Girl's Gone Child: Gemini(s)

Last week, Bo and Revi got in a massive fight about an invisible necklace. I know what she means, I thought. "I see both sides."

'There are two sides to your story, Gemini." That's how my horoscope always started. You are twins. You are dancing. You are fighting. You are holding hands in your superhero dress. You are yourself. And your other self, too.

I grew up thinking I was two-sided. Like a coin. Like that Us Poem by Shel Silverstein.

"Me and ~~him~~ her, ~~him~~ her and me. We're always together as you can see. I wish (s)he'd leave so I'd be free. I'm getting a little bit tired of (s)he..."

There are two types of girls in the world, I once wrote... and I was both of them... (Just like everyone else, but I didn't know that at the time. I believed in horoscopes with all my might. I believed I was this person -- who was unable to live a singular life. I was heads and tails and I could not stop flipping my coin. Flip. Flip. Flip...)

"Girl, what's your sign?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

The "twins," as referred to in Gemini horoscopes, are not supposed to be the same or even similar. They are supposed to be different. Complements and contradictions. Strength and softness, light and dark... Twins are hands that touch but do not cling -- they are brothers and sisters who spar and love and fight and fall asleep with noses touching. Push, pull, push, pull, reach, chase, dance, pow. (POW! POW!)

My first tattoo was a Gemini sign. My wedding ring is a pair of stones, dark and light, fused together... Signy-Mc-Sign. And every day someone asks if Bo and Revi are related. To me. To each other. To any of us. "Yes, yes. They're twins..." And I immediately think back to the signs leading up to their birth. I think about what it was like carrying them around inside me. I think about all the years I wore a II symbol around my neck, upon my finger, across my back... So many years highlighting horoscopes, talking about my sign. Their signs. All signs...

"It's a sign."

"What's your sign?"

"All signs point to..."

There are two sides of your story, Gemini. Which twin are you today? Who will end up with the invisible necklace?

I will never know what it is like to be a twin. But I have collected horoscopes. I know how to find Castor and Pollux in the sky. I know how to turn one invisible necklace into two.