“But you look the same, sound the same, have the same family name, have the same birthday...”
“No, we're not.”
“We've all got the same last name, Deirdre Smith, Hollytree Smith...”
“And we're all born on the first of January.”
“And we are not twins.”
It was the first day of the year, it was very cold and there was this strange knock on the door.
“Hello, can we come in? We had to leave the home.”
The two of them were about eighteen years old, clothing thin and grey with small cardboard suitcases in the hand.
“Yes, come in and join the others.”
I followed them into the kitchen and made five big mugs of cocoa.
“Oh, it's nice and warm in here.”
“Oh, I've never had this before, it's very nice.”
I looked at them. “I suppose that you had to leave the home because today is your eighteenth birthday.”
I could tell them apart, they said that they were not twins, but they looked so similar.
“Hollytree Darling, could you please take the two girls to the bathroom and show them how to use the shower. And could you please lend them some of your clothes.”
The same procedure as last year, the same procedure as every year.
I made a lasagne for five.
On the day before Ash Wednesday I held a carnival party in Copper House – a big glass jar of rollmops and a heated tub of chilli con carne and plenty to drink. I invited everyone I knew and of course my four pretty girls.
Peter Lans complemented me on my Harem and I made him an offer. “I know that you want to expand your business, but the old factory is absolutely full and there's no more land to build on in Brasslans. Would you like something in Brasslans with ten rooms?”
“You want to sell Copper House?”
“No, no, where would I put my harem? No, I mean the Town Hall. It's far too big for the Mayor and his staff. There are only three of us, two part-time. You could buy it and rent out two rooms to us, just two rooms and the use of the kitchen and the toilets. Wadya think?”
He thought about it and his lawyer sorted out the complications – land lease, mortgage, contracts and so on.
Peter was happy, I was happy, the property tax was reduced again, everybody in Brasslans was happy.