Two of a Kind

Jake and his mother's engagement

"Come on," muttered Jake, waiting eagerly for his sister to answer the call. Without success. Did something happen in Chicago? So far, Ella has always answered the phone.

"Hey Jake, if you ever plan on listening to your mailbox, this is Ella. Red alert. Mom realizes I'm not you. We have to switch roles immediately!" Jake said to the mailbox.

"Ella, honey," Erin knocked gently on the door, "David and I are going out to eat. You can order a pizza."

"Mom you can't leave me alone! It's already so late!" Jake said. Even if he had no problem eating pizza, he overheard David and urgently needs to prevent an engagement. But he also understood that Erin might still be angry with what happened before.

"I'm no longer arguing with you, Ella," Erin said, leaving the room. She was definitely still mad at him. It wasn't his fault that the bathroom was under water. Jake sighed and plopped down on his bed. Why could he only wreak havoc?

His dad would punish him by cleaning up his mess. After that he would get room arrest, but after a time his dad would sit down and talk to him. Talk about what was going on. He would also emphasize that he can never be angry, even if he sometimes grabs the tone.

When he thinks about it that much, he becomes more aware of how much he has missed his father in recent weeks.

However, he cannot let his sister live under these circumstances! David is a crappy, arrogant child-hater. The engagement must be prevented. Jake immediately packed all the stuff (keys, money) in his backpack and crept down the stairs. Nobody there. He searched for clues to find out which restaurant they were going to, but found nothing.

But he knew exactly which Erin's favorite restaurant was. Jake sprinted down the street to the nearest subway station. He had no idea which line to take. He asked various passers-by, but most of them were tourists. Only after a long time did he find someone who knew the street and recommended a line to him.

Arrived at the street, Jake was horrified to find that the street was longer than expected. House number 2437? He has to go to number 31!

He stared down the long crowded street. He can hardly express his hatred of New York in words. He wants to go home - Chicago. But first he has to prevent the engagement for the benefit of his sister. So Jake ran. He made sure that he was running in the right direction again, but when he did, there was no stopping. If the sports teacher saw his sprint, he would get a A. He certainly never ran that fast.

"Ouch!", Jake banged hard on the floor. He wasn't paying attention. Instead, he ran to an intersection. The taxi driver overlooked him. Although he was not seriously injured, his ankle hurt a lot.

"Are you alright? The ambulance is on the way!" explained the taxi driver. Jake sighed, he must prevent an engagement! On the other hand, he would call Erin now, if she found out her child was in the hospital, she would immediately leave everything behind - even David.

The paramedic finally called his mother on the way to the hospital and explained that she was on the way.

Jake was in the treatment room. His laceration had to be sewn with a few stitches, his ankle x-rayed and now he is waiting for the examination results. But above all, he is waiting for his mother.

"Oh Mrs. Lindsay, right?", introduced the doctor. She was just hearing Erin inquire at the reception about her child, "Please come with me."

Erin, who was accompanied by a bad-tempered David, followed the doctor to the treatment room. However, she stopped at the door.

"Could it be that your son would rather be a girl? Please don't get me wrong, I had already had a few transgender children in the emergency room claiming to be a girl, even though they are clearly boys."

"I beg your pardon?" Erin's jaw dropped, speechless, horrified, shaken, she looked at the doctor. Ella is not a boy!

"Your son, how long has he wanted to be a girl?" asked the doctor.

It was David who now interfered, "Did they even call the right parents? Didn't you make a mistake in the number?"

"Mariella Lindsay is not your daughter or son?", The doctor just had the feeling that she had spoken a secret out, "Well, in any case, no surgery is required. The ankle should be spared in the next two weeks. Your child should definitely stay here for 24 hours for observation - just a precaution. After all, he or she has a concussion."

"Have you ever intended to let me know that this brat exists twice?" David hissed angrily.

"Ella is not a brat!" Erin snapped, "I would never have thought it possible that I would ever get to know Jakob!"

But then David made a derogatory hand gesture, turned and left the emergency room.

Erin sighed and plopped down on the bench in the hallway. She buried her face in her hands. There was little doubt - her son had been living with her for the past few weeks, only since when? If Jakob lives with her, does that mean that her little girl lives with her father in Chicago?

With her sleeve she wiped away her tears, took a deep breath and entered the treatment room. Her child was lying on the couch and had obviously been crying. She slowly stepped closer, but before she could say anything, the boy stretched out his arms for her, "Mom," he whispered, "I'm so sorry!"

"Our argument... I didn't mean it Jakob," she said, "Ella is completely the opposite of you."

"I know. I tried to be Ella, but I hate putting on girls' dresses, doing homework and studying."

"How do you even know each other?"

"Well from the holiday camp! We switched there!"

"The holiday camp has been over for 6 weeks! Just say I had the wrong child for 6 weeks and didn't notice anything?"

"You should rethink your career choice," Jake grinned.

"Does Jay know about this?"

"I don't think so!"

"You are two little cheeky monkeys!"

"Why did you separate us? We had the right to know that we exist twice!" Jake suddenly changed the subject.

"Believe me, if we could reverse it, we would do it right away! All the years I've been imagining what you could look like, what a character you would have."

"You always had the chance to tell us the truth. You never did."

"Back then, so much happened between your dad and me that we thought it would be best if we never saw each other again and each of us took a child."

"Luckily we were twins, otherwise you would probably have cut the child in half."

"Jakob! Don't say that! We were overwhelmed with the whole situation! At that time it seemed to us the best thing to separate you two. It was the biggest mistake in my life!"

"How's Ella in Chicago?" she quickly changed the subject.

"I think she likes it a lot. Jay is definitely excited about the new Jakob - the good grades, a clean apartment, good vegetarian food."

Erin laughed, and the thought that her former partner was literally fattened up by her daughter with veggie food and had no idea that he had the other child with him was even funny.

At first she was also shocked, could hardly believe it, but it made sense. All the behavior of the past few weeks - if she was honest, she knew that something was wrong with Ella, but that her son was living with her, she wouldn't have thought.

"So you two had been in contact all the time? That's why you laughed so often when you stared at your phone."

"No more! I haven't reached Ella for hours! Something must have happened in Chicago! Ella is always answering and at this late hour Jay would even have to go to the landline phone, but no one answers!" Jake expressed his concerns.