I’d heard of twins before that didn’t look alike, like one being a boy and the other a girl, but to find out that there was a chance that there was another person like Larry in this world? That was kind of creepy to think about.
“Which of you is older?” I asked.
“I am.” He said like it was extremely important.
Then came the obvious question, “By how much?”
“Eleven minutes and twenty seven seconds.” Larry’s facial expression changed as he said, “You got any more questions Sherlock?”
“Take it easy!” I said, “It’s just that I have never had a friend that was a twin before.”
When he didn’t say anything else I said, “Well let’s roll around a while.”
“Nah man, really, I’m good right here. Honest!” his voice cracked when he said honest, but I acted like I hadn’t noticed. “My older sister is around here somewhere. She’s supposed to be staying close to make sure I don’t get hurt.” He said and for the first time that I can recall, Larry seemed… well, almost childlike.
“So have you seen her?” he asked me.
I shook my head, “I didn’t even know you had a sister.”
“Not my sister you jerk!” he said with a mixture of humor and irritation, “I meant Bertha!”
“No, not yet.” I answered while scanning the crowd for her.
“So what are their names?” I asked.
“What?” Larry shouted back as the music suddenly got louder.
I turned back around and got right into his face as I shouted, “I said, what are their names?”
“Who’s?” He asked.
I drilled my finger into my temple and said, “Your sister and brother!”
Larry got the meaning of the finger drill and thought it was somewhat funny. He smiled and said, “Sarah and Christian.”
“Sounds biblical. So how’d you end up with a name like Larry?”
Larry laughed a lot and said, “You don’t know the half of it. But I’ll tell you about it another time.”
“Okay” I said while smiling because I was glad to see Larry smiling and laughing as well. Who would have thought that he and I would be so buddy-buddy?
Now I can’t let you go on thinking that Larry’s broken leg had reformed him because it hadn’t. As I stood next to Larry, while the two of us watched the others dancing, he was also occasionally pulling a straw out of his pocket and firing spit wads into the crowd. I suppose I shouldn’t have been enjoying that, but I was because it was funny and relatively speaking, harmless.
“Have you seen Fish and BB?” I asked after a while.
Larry pointed out into the middle of the crowd of dancing students as he shouted, “They’re dancing over there.”
I followed the invisible beam from the tip of Larry’s finger through the crowd until my eyes beheld something that nearly made them fall right out of their sockets.
There, dancing together in the middle of the dance floor, was BB and Fish and when I say together I mean they were in a full embrace with each other’s head on the other’s shoulder. Actually, I could only see Fish from behind and part of BB’s face, but I was still sure it was them and I think that is the first time I truly realized that BB and Fish weren’t exactly ‘normal guys’.
I looked back to Larry and I guess he could see the big question mark hanging over my head because he said, “What?” as if he didn’t have a clue why I might be looking so utterly bewildered.
Dumbly, I pointed toward the crowd, “Are they… I mean they’re not really? I mean… holy shit, they really are, aren’t they?”
I practically murdered Larry with my reaction to that revelation. He was laughing so hard he practically fell out of his wheelchair.
“Oh Alvin you should see your face right now!” He howled and I could see that his laughter was also causing him pain.
And then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around so see a radiant black haired girl… no… I mean a young woman. She had dark eyes that were staring at me through black plastic framed eyeglasses.
“What the?” I gasped.