Mirror Opposites by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Every time I tell people Konnie and I are mirror twins, somewhere in the back of my mind, I remind myself that we are not complete mirror opposites. Complete opposites would be the stereotypical good twin/bad twin, which, as I’ve mentioned before, I hate. It is so wrong!

I have yet to meet a set of twins who are polar opposites in personality, and as they run in our family, I’ve met quite a few.

In fact, one time I went to a family reunion held in a city park and while we  were there, someone walked up to a group of us, which happened to mostly be of twins in the family, chatting about where the missing twins were, and she asked if this was a twin convention. There wasn’t that many of us! Konnie wasn’t even there.

I swear there were more missing twins than twins present at that reunion, but since most of the twins in our family identical, it would be easy for an outsider to make the mistake.

Somewhere in this world there exists a photo taken when Konnie and I were about six of all the twins in our family at that time. It was three sets of identical girls and one set of fraternal boys. Konnie and I were the youngest.

There are not so many sets in the generation after us, and I have no idea if there are any in the newest generation, yet, but they exist in our family, big time. So, I can honestly say mirror twins are not mirror opposites in personality.

Which isn’t to say that our personalities are exactly the same. For instance, Konnie never had much of an issue with a temper, to the point that the one time she flew off the handle and really laid into the oldest of our brothers, she scared me so bad I hightailed it out of the house until she calmed down. And let me repeat, that is the only time I’ve seen her fly off the handle. We were like seventeen at the time.

There was one time prior to that I heard her use foul language, but she was mad at a cat that time. Then again she shocked not just me, but several neighborhood kids. I clearly remember some of them staring at me in the yard, and toward the house where Konnie had disappeared in total disbelief.

“Wait a minute, wasn’t that Konnie?”

“You’re Bonnie, right?”

“What just happened?”

They were all of the opinion the world just turned upside down because it was Konnie, while I was still trying to digest that Konnie used such language.

These days, her kids don’t believe she’s ever used such language. It happened once. I promise. In our early teens.

I guess that means that she lost her temper twice. I’ve flown off the handle so many times, people who have known me for decades are surprised when I manage to keep my calm so easily today.

(There are benefits to menopause. 😊)

But the fact is, I threw fits regularly even before I “became a woman” my temper was only intensified by PMS. And it is also true that after years of living with a loving and patient husband, I calmed down considerably before menopause kicked in.

Then again, I am not living with anyone these days, so it might be that I don’t have anyone around to annoy me.

Then there is Konnie. Her husband and her kids constantly test her patience. And she has a house full of pets too. All in all, I’m surprised she isn’t bald from pulling her hair out. One week at her house is about all I can handle, and it’s not me they’re calling for constantly.

As for her husband – well let’s just say, I have often offered to whack him up the side of the head with a 2X4, not that I ever would, I did offer. I have scolded him, but I haven’t lost my temper with him. He can be annoying and I’m glad I don’t spend a ton of time with him. I might just attempt to strangle him.

But Konnie and I are not polar opposites. We do have the same standards, morals, and such. And of course, we both write. We do some of the same crafts, And I guess I could point out how well she did in math and biology while I excelled in English, despite not being able to spell. And I absolutely hated Algebra and geometry. I only managed to tolerate biology because our teacher was funny.

Anyway, I have work to do, so happy writing everyone.