A Perfect Life

This was supposed to the happiest day of their lives, up to that point, at least. The entire family had been there for their wedding. The vows were exchanged, the people clapped and cheered, the cake was cut, the dances were danced, the music and champagne flowed, the guests laughed, and the couple ran through a shower of rice.

The car was decorated by the best man, the groomsmen, and the bride’s cousin. They pulled out of the church parking lot and drove away from the city they had grown up in.

It had all started way back in third grade; they were seated next to one another. He noticed her first. Then she saw him and smiled. He was smitten. From that day on they were best friends. You hardly saw him without seeing her. Day by day, month by month, year after year, they were together.

They had no secrets from one another. But little did they know others had secrets that they were keeping from them. It would be years before they would learn the truth. And when they did it had the potential to rip their relationship wide open. But they were strong, their love for one another could conquer all.

After some time, their parents became best friends too. They spent vacations together, ate together often, attended the same church, everything best friends were expected to do. At Christmas they were all together, it was all one happy family. Deliriously so in fact.

Their first dance together was in seventh grade. He didn’t ask her, she didn’t ask him, they just went together and danced with no one else but one another. Everyone knew the two of them were an item and no one was going to come between them. Their classmates were in awe of their relationship. The boys wanted to be with her, and the girls wanted to be with him, but they knew there was no chance that was going to happen. Their love was stronger than anything anyone had ever seen.

They shared all of the firsts a young couple were supposed to. The first date, the first kiss, the first sexual experience. They knew right from the beginning that they’d be together forever. They had been born in the same hospital just hours apart and would probably die at home in bed, holding one another tight.

He was class president, she was valedictorian. They both made high marks in their classes and they went to the same college, he majored in pre-med, she majored in education. With their parents blessing they shared an apartment. It was ordained, it seemed, that they would be forever together. Right from the beginning they knew it.

They graduated together, both with honors. Then the marriage came. That happiest of days. They honeymooned in Paris, spent hours in the Louvre, traveled the Seine on a dinner cruise, ate sumptuously and drank the finest wines, visited Notre Dame, rode the elevators to the top of the Eiffel Tower at night, and made love under silk sheets at the Hotel Plaza Athéneé.

When they returned to the States, they moved into an apartment in Baltimore, Maryland where he entered the school of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. She became an administrator with the Baltimore City Public Schools Academics Office.

Life was perfect, just as it had always been. The time they saw one another was cut back due to his studies and the long hours he had to put in. But they made the most of the time they had together. When they were together their focus was solely on one another. Their love was strong and grew stronger every day.

He graduated and was awarded his doctorate and went into residency at Johns Hopkins. Most students had to move around the country to fulfill their residency requirements, but he had made such an impression on the faculty that he was invited to stay.

They discussed, as they always had on major decisions, what his specialty should be and decided he would become a clinical scientist in genetics. It was this decision that led them to where they had to make a choice. One that could fracture their entire lives. But that was still in the future.

They began to talk about starting a family. Both of them wanted to have children. They had discussed it before and had agreed that two children would complete their family. A boy and a girl. What could be more perfect for this perfect couple? They had no doubt that their children would be exceptional, just as they were. The future would be bright, they were sure of it.

And then a horrible thing happened; both sets of their parents were killed in an accident while on the way to see their children. They were less than an hour outside of Baltimore when a truck overturned on the interstate and… well, the details aren’t important. Suffice it to say that all four were all dead by the time the police contacted the kids. For the first time in their lives they felt the sting and disappointment of loss. But even in tragedy their love was strong and kept them centered.

They both took time off for the funeral and to settle their parents estates. They were going through their parent’s things, reading papers, and sorting items. It was also at this time that she learned she was pregnant. The news was bittersweet. They had dreamed of their children growing up with loving grandparents. That would never happen now.

She was at her parent’s house and he was at his. And they found the papers at the same time. Adoption papers. For both of them. And the shocking news, that they were twins, separated at birth. And no one had ever known. And now they were married, a child on the way, after spending their lives together, being in love. It was all too perfect it seemed.

And now they knew why. But. By then it was too late.