The Twins

There was never a moment when I did not know that my dad was a twin. I always knew, and I could always tell them apart.

When I was in 1st grade at St. Luke’s and Patty N was my bully, I knew the difference. Patty was Miss Mulcahy’s fav. I saw her carrying Patty once, after class. When I had detention. I had detention because Patty had, once again, lured me into talking in class. She also had spoken. I was the one who had been nabbed by Miss Mulcahy.

Sister Michael taught in the high school, but she was there in the office when my dad or uncle picked me up after detention. Sister Michael had been their teacher when they were in high school. She asked me which one that was, daddy Jim or daddy Nat. She knew how I knew them apart. I always told her the truth.

My godfather was my grand uncle Paul. My godmother was my mom’s friend who we called aunt Kay but was no relation. Uncle Paul had given me an Alice in Wonderland wallet with a quarter in it for my birthday. I brought it to school. My mom should not have allowed it, but she did. At some point, it disappeared. I’m pretty sure Patty took it since she engaged me in a conversation about it. Of course Miss Mulcahy caught me doing the talking, resulting in a detention.

The next year, my godmother gave me a Cinderella watch. She was in a Disney competition with my godfather it seems. I don’t remember wearing it to school. Lesson learned maybe.

The only thing I remember bringing to school in 2nd grade was a little statue of a Dalmation dog like my uncle Jim’s dog. I brought it because my cat was missing. While I was on the bus to school, I saw my cat, Tina, dead on the side of the road. I cried all day at school and clung to that little Dalmation statue. My teacher, Sister Lawrence Marie, did not have the heart to take it from me. She did not know me or my parents from their school days there. Maybe the other nuns informed her. But she treated me gently that day. I did not get detention.

Patty sat near me in 2nd grade and did get me in trouble that year, so I did get detention, of course. A classmate had drawn my name for a gift and gave me an orange crow tree ornament. Very ugly. Later, he spilled a bottle of ink in his desk, and the nuns found a wrapped Christmas gift of a toy iron in his desk. They concluded that it was meant for me rather than the orange crow ornament.

He must have been very smart and sarcastic. In our 1st grade play he was Jimmy Crow. I was Mae Waxwing and my line was an attack on him. I guess I must have played it somewhat over the top since it appears he took it personally. Why an orange crow?

From the day the nuns found his desk with the stashed gift and spilled ink, Jimmy, his real name, never spoke normally again. He developed a terrible stutter. I mean terrible! Al the way through school after that he was a mess. He could not get anything out right.

Eventually, his parents transferred him to the military academy. I read that he died in a car crash in upstate NY. There was alcohol involved. In those days the drinking age in NY was 18 and in NJ was 21.

It really wasn’t fair. Jimmy got his but Patty never got hers as far as I know. I even went back to St. Luke’s for 9th grade. Patty was in my class, and , yes, she did make me talk once in class. I wasn’t caught. Neither was she. It was an interesting conversation about The Turn of the Screw. But anyway… I caved.

I left St. Luke’s that year for the glories of public school that my parents were already paying for and was pretty happy about that, all things considered.

Nobody at Ramapo Regional knew about the twins. I had no history there. In a way, though, I wished St. Luke’s had been more like the movies about high school. But then I might never have been inspired to be a teacher, and it all might have turned out differently.