Two Sides To Every Story

The earliest memories I have all include my sister Allison. We have been best friends since the day we were born. Oh yeah. I probably should have mentioned that we are twins. We both have dark red hair and hazel blue eyes. We're almost completely identical except my eyes are a little bigger than hers and she has more freckles than me. But until you really know us you can’t tell. We have always been very close. We did everything together. 

Ally and I lived with our mom in Portland, Tennessee. Our mom was a senior in high school when she got pregnant with us. My dad was a senior too. He was the star of the football team and had his pick of girls. But he chose my mom. And if I’m being honest I can’t blame him. My mom has the same hair as me and Ally but her eyes are a bright sapphire blue. I always assumed we got our hazel eyes from him but I don't really know. You see, my dad left us before Ally and I were even born. He was too young to be a father. But my mom. She was incredible. She had really good grades and was able to get a scholarship to business school. My grandparents took care of us while she was at class and eventually she opened her first boutique. Even with the scholarship my mom didn't have a lot of money and was often very stressed out. To help,  my grandma taught her how to sew so she could make us clothes. It really helped to distract her. She got so good at it that after college she ended up opening a boutique with her best friend Molly. It’s not a large shop but it provided us enough money for everything we needed. With some help from my grandparents. 

Allison and I had the same group of friends and always hung out together. Even though we were a small group we always had a good time. It was me, Ally and our friends Mia and Olive. Every summer we would all spend time swimming in the lake, going to the movies, and all kinds of other stuff. We were always in the same class in elementary school and ate lunch together everyday in middle school. We did homework every evening at each other's houses and even had family dinners once a week.  In my mind our life was perfect. That is until the summer before senior year. 

It started the same as any other summer. My friends had planned to go to the movies to hang out all day to celebrate the first day of summer and Ally and I were gonna spend all night planning what we were gonna do. I was sitting in my room waiting for her for about 30 minutes before I decided to go look for her. I found her in her room reading a piece of paper. When I knocked on the wall she looked up and quickly hid the paper under the pillow. I ignored it and just asked her if she was coming. 

“Actually Eliza, I’m tired. Can we do this tomorrow?” she asked. 

I could tell she was upset but I decided to just go with it. “Sure we can do that, goodnight”.

This was the first day I noticed a change in Ally. When I woke up the next day I came down stairs so we could plan but she wasn't there. I asked mom where she was but she said she hadn’t come down yet. Now I was really confused. We went to bed early and she knew we were supposed to leave in 20 minutes. I ran upstairs to talk to her and saw her sitting at her desk doodling in a notebook.

“Hey are you ready?”,  I asked. 

“Actually I don't really feel like it. I think i'll sit this one out”.

And now I was concerned. “Are you feeling ok?,  you were so looking forward to this and we told Mia and…”

“Look Elizabeth, I just don’t wanna go!” she snapped.

The look she gave me scared the life out of me. But honestly I was really mad at her. How could she ditch us like that?

“Fine!”, I snapped back and left. 

This lasted all summer. Ally always had an excuse to not hang out. And it wasn't just me. She stopped doing things with my mom. She even made excuses to not to go to my grandparents or family dinners. By July I was done with her. I decided it was better to just let her be moody. Whatever the reason was. Mia and Olive decided to do the same. My mom didn't give up so easily. She kept forcing me to ask her to come with me places. I fought a little but decided it was better just to get a no and move on. And this was our routine till August. Our town was having an end of summer carnival and my mom was insistent on everyone going. 

“Mom I’m telling you she won’t go.” I said, while helping her hang up clothes. “She’s barely left her room all summer.”

“I don’t care. She needs to get out.” She picked up the empty basket and headed inside. I grabbed the bag of clothes pins and followed her. 

“Ally! Come down here please”. I heard her yell. Immediately I wished I had waited another minute to follow her. I might have been able to stay outside and miss the fireworks. Ally came slowly down after a few minutes. She glared at me when she passed and walked to mom. “Honey, the end of summer carnival is tomorrow. Are you excited?”

“Not really.” Ally responded then turned to go upstairs. My mom looked at me and I gave her a shrug with a “Told you so” look. Her face changed immediately from gentle to frustrated.

 “Ally!” she said firmly, stopping Ally in her tracks. “You are going to this carnival. I don’t know what is going on with you but I have had enough of this moping. In fact today you and your sister are gonna go out and spend time together. We both immediately complained but she gave us a look that meant we had to go. So we got our shoes and walked outside without another word.

“So uh...what do you wanna do?” I asked. She shrugged and refused to look at me. I sighed and just started walking towards the woods. She followed slowly behind me. We walked for about ten minutes in silence before I finally snapped. 

“Ok that’s it!” I screamed, definitely scaring Ally. “Why have you been hiding away from everyone? What gives? What is your problem?” 

“That’s none of your business!” Ally snapped back.

“Ally come on.”  I said, “we use to hang out all the time.”

“Yeah well maybe I don't wanna spend every second of my life with you anymore! And maybe I don’t wanna tell you everything anymore!”

“Fine!” I screamed.

“Fine!” she screamed back. 

Just as I was about to turn away a blinding light shown from further in the forest. Ally and I both covered our eyes. I peaked out behind my hand to see the light had dimmed enough that I could see. I turned to look at Ally just to see that she had started walking towards it. 

“Ally wait!” I called out running after her. By the time I caught up to her she had already found the source. Two doors were just sitting in the middle of the woods. They were both a deep red with gold handles and hinges. We walked up to them. The bright light surrounding them dimmed as we got closer till eventually disappearing through the keyhole. I peered through the hole but couldn’t see anything. I walked behind the door. The backs were the same as the front. I came back around to see Ally reaching for the handle on the door on the right. 

