Right from our childhood days, my twin
sister and I are used to playing pranks on people; our parents are no
exception, especially our father. The interesting thing about us is that it is
only our mother who can tell us apart. Most times, we play pranks on him that
gets him really infuriated but we see it as fun. However, it is unfortunate
that I have to bear the consequences of what Franca does because I am
Francisca.
As identical twins, we wear the same
clothes, talk and walk the same way, wear the same hairstyle; in fact we do
everything together both planned and unplanned. I could remember once when
Franca disobeyed our class teacher in our days in secondary school and I was
punished. The teacher asked Franca to help her bring her teaching note which
she forgot in the class where she had just finished teaching. Instead of
helping the teacher, she went to play with her friends.
The next day, while I was passing by the
staff room, my class teacher saw me and said, “You come here. Where is the
teaching note I asked you to bring for me yesterday?” Looking lost, I said,
“Ma, I am sure it was my twin sister, Franca and not me.” “Shut up. I am sure
if I call your twin sister she will tell me the same thing,” she said angrily.
All my explanation fell on deaf ears as she ordered me to kneel down and raise
up my hands in front of the staff room for almost an hour before she set me
free.
When I got to the classroom and narrated
what happened to Franca, she laughed and said, “Sorry Franca, I just couldn’t
walk down to that class in that hot sun so I went to play with my friends.
Sorry for being punished on my behalf.”
Even in our university days, many
people could not tell us apart so Franca and I continued to deceive and play
pranks on our friends and lecturers because we studied the same course, English
and Literature. When it comes to men, all we do is just enjoy their gifts and
money and once we feel we have had enough fun, we bid them goodbye and move on
to the next guy. By the time they discover that we are identical twins, they
get confused because they won’t know who to confront and that will be the end
of the ‘supposed affair’.
Some time back, I was sitting by the
swimming pool in one of this big hotel when this handsome dude walked up to me
and introduced himself as Dele. I looked at him from head to toe and told him
to get lost. Instead of quietly walking away, he pulled a chair and sat down.
Shocked, I said, “Don’t you have any shame? I asked you to get lost and you sit
down?” He smiled and said, “I like tough ladies like you. You have just won my
heart. So what is that beautiful name of yours?” Funnily, instead of getting
angry, I burst into laughter and said, “My name is Francisca and I am pleased
to meet you.” We talked for a while, exchanged phone numbers and Blackberry
pins. He promised to give me a call later that evening and left.
Immediately I got home, I told Franca
about Dele. As weeks passed by, Dele and I became close friends, and then
Franca suggested that we play pranks on him since I didn’t tell him I was a
twin. However, we agreed that we would not fall in love with him, not in the
least, go to bed with him. Dele invited me out on a dinner date, when I got
there I had to record all our conversation so that Franca will not get things
mixed up since she will be going on the next date with him. Once I got home, we
listened to the recording over and over again because we have to play our game
well. Dele looked very smart compared to all the other guys we had met. There
was a day I mistakenly had a scratch on my right hand. Surprisingly, Francisca
too had an injury in exactly that portion on her body. We made sure that
whenever he visited our home, he would see only one of us. Of course, Franca
had once visited him at home too, pretending to be me.
For me, I realised that at a point I
started falling in love with Dele. He is a very likeable, caring and
understanding person. He spoilt me with gifts and cash. Aside from that, he is
domesticated and this really thrilled me. I like men who can do what women can
do, in terms of house chores and cooking. I guess these attributes drew us
closer to Dele. When I told Franca about my feelings for him, she confessed
that she too felt the same way. She however warned that we must stay focused on
just fooling him but at the same time have fun. Once we have had our fill, we
would walk away just like we had always done.
This charade went on for about six
months until the day I told Franca that I was pregnant. “How can you be
pregnant Francisca. This was not part of the plan.
I am disappointed in you. How do you
think our parents will feel?” she scolded me. While we were contemplating
whether I should have an abortion or tell Dele so that we would know what next
to do, Franca also discovered she was pregnant. “God, how can two sisters be
pregnant for the same man?” I asked. Francisca looked at me and suggested that
we should go and see Dele and tell him the truth. I told her it would be wise
for me to talk with him first once he gets back from his trip to Ibadan.
Somehow, my mother found out that we
were both pregnant. She asked us who was responsible for our pregnancy as
abortion was out of the way. I could not tell her the whole truth but promised
to take her to the house of the man responsible.
A week later, our mother, Franca and I
went to visit Dele, but we received the shock of our lives. Dele, too, had an
identical twin brother, Wale. Their parents were at home as well so my mother
disclosed our reason for coming. “Dele and Wale, what do you guys have to say?”
asked their father. “To tell you the truth, we never knew that Dele too had a
twin brother,” Francisca confessed. “What? So you girls played your usual
pranks and got pregnant for twin brothers? You girls took it too far this time
round,” screamed my mother.
At first, I didn’t know you had a twin,
you didn’t even tell me. I saw you and your twin sister at the supermarket and
had this hunch that you girls were playing pranks on me, so I and my twin
brother, Wale, had to play along,” Dele said.
“My daughters cannot have an abortion.
Your sons must have to marry my daughters, if not their father will kill them,”
pleaded my mother. “Madam, we have to talk to our sons and ask them what they
really want,” said Dele’s father. “Father, Wale and I have already decided that
we will marry Franca and her twin sister if they can prove which of us
impregnated each of them. I must say we have come to like them a lot but they
think they are smart,” Dele emphasised.
We never suspected that Dele had a twin
brother too. The question now is, which of them actually impregnated Franca and
I? Who actually deceived whom? Dele and Wale still visit us at home to know how
we are doing but they don’t ever talk about marriage. What should we do as our
father is on the verge of throwing us out of his house. According to him, it is
a taboo in his family for women to give birth outside marriage.
