Gemini

She woke up face down in a sofa chair .Head pounding and becoming more excruciating at the site of the sun rays beaming in through the hotel’s curtains. It was one of her wilder nights because where is she? …. 

Ziwe eventually got up off the couch and looked around the unexplainably clean hotel room for a light switch. She eventually found one and slap the lights on to reveal, absolutely nothing. She walked over to a little fridge in the corner of the room, these little fridges are infamous on Tv and movies for having snacks and alcohol and she’d like both right now. The best way to cure a hangover is to keep on drinking. Unfortunately for her this isn’t TV or America to be quite frank. Ziwe opened the fridge and the disappointment reminded her where she was. Her small island the she held so dearly to her heart, born and raised, Ziwe called this place her home. Muscle memory kicks in at sight of the empty fridge and she grabs her purse that was resting on the table close to the door and tried to leave.  Ziew stormed out the room with a jolt of energy, not knowing where she’s heading, she gets out into the hotel hall and starts roaming. In Ziwe’s mind if she roams enough she’ll find her way to the hotel lobby which is usually located at the ground floor and then leave.  Twenty minutes of wondering, what felt very much like space, later she finds her way to the lobby and leaves. Her journey consists of walking around the savannah and through town. Ziwe welcomed this walk because she was starving. She skipped across the street and started her stroll toward town focusing on what she wanted to eat. She came to the resting decision of having a foot long breakfast sandwich at subway and an iced coffee chiller. Pleased with herself, Ziwesmiled and looked down noticing her shoes. Shoes that she wokeup in but didn’t really pay much attention to it until now. Clothes that she woke up in but didn’t pay attention to either. She stopped abruptly perplexed as to whose clothes she had on and why exactly do they fit so well. Black Prada combat boots and a short pink tool Oscar de la Renta dress. Her twenty two year old call centre salary could not afford any of this .Ziwe’smind immediately started racing as she stood stagnant around the savannah a few paces from town. “Did I steal these?” she thought to herself but this was immediately shut down because where would she even find this to steal . Her island didn’t make actual designer clothes very accessible so how did she get in this? And why does it fit so well? Remains the unanswered queston.

Her eyebrows drop down and Ziwe starts struggling to remember anything that happened the night before but the unsuccessful mission was disturbed by the grumbling of her stomach.  She’s takes this as a sign and decides to continue her deep thinking at Subway. The journey continues and she got to subway and placed her order confidently on honey oat bread. Standing in front at the cashier the dawning of needing money to pay for her food had arisen. Ziwe looked into the purse she instinctively picked up before leaving the hotel room in hopes of finding cash. That she did, along with five different credit cards with her name on it. This may seem like a regular find for your average run of the mill adult, this Ziwe was not. Her break into adulthood had just begun and navigating the responsibilities of saving is something she’s just learning to get a hang of. A bank card is all she had. How do you logically explain five new credit cards?  Ziwe paid for the food with some cash she found in her purse and sat in an empty both at the back of the restaurant. She sat with her sandwich on the table, appetite completely lost. What is going on?   Ziwe snatched her sandwich up and power walked to her taxi stand after sitting in the both staring at her food for ten minutes. Home is the only place she wanted to go. Her crappy loft with a respectable kitchen and balcony, aka a steal of a deal. She briskly got to her taxi stand and hopped in the first taxi in line. Ziwe’s stop being the last, the taxi approaches her building. She ruffles through her purse to get cash to pay the driver. The driver, being a man focused on his wellbeing, looked at Ziwe’s outfit from head to toe and told her that it costs * twice the average price * to get to her destination. 

Nothing but silence filled the taxi as both driver and Ziwe look at each other. She hands him the appropriate cash that she usually pays and not a penny more. She leaves the taxi whilst maintaining the unimpressed eye contact. He breaks first, taking his car out of neutral and driving away.  Ziwe enters her building and rushes up the stairs, while looking for cash in the taxi earlier she found her house keys along with a dead cell phone. She unlocks the door and storms inside, relieved to be home because what actually happened last night?  Ziwe dropped her trusty purse on the couch and threw her body onto her unmade bed. It was not a soft landing.  

Ziwe landed on a sleeping but now up Ziwe. Their screams at noticing each other’s presence was ear piercing but the screams when they realised their resemblance was unforgiving. “WHY AM I LOOKING AT MYSELF IN MISMATCHED BUT TASTEFULLY CHOSEN CLOTHES!” shouted the once sleeping Ziwe . Neither Ziwe could come up with an answer to the question but the unfamiliarity to what was occurring somehow calmed them both. Calm enough to rationalize and figure out what exactly is happening but not calm enough to be okay with it. Both Ziwe’s sat on the couch parallel to each other. Well-dressed Ziwe then explains to sleeping Ziwe everything that occurred from the moment she woke up on the hotel’s couch to getting home but it didn’t seem like sleeping Ziwe was very surprised by the events she heard.  A well-dressed Ziwe couldn’t help but ask, “Why does none of this seem like news to you? Do you know where these clothes came from? Did we steal it? Should we be on the run from the police? “SleepingZiwe responds, “Why are you saying we?”  

“Because we have the same face! “  

Responded well dressed Ziwe. 

She took a brief pause and lifted her well sculpted eyebrows, realizing she’d never really asked the basics. 

“Who are you? “  

They both argue back and forth from this moment on who the other was as they both held the name Ziwe Ikano and they both seemed to have the same everything. The same life.  The same exisitence.

Sleeping Ziwe stood up off the chair and made a gentle announcement, “I think I may have done this.”   A few deep breathes later she continues, “Nothing you told me was a surprise. I saw it all through your eyes the entire time. I dreamt it. “Well dressed Ziwe bursts out in uncomfortable laughter as though her body had no appropriate response to the information she was given.  

“How even??? “She asks hysterically. 

Sleeping Ziwe continues, “things that I’ve dreamt have always come true but in due time. I only know in the moment that itshappening and what exactly would happen next and the emotion it would invoke. Last night I dreamt everything that happened to you. From the moment you woke up I saw what you saw. I dreamt it all. I pinned the outfit you have on, on my Pinterest board yesterday. I mean I’d never really think to pair it together but I assume my mind did.” “Everything that you’ve seen I’ve seen everything that you’ve felt, I’ve felt. When I close my eyes I see the world through yours. I don’t know how to explain this, it’s almost as if you are a figment of my imagination.”  

“Did you also imagine the six million credit cards in our purse?” Well-dressed Ziwe remarked. 

“Not really, but who isn’t rich in their mind? “ 

Both Ziwe’s looked at each other and chuckled, sharing the moment. 

A well-dressed Ziwe flung her expensive shoes off and made her way to her purse. She retrieves her sandwich, unwraps it on the coffee table and takes half, sliding the next half toward sleeping Ziwe . She accepts knowing exactly what is in the sandwich and exactly where it came from. Both Ziwe’s sat beside each other eating slowly in thought.  

Sleeping Ziwe rests down her sandwich and makes an announcement “we share the same face, the same body, I see through your eyes and feel through your soul. We are the same being with an almost shared Consciousnes- “ 

Well-dressed Ziwe cuts her off, with a mouth filled with food,“What does that even mean?” 

“It means you are here to stay. I’ve always wanted a twin sister, but we are deeper than that. I am you and you are me. You are my Gemini.” 

Both ladies share a gentle glance and touch each other for the first time in a warm embrace.