny rebellion. Her earrings might be bigger hoops than her sister’s. Jana noticed and took her earrings out and insisted Nina do the same.

Then there was the day they both wore skirts with stockings to work. Nina snagged her right leg on a metal cart where folders were kept in until they could be filed. Even though the company had everything in the computer system, there was a legal requirement that a paper signature still exist. A ladder ran up her leg.

At lunch, Jana noticed. As soon as she sat next to her sister, she reached down and created a similar ladder on her right leg’s stocking

Phil was sitting at the next table and observed it. Nina saw his frown. She picked up her tray and went to sit with him, leaving her sister alone, what she thought of as her first step in independence. She wasn’t sure there would be a second.