“David is dead, that man is his brother.”
“Brother?” Sarah said, puzzled, all the time she had been with David, he never mentioned a brother let alone an identical twin brother, or was that a lie and that man was David?
“Yes, brother, David may have never spoken of me because we…” he began to choke up.
“What happened between them does not matter now, does it, what matters now is that my son has come home.”
“I just wish I had done it sooner, that my brother’s death was not the reason.”
“Me too,” his mother admitted. She broke down. “Why didn’t you come home sooner, why did he have to die?”
Sarah stood, not able to move, not sure what to make of the whole situation. On one hand, she believed that this man was who he said he was, but could not say for sure. He looked identical to David, and the way he walked, talked, moved around the house, as if he knew where things were. Sarah wanted to get out of there, wishing she had not decided to come, but she had to, for her daughters. This was their family.
“I think I should go, I have to get back…”
Sarah felt the feeling she had always felt close to her daughters feeding time. Her breasts were beginning to throb, if she did not leave now, it would be too late. It had only happened once when she had been out with the twins, and could not find a place to sit and feed them.
As she recalled that feeling she looked down and saw her top was wet in two patches.
“Shit,” she said, muttering to herself. “I am so sorry but I need to leave, now.” She had been in the house for less than half an hour, it was not time for their feed, but she sensed they were hungry.
She rushed past them and out the door, hearing the sound of her daughter’s cries. Her mother sat in the car doing her best to calm them down. She opened the door.
“I am so sorry honey, they were fine, but I guess they grew hungrier sooner, I…”
“It’s okay Mum, sometimes they eat when they want to, I just hoped they would wait a few hours.”
“I see you should have brought a spare top with you.”
“I should from now on, but now I need to feed them, they cannot wait, I will just have to feed them both here.”
“In the car?”
“Well they won’t wait,” she said, climbing in and exposing her two full breasts, not caring who saw her. Until she saw the man that was not David watching as she latched each baby on. They were soon suckling.
“I thought David died?” her mother said, staring at the man outside the car.
“That is not David; at least they told me he is his twin.”
Her mother rolled down the window.
“I am sorry to intrude, but I wanted to apologise for my parents…the funeral is next Friday, will you attend?”
“Of course, where and what time?”
He handed her mother a slip of paper and left.
“I don’t know what to say other than, are you sure he isn’t David?”
“I don’t know Mum, why would they do this, go to this extent?”
“I don’t know hun, but I think I should come too. Just in case…”
“Thank you, I wouldn’t have taken them in, it’s not a place for children, babies.”
“I know you wouldn’t, I…”
“Mum, thank you, thank you for everything.”
“Oh sweetheart, I am so sorry, I wish things were easier for you, I want you to know that I wish I had not believed his lies.”
“Lies?”
“Yes, what are you telling me Mum?”
“Before you two split, he came to me, told me you cheated on him, I should have never believed him.”
“He did?”
“Yes, and I know you are my daughter but he was so convincing, and …”
“Then we split, and I found out I was expecting.”
Her mother nodded.
“I can imagine you thought it was to trap him or the man he told you I cheated with?”
“Yes, but I did not care either way, grandbabies that is what I got, two beautiful little girls. They are perfect, I did not care whose they were.”
“I never cheated, never.”
“I know and when you told me that he was the one, I knew I had been sucked into his lies, for what reason I don’t know, but that man could be David. I…”
“As lost for words as I am.”
“Yes.”
“I think they have had their fill, I’ll drive us home, change them and hopefully they will sleep for an hour while I take a quick shower.”
“I can fix lunch for us, if that’s okay?”
“Mum, what you thought or believed is in the past. It’s already forgotten.”
“Thank you.”
Sarah nodded, she should be angry, but it seems David had tried to put doubt in her mother’s mind, the more she thought about the man she had loved, the more she hated him, and if he was dead, watching him put in the ground would end things for her. If there was a funeral.