Sherrie Lea Morgan Blog

As I mentioned last month, I'm sharing a few essays I've written for a non-fiction project. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing each one.

Lip Sync

One afternoon in the middle of October, many years ago, I sat on the front porch of my home with my twin sister and daughter. That day, like the other days before, that year, brought in a crisp winter wind. My twin and I huddled at one end of the wicker bench where the sun shone directly onto our faces. The mild warmth my skin received did not eliminate the nipping of the cold on my face. My thick hoodie, sweatpants and wool gloves completed the job on the rest of my body. However, my face, bare and alone suffered silently. My daughter sat across from us, covered in a small quilt my twin made and smiling as I related a story from that morning. Every so often, her gaze switched from my face to my twins.
As my story progressed, the transferring of her gaze increased until it nearly bounced. I paused and slid a glance toward my twin. Her mouth is frozen partially opened, while her gaze swept from my own mouth to my eyes. Her eyebrows lifted once her gaze met mine as thought to question my pause. I blinked, then continued telling my story to my daughter. Slipping a peek at my twin as I spoke. Her mouth moved as I spoke. In fact, her lips formed my words as I spoke them. No sound emitted from her, yet she followed my speech. My daughter's grin widened and after raising her for twenty-eight years, a bubble of laughter hung on the precipice. Her wide eyes and exposed teeth from her large smile, duplicated the same behavior she'd started when she was just a child. I stopped, faced my sister and tipped my head to the side.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
Her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open farther and she responded. "What?"
"You're mimicking my words."
"I am?" She asked.
My daughter laughter split the otherwise quiet morning and my gaze jerked toward her. "Is that what you were watching?" My daughter nodded, still laughing. "How long?" I ask her. She paused in her giggles and said, "Ever since you started, she's been mouthing your words."
I stared at my twin. "Why?"
"I didn't even realize I was doing it," she said.
"It's okay," my daughter interrupted. "You two do this all the time. It's cute."
I leaned back and frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Both of you lip sync each other’s words. You've been doing it for a long time now."
My twin and I face each other. "I didn't know that." We say simultaneously.
I point to my sister. "Stop." She nods. There is no reason to tell her what to stop. She knows. I turn toward my daughter, continue talking and she continues smiling as she glances between my sister and I. She's doing it again. I slide another glance at my twin. Yep. She's doing it again. "Stop," I say. "You're doing it again." She presses her hand to her mouth and nods.
"I don't know why you bother, mom. You do it to her."
Hmm. I cross my arms, staring down at the small peeling gray paint chips of my porch near my feet. We lip sync. How odd. Or is it odd? How is it possible for her know what words I'm about to say in time to form the letters at the exact same time as I say them? We cannot read each other’s minds. Not really. I mean, after all these years, I can read her face easily enough. I do the same with my family members I'm close to. But, no one ever synchronizes their lip movements with my words.
Only she does. Only my sister. My twin.

Last July I decided to go back to school. I’ve always wanted to get my masters and finally made the move to apply. I got accepted into the Master of Arts in Professional Writing. This wasn’t an easy choice having not been to school in too many years to count. Add into that, I became a hermit in my writing life. Now, not only did I need to face socializing, I mixed in an education. I specifically looked for classes outside my comfort zone to increase my knowledge base. Creative Non-Fiction didn’t sound too difficult for a back to college class. It did challenge me in my writing skill at first, because this class focused on memoirs, biographies, travel writing, food writing, etc.
My first thought was that I did not have anything to write about. However, in one of my other classes (an introductory to genres class), I had to write a poem. My poem was based on my birth as a twin. This got me thinking of how to incorporate my life as a twin into a writing project. So, it began. Through this class, I’ve completed many essays in my book titled A Twin Like Me. I’d like to share some of it with you and see what you think. Here is the introduction and one essay entry:

INTRODUCTION

From the moment I took my first breath, I earned the designation of “twin.” This label is one I can never remove; a label I am proud to have and will have beyond my time on earth. I consider myself lucky in having a close, positive relationship with my twin. This relationship is special to me. Not every twin is happy with their label. I am and I wrote this book to celebrate being a twin like me.

Twin Enlightenment – Age 15

Jerrie and I exited the car dressed exactly alike from our matching shirts to matching shoes.
Our excitement barely contained between us and marked only by small gasps.
Today, the Twin Cities Twin Club gathered at the convention center.
Invitation to twins only…
Encouraged to dress alike…
Our first meeting with another set of twins whose outfits didn’t match made us pause.
Why?
They despised being twins. Only here because their parents made them come.
Why? We’re confused.
“I want to be me, not her. Not her twin. Just me,” one says.
“Yeah,” the other agrees.
“But…but you can’t,” I sputter.
“We can and will,” they say in unison.
We walk away and I lean slightly to the side and bump my arm against Jerrie’s arm.
Comforting in the contact.
She nods.
“How sad,” I whisper.
“I don’t understand,” Jerrie whispers.
“I don’t think we ever will.”
“Good.”

As I mentioned last month, I'm sharing a few essays I've written for a non-fiction project. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing each one.

Lip Sync

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