“Careening. Yes, that’s it. I like the word ‘careening’
for this. I am a twin and my twin’s name is Antony and the two of us forever
risk careening off into literary cliché.
“I assume you know what I mean here. Abel and Cain? The
good son and the bad seed? Darkness and light? Yin and yang? Cage and Travolta swapping
mugs in that old action flick?
“It’s a really well-worn trope.
“I’ve never liked cliché and I never wished to go
careening off into it. I never wanted it because it is bad: Bad to be only half
a person. Lousy to possess half a soul. To bomb science class while the other
one excels in it. To be the slightly-too-boyish sister of a slightly-too-girly
brother.
“I said ‘No thank you’ to that. Never out loud, of course
– that would be crazy – but in my life, my actions, my thinking? I said ‘No
thank you’ to that from the start…
“…and wound up constantly careening into bad twin
clichés.
