The Pull

"You don't mind if I use it tonight?" Jake whipped the car keys around his index finger.

"Nah, you go ahead. Jenny says it's not a good time anyway." I waved my brother off and settled back down into my book.

Jake was always on the go those days. Darts on Tuesdays, football practice Wednesdays and Gracie Cooper on Fridays. Wasn't a weekend go by that the two weren't seen together at the drive in. Didn't matter much to me though. As long as I could take a stroll along the riverside with my Jenny that was good enough for me. The rest of my time was taken up with reading books. Bradbury, Asimov, Clarke - they all took turns keeping me company in the quiet of my room.

As our relationship grew, Jenny asked to see me more frequently. "Perhaps we could take in a Saturday night movie, or go out for dinner during the week," she would say.

All the normal things couples do, but there was only one problem. Jake and I didn't go out at the same time. One of us would always stay home so that the other could 'pull' what they needed. Let me explain.

Jake, my older brother and me, Emmett, were born September of 1939. Right at the start of the second world war. It's not that special a fact really. Lots of people were born that year, and even though we are twins, its still not that unique. The real shocker is what we can do.

You see, my brother and I shared a bond. No, not just because we were close. It's because we were connected, and not conjoined if that's what you were thinking. We have two separate bodies, but we can share each others intellectual, physical and emotional beings.

Our parents, Hank and Rita Halsdon, were excited about having twins. However, they soon discovered we required special attention. While Father managed a book store in the small town of Drayton, Mother was forced into the role of a stay-at-home mom. Twins are a enough responsibility for any parent, but add to it the fact that one of us was always sick, and you can understand why she was depressed most of her life."

From the casual onlooker we were just a normal set of twins, but mother could tell something was off. If I was sick, Jake would be would be radiant, and a few minutes later Jake would come down with the same thing and I would act like there was never anything wrong.

When we learned how to walk we would take turns trying. One would lay there and stare up at the ceiling while the other struggled to stand. It was creepy. Always one at a time, we never walked at the same time until we were much older. Our personalities were fairly easy going until we reached puberty. Thats when Jake started to become dominant.

It started with the discovery of girls. Jake was keenly interested in their attentions. Me on the other hand, I was shy and content just observing from a distance. I wished that I could be brave enough to ask one out, but I never tried. Jake had taken most of that, bravery that is, and had no interest in sharing it. I lived in the background, unwilling to act, and only fantasizing about what it would be like to hold a girls hand. What would it be like to share a conversation? Heck to share eye contact that would be out of the question.

But that all changed when Jenny Sutherland took an unabated interest in me. Sweet little Jenny, beautiful long blond curls, dreamy blue eyes, and a slight dimple that formed in her cheek when she smiled. I was undone. Why she ever thought I was the one for her is beyond me, and still to this day I can't figure that out.

I decided to ask Jake for confidence from time to time. He said he was proud of me for finally taking an interest in the opposite sex, the fucking condescending prick.

Jake would only ever let me pull as long as he wasn't going out himself, so my options were limited. "It's like an American Express card," he said laughing, "I don't leave home without it."