Me and Me
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Degrassi or 18 to Life.
Jessie was downtown shopping for presents for hubby. Again.
"Oh my God! Tom would love this fluffy chenille pillow with danglies all over it! Aw...it's even in the shape of a heart! I'm gonna get it for him! $35.99 spent today is a heart earned tomorrow."
She added it to her overflowing basket and rushed to the check-out, excited to share the amazing purchases with "the boy next door."
As she was leaving the department store, she could barely see over the precarious tower of boxes and bags, and ran smack into a person walking by. Her packages toppled to the ground. So did the other girl.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she whined, reaching to help up this most recent victim of her over-spending. "Are you all right?"
The girl accepted the hand up, bringing with her the fluffy chenille heart pillow with danglies all over it that had tried to roll away.
"Uh, this...thing...is yours, I presume?" she said, holding it distastefully between two fingers and giving it an obligatory dusting with the other hand. Looking down at the pillow, the girl's red hair was obscuring her face.
Jessie giggled. "Why yes it is! Thank you so much for rescuing it from that mud puddle for me. How can I ever repay you?"
"You can't." That's when the girl looked up. And then it was Jessie's turn to topple over.
From the sidewalk, she gazed up into a mirror. Only she wasn't nearly as good-looking and well-groomed.
"This is amazing!" Jessie cooed, reaching for her twin's hand, although it hadn't been offered to her, and hoisting herself up. "Identical strangers. It's a girl's dream come true! Well, right after her wedding, I mean. I would know." She flipped her left hand into the identical stranger's face to show off her blue bottle-cap ring. "Been married for three months and counting! You should try it sometime. It's really good for the skin."
"Yeah, well, I wouldn't know." Ellie was slowly inching away but this random weirdo didn't seem to notice. "About the identical strangers thing, I mean. I'm more of a lone wolf. And speaking of which, this lone wolf has very important work to do. So I should get going."
"But you can't!" the girl cried out, seeming close to tears. "You just saved my life!"
"I did?" Ellie asked flatly. Then she realized maybe this person had a...condition, of sorts. So she played along. "Oh...right. I did. Like I said, no need to repay. The best thing you can do for me is let me return to my prestigious journalism career as a lackey for the student paper at the local college. I'm so great, you know. Now that I don't cut myself anymore." Then, realizing she was spilling as much as the wacko girl, she clammed up and started to turn away.
"Wait!" cried Jessie. And she sighed with relief as her newfound twin turned back. "This is too amazing. You have to come have supper with my husband and me tonight. We can talk over our roots and relations while I screw up the cooking and wait for Tommy dear to swoop in to save me even though I bragged that I was so amazing and could do better at him than anything. I am a better kisser than he is." She paused thoughtfully.
"Oh, fine," Ellie fumed, thinking agreement would be the only way to get this girl to shut up. But she was wrong. Jessie linked her arm through Ellie's and looked expectantly down at the scattered packages. "I guess I'll be carrying these?" Ellie asked. But Jessie was already sailing off down the street. Ellie stacked the packages and set off woozily after the girl that was a much more likely candidate for having been birthed from her wino mother than she, Ellie, was. It might be worth finding out their relationship after all. Plus, her spidey journalist senses were buzzing a mile a minute. She couldn't pass up this investigation now. She would just treat it like any other assignment – her next ticket to the big leagues.