See

When I was still months away from giving birth I got to talking to a woman in line at Trader Joes. She asked me when I was due and I told her I had some time to go. 

"They're twins so I just LOOK like I'm about to bust open all over the scene."

"Twins? I'm a twin, too!" she told me. 

And then went on to say that she and her twin sister just moved to LA together because one of them got a job and they couldn't NOT live in the same city. 

"Or apartment," she said. "We sleep in the same bed, too," she said, whispering. "I have a hard time sleeping alone. My mom used to put us down in separate beds and in the morning we'd be together."

They went to college together, were roommates throughout, have never spent more than a few days apart. Ever. 

"We fight all the time," she said. "We are sisters. But we're also... I don't know." she said. "We're something else, too. You'll see."

This conversation made a lasting impression on me -- the idea that I was carrying soul mates - that the girls growing inside me would be an inseparable duo, that they would come out of my body practically holding hands and never, ever let go. 

Except that was not the case. 

They barely acknowledged each other the first six months. And although they do interact and have for some time, they aren't wrapped around each other like puppies. When one gets hurt the other doesn't cry. Not usually, anyway. 

They're sisters like Fable and Bo are sisters. They're siblings like Revi and Archer are siblings. That's what I think most of the time. That what the girl in line at Trader Joes had with her sister was something very unique to her own life experience and that my girls, although close, won't be dependent on each other the way I anticipated they'd be. 

That was, until recently, when out of nowhere, Bo started seeking out toys to give Revi. Or I'd wake up to their early morning conversations, back and forth between cribs. Or when Revi started tackling Bo with hugs and Bo started handing Revi the food off her tray - their partnership forming, their relationship suddenly very much their own.

This morning Revi tried to take Bo's puzzle piece away from her so Bo went and got Revi her own. She climbed down off my lap, walked across the room, picked up a puzzle piece and brought it to Revi, beaming. 

And then? Revi said thank you. SHE SAID THANK YOU! Sure, it sounded like "noo noo" but it was totally and absolutely a thank you. 

"Noonoo."

...And Bo smiled. 

It was like witnessing the first of many "We're in this together, girl" moments and it broke me. In the best way possible it shattered me to smithereens.

I have no idea the kind of sisters they will become - whether they'll be roommates as adults, or best friends or just sisters who love each other. I don't know if their bond is special because they're twins. I like to think that there was a reason they were put on this earth together at the exact same time, in yin yang bodies with yin yang souls, complementing each other with their mismatched ways. 

"They don't even look like sisters," everyone says. 

"You don't even look like sisters!"

But they are. They are sisters in a way I will never understand, which I think is what the girl at Trader Joes was referencing.  

"You'll see..." she said, but what she meant was, "You'll see with your eyes..." in the only way an outsider can - face pressed against crib bars, marveling at the magic...

...before promptly exploding with the kind of  joy/love/how is this even happening grateful overwhelmingness that can't help but occur during moments such as these.

And yes, I very much see. 

GGC