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“What?” 

“You don’t think a door in the middle of the woods is strange. And that maybe you shouldn’t open it?” I said sarcastically.

“Oh come on how bad could it be?” She asked, still reaching for the door. She grabbed the handle and turned it...but nothing happened. The door was locked. 

“Hmm…” she said then walked towards the door on the left. I went to follow her but something stopped me. I looked at the right door and, for some reason, reached for the handle. Suddenly, the door began to shake and I heard a strange noise. I looked over to see Ally had grabbed the other door knob and was looking at the top of her door. I looked at the top of mine and saw that letters were being engraved into the wood. It read Two sides to every coin. Two kinds of people. Two sides of every story. You know yours. It’s time to see hers. Ally and I turned our heads to look at each other, then back at the doors. Then, without really thinking, we opened them and stepped inside. 

At first I had no idea where I was. It was dark and when I felt around all I felt were cobwebs and wood. I was really scared. I leaned against the wood to try to calm down when suddenly I felt something cool on my back. I turned around, found the item with my hand, and realized it was a door handle. Just as I was about to turn it I heard someone walking around. I paused for a moment then slowly turned it and peaked out. Looking around I was able to see that I was in a wardrobe that has been sitting in my attic for as long as I could remember. I walked out slowly to see Ally looking for something. 

“Ally!” I called out. “What happened, how did we get here?” But she didn't respond. I went up and waved my hands in front of her but she just walked past me and kept looking around. Suddenly she headed toward the wardrobe I was in. I followed her to see her pull a green hat box from it. I watched as she opened the box and started looking through it. I peered over to see it was full of papers. My mom was not very organized in college so a lot of important paperwork was just sitting in old boxes. Ally suddenly stopped digging and pulled out an envelope with mom's name on it. I was a little confused at first till I looked closer to see my dad's name on it too. I watched as Ally thought about putting the letter down then shove it in her pocket and hurried down the ladder. I went to follow her when suddenly I realized I was already in her room. I was facing her vanity when I saw her in the mirror. I turned around to see her sitting on the bed reading a piece of paper. Suddenly I walked in the room. Well another version of me. 

“Actually Eliza, I’m tired. Can we do this tomorrow?”Ally said.

That was when I realized what was going on. I didn't know why but somehow I was back to the last day of school. The day Ally stopped wanting to hang out with me. With anyone. I looked back at where Ally was sitting to see she was gone. The room was dark except for a small bulb that should have been in the attic. That old wardrobe was in the corner where her dresser usually was. It was like the rooms had combined. I walked over to the bed to see the envelope laying there. I sat down and opened it. It contained a letter to my mom from my dad. It explained that my dad was leaving because He did not feel he could handle two children. He told my mom how he loved her but wasn't ready to have two kids. It stated that he had been selected for a professional football team and that he would send my mother money to take care of us. As shocking as this was, it was the last line that really stuck out to me. 

“Please tell the girls that I loved them and that I am sorry. Maybe if it was just one it would be different. Goodbye. Love, Ethan.”

I was in shock. My mom had told us that our father ran off and never told her where he went after he left. And all the money that was supposedly coming from my grandparents was actually from him. But the last line infuriated me. He couldn’t handle two kids. Most people are so excited when they have twins. It’s probably very stressful but it’s still a miracle. How could he do that? And why would he never make contact? Ally and I were almost 18 and he never wanted to meet us?

“Eliza.” 

I was still in shock when I heard Ally say my name. I looked around and realized that I was back in the woods. I turned around to see that the doors were gone. 

“Ally, what was that what just…” I paused when I noticed her staring at my hand. I looked down to see I was still clutching the letter. 

“Well” I thought, “at least we know it actually happened.”

“Ally, I realized that this letter was shocking but...you didn’t talk to anyone for months. How could you…”

“Didn’t you read it?” she asked, “Dad left because of me.” 

I looked at her confused for a moment before I realized what she meant. Ally and I are twins but I was born first. I looked at the last line of the letter again,

 “Maybe if it was just one it would be different.”

After that I finally understood what happened. To Ally this letter was saying that if it was just me. If she had never been born I would have a dad. Mom would have a husband. I looked at my sister and saw tears start to form in her eyes. I ran to her and wrapped her in my arms. 

“Ally this is not your fault.” I said while hugging her. 

“Yes it is. He wanted you. He wanted mom.” She let go of me, “why didn’t he want me?”

I looked at my sister and felt tears in my own eyes. 

“You know what? Who cares. You are an amazing person and he is missing out.”

She looked up at me, making eye contact with me for the first time in months. 

“Ally,  forget about him. I would rather have you than a dad who would run away from someone they loved.”

She smiled and hugged me. “I’m sorry Eliza. I’m so sorry.”

I smiled and told her it was alright. I broke our hug and said sternly,

“But never do it again.”

We both laughed and took one more look at where the doors were. We looked at each other and walked back to the house. 

“Hey what happened when you went through the door?” I asked. 

Ally’s face dropped, “Umm…” she stuttered. 

“It’s ok. Tell me when you're ready.”

“Thanks” she said.

I smiled “Come on. We have a carnival to go to.”

We walked back to the woods talking and laughing. It was like the last three months had never happened. But I couldn’t stop wondering what Ally saw through that door. I may never know but if it was anything like what I went through, finding out will change both our lives. I just hope if she does decide to tell me, they change for the better.