Jennifer And Jane

Jane was still lying helplessly on the rough bed when I returned back to the room. Her uncombed hairs scattered on the pillow which she placed her head on and was snoring heavily. I sighed heavily with a short hiss, dropped the jug of hot water I was carrying with both hands and trekked two steps closer to the bed, dragged the bed-sheet with force and made sure that she fell to the cold ground. A thud sound echoed in the room. She woke up immediately, rose up from the floor and tried to attack me with her hands.

"If…if..if you touch me Jane, if you touch me” I yelled slowly, leaning back to the door.

"What is the meaning of this rubbish Jennifer?” she asked, staring angrily at me. Her angry stare always scares me especially when she comes for a fight.

"What is rubbish? How many times do I have to wake you up this morning? Are you not going to work today or do you always like going late to work every day?” I asked boldly but she kept staring at me.

"Stop that please, is it your work?” she giggled softly and I smiled.

"I’m tired of even going to work, what else do I want to learn at that fashion shop, I should be talking about building my own shop and look for some girls that will be my apprentices. I’m an expert now” she added a short hiss.

"Look at your mouth” I laughed and headed to the tall wooden cupboard besides the bed, Jane was sitting on the bed, trying to take off her night gown.

"Do you think that I’m joking? I am the best tailor in Solid fashion and designing center” she bragged, pulling the pink gown off her body.

"When did you become the best there? I never heard that before” I chuckled after opening the middle closet of the cupboard.

"After sowing uniforms for all pupils in one class, do you know how many children in that class? Twenty-one, I sowed it all” she continued.

"That was last week Jane”

"And so what? Is that not part of my life anymore?”

"So..so..you already think that you have learnt everything about fashion and designing?”

“Yes…I’m even dreaming to sow Ankara design for celebrities like my favorite Nancy Isime or Mercy Johnson”

“Dreaming… you said?”

“It will come to pass”

“It will…you said?”

"Okay..you know what Jennifer? Let’s just close that topic” she frowned while I was busy pouring some milk and chocolate into our pink cup which I stood on a plastic chair beside the cupboard.

"Are you going to work this morning?” Jane asked me while pouring some hot water into her own cup of tea.

"Yes 9am” I replied, handing some sliced bread to her.

"You are always on morning shift” Jane said as were stashing the bread into our mouth and was sipping the hot tea slowly.

"You know we only have few nurses in that hospital, no recruitments, no nothing. Just one doctor and six nurses” I mumbled, chewing the moisturized bread in my mouth.

"It doesn’t count, what about us? We are fourteen tailors in one shop but I’m still the best despite that I started as an apprentice three months ago” Jane said

"You are still an apprentice there and by the way, that has nothing to do with me or our hospital with only six nurses” I corrected and caused her stare on mine. She stopped chewing and began to stare.

"Why are you staring at me like that?” I asked but she continued staring without blinking.

"You are staring too much Jane, how do I make you stop?”

"By not talking. Jennifer you are underestimating me too much” she replied and I chuckled.

"I’m going to the bathroom” I said, stood up from the bed with my cup on my hand and headed towards the door.

"You better be fast…I’m bathing too” Jane said to me.

Jane and I are identical twins born in 2000. Our mother died in the maternity after giving birth to us. She could not endure the pain, we were her first pregnancy. Dad had no choice than to forget the pains and agony of losing a lovely wife and take us in. It was really tough and hard for him to train girls. Jane and I grew together, dad taught us many things about life as we were growing. Jane and I looked much alike to the extent that dad hardly differentiates us. Sometimes, Jane causes trouble and dad beats me, Jane fights in school and the teacher punishes me. I will yell and try to tell them that I am not Jane but Jane will say

"I am Jennifer” all the time. She only begs me to forgive her after I’m being punished.

One day, dad learnt of Jane’s trick and decided to put an end to it. He took me to an old woman in some old village I don’t know the name. The old woman tattooed the letter J at the back of my neck. I never saw it before, it was Jane who told me that it was a letter J. few weeks later, I don’t know how she did it but I saw the letter J tattooed behind Jane’s neck, exactly the same position where mine was. I sighed heavily but I did not tell dad.

We were living in peace, things were going very well till one day when we were twelve years old, our father left very early one morning for his driving work, he was a cab driver. When we came from school, he was not yet back. Jane and I stayed hungry till night. There was some soup in the pot and some raw rice to be cooked but we only wanted to see dad first.