Matthew & Matthew

Having finished law school and getting ready to hunt for that lucrative job, as well as turning thirty, had prompted Matthew Redleaf to invite everybody he knew to a party. Many of his relatives had come; his sister Diedra, his parents, uncles, aunts and about a dozen of friends from college. His two-bedroom cottage was filled to the last spot and some people had spilled out onto the patio.

After dinner and the cake, Matthew was given his presents. Beaming with pride, his aunt, Peggy, gave him a photo album. “It’s from your ninth birthday party. I found it in the attic when I went through old things.”

“Thank you, Peggy.”

He didn’t really care about that long gone party. But he sat down on a couch and opened the pages. At first none of the people in the pictures were familiar to him. He was about to put it to the side and chalk this up as an early onset of senility, when he discovered himself in one of the photos.

Matthew looked at the pages of the photo album in wonder. “That’s me,” he whispered, more to himself. He went back to the first page. A family photo with a host of people posing in a group picture. He was in the middle, standing to the right of a couple. Everybody wore silly cone shaped hats, strapped to their heads with rubber bands below their chins. The caption under the picture read: Matthew’s ninth birthday bash.

Inspecting the snapshots on the following pages, he saw his nine-year-old self play games in a garden he had never been in. He blew out candles on a cake that was presented in a dining room he didn’t recognize. It was just too surreal.

“Diedra,” he called his sister. She sat down next to him with an open, friendly expression. “You are two years older than me. Why aren’t you, mom or dad in these photos?”

“Let me see.”

She took the book on her lap and slowly turned the pages, just as entranced as he had been. “It’s you, but it’s none of us,” she exclaimed with astonishment.

Matthew grabbed the album from her and carried it to the other sofa, where his parents had found cozy spots to sit. He deposited the offending tome on his mother’s lap. She smiled at him and lifted the thick cover page. Her smile froze, when she saw the family photo on the first page. She handed to book to her husband, stood up, and walked to the patio.

“What happened, dad? Why am I the only one from our family in these pictures?”

“Son… “

“Don’t ’son’ me! Who are all these people?”

Mr. Redleaf sighed. “Matthew, this isn’t the right place. Let’s go to your bedroom.”

In the quiet of the bedroom, Matthew learned about a family secret so deep and well hidden from him for all these years, it stunned him.

“Diedra was just over a year old when we found out that your mother was pregnant again. We were poor at the time, very poor. You are one of a set of twins. We were scared that we couldn’t afford to feed three kids.” He took a deep breath, only to have Matthew cut in.

“So you sold my brother?”

“We didn’t sell him. The woman in these photos was in the same room as your mother. Her baby died when it was only an hour old. This woman’s family was well to do. Her husband already had a dentistry office with brisk business. They paid for all the paperwork to make the adoption legal. We knew he would have a doting mother, a great childhood and all the chances for a great education.”

“I had a great childhood! I have a superb education!” Matthew fumed. He paced back and forth in front of his dad. “Why is his name Matthew?”

“It was a popular name. We found out that he was named Matthew when we got a photo album of his first birthday party. Every year, we got one of those. His adoptive parents wanted to show us how well they took care of him. Peggy kept his albums for us, so you or Diedra wouldn’t come across those by mistake. Your aunt played an evil prank on all of us.”

“I want to meet him! I want to meet my brother, dad!”

“You’re an adult now. So is he. The parents’ address is in the back of the book. Get in touch with them, see what they say.”

A week later Matthew drove to Beverly Hills. He stopped his coughing Corolla outside of a mansion so wide; he had to take a step back to take it all in. The massive mahogany front door flew open.

“Brother!” The other Matthew wore his sandy hair long. He was dressed in expensive clothes that were designed to appear casual and worn. “Dude! I never knew I had a twin.” The two Matthews hugged on the sidewalk.

Matthew followed his brother inside. The entrance hall was the same size as his cottage. Wide stairs went up on each side, leading to the upstairs. The brothers walked through to the back yard. It had a Tennis court, a pool and a large patio with comfortable seating arrangements.

They sat down and stared at each other. Slowly, a grin crept over their faces. A connection, formed in the womb, sparkled up. They both got off their chairs at the same time.

“Let’s go… “

“… swim!”


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