✅ Younger Twin [NaNoWriMo2023]

23 - Tristan's Brother

I sat up and stretched. I knew there was something different, I just couldn't quite tell what it was. I'd been talking to Doctor Max, and then I'd nodded off. There was something about that... something was important. I didn't know what it was though, and I didn't really care. I stretched again, to see if I would get extra awake.

"You okay, Triana?" Dr Max asked, and I scowled at him immediately. I didn't answer, there was no need. But he'd gotten my name wrong, and I wasn't sure how I was supposed to react to that. "No, Tristan, right?"

"Yeah," I barked, and went back to silence again.

"You know Nik isn't here, right?" he asked. I nodded. Of course Nik was away, he got to stay with his cousin. It so wasn't fair. But then I tried thinking about what Dr Max was trying to say, and it was too hard to figure it out. "You want to experiment with the role? Maybe you want to explore it a little before you face your baby twin brother. Is that right?"

I thought about it, but that seemed kind of natural. Much more straightforward than anything else I could think of to think about. I nodded, but I could tell that I must have seemed confused.

"How about you try to be a bit more grown-up for a while, until Nik gets home?" he asked. I thought about it, but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. Doctor Max got his phone out, and I thought he was sending a message to somebody. Right away I wanted to see; I wanted to know what was happening. I stood up, struggling just a little bit as my feet wobbled. I must have slept really good, because I wasn't fully awake yet. Everything seemed to be a little bit weird, a little bit dizzy.

"Can you walk okay, Tristan?" Doctor Max asked. Then I looked down at my feet. I was managing this, putting one foot in front of the other. I didn't know why I was more wobbly than normal, but it wasn't anything important.

"Yeah!" I answered, and showed just how big I could be by running around a circle in the middle of the room. I couldn't wait for Nik to get back so I could show him too. Doctor Max picked up some of the toys from the corner of the room, and asked me if I knew what they were for. That was a funny question, but I thought I had to show him that I knew how to play with stuff. That shouldn't be so hard, should it? And I found that in just a minute or two, I forgot all about Doctor Max, and all the funny things he had told me. All I cared about now was the toys in my hands, and the little stories I was telling myself. I was holding a little blobby fire truck, my favourite, so I was happy.

🚒 🚒 🚒

"Tri?" I heard Taylor's voice behind me. My big sister; I immediately knew that if she had something to say to me it must be important. Then I turned and looked up at her, and realised that she was using my name. Tri. Short for Triana, not Tristan. I was supposed to be a big girl now, wasn't I?

"Yeah," I answered, and realised I was lisping just a little. I'd really gone deeply into the stories that Doctor Maxwell had been telling me; so far that I'd forgotten how it felt to be myself. I paused, thinking about my own voice in my mind, and then tried again. "Yeah, I'm me. Sorry, I can't believe how easy it was to get carried away there. It's like it was completely real."

"That's not a problem," Maxwell said. "I think perhaps you're still nervous on some level about convincing Nik you are his twin. You wanted the opportunity to practise before meeting him, so you know you could play the role."

"Something like that," I mumbled. "How about you, Taylor? I think he said you were going to see me as a boy, right?"

This time it was Taylor's turn to blush, and she didn't say anything for a couple of seconds. But I knew that she had an answer for me.

"You were just like a little kid," she said. "It was like looking at another Nik. But I knew you were supposed to be yourself now. Simon told me that you were finding it hard to come back to being my twin again, thought it might be easier with me there."