Life Coach

"Close your eyes, you need to learn to trust." I chuckled as I led my twin by the hand to the balcony.

"What are you, my life coach?" She chuckled back.

"Something like that. I need all your senses to be at alert. Especially the sixth one." I continued guiding her slowly as she walked delicately forward.

"Feel the surrounding and tell the story , see it behind your eyes....oh um....i need to blindfold you. Sorry. It's just that your eyelid is shaking a lot, so if this is going to work, then I need to blind fold you." I slipped off dad's tie that was around my neck and tied it over her eyes firmly but lightly.

"This is getting weird. What do you hope to achieve by this?" She asked me

"I'm not entirely sure, but we'll see. If it works out fine, well I take the credit, if it doesn't then we blame circumstances." I said as I applied a bit of pressure on her back to keep her going. Now we were facing the rising sun. It was in fact scorching.

"Wait." She halted in her steps "so in this scenario where things don't work out, do I get hurt in them? Say break a leg?"

"See, life is all about risk. If you break a leg, it can be fixed, but then again, you have me here guiding you. Do you think I'd let you break your leg?" I asked her.

"Well...'

"Keep going." I cut her off, stirring her towards the stairs that led downwards into the garage "If you cannot move past your current fear and doubt, you tend to loose sight of what's important." I said to her.

"So what is important that I missed?" She asked, although I didn't miss the sarcasm. In few minutes time, she'd be ready to bite my head off.

"Well, I did say use your senses." I shrugged even though she can't see me

"Well. You said to use my sixth sense. I figured that's my brain. I'm using it." She huffed.

"Get ready to climb down the stairs" I told her, ignoring her comment.

"We are going down the stairs?!" She yelled

"I'd think that's the easiest part, you can feel the stairs and climb down on your own without guidance. In fact, I want you to do it." I said and released her. "I'll be at the end of the stairs waiting for you. So if you tumble, I'll shield you as best as I can."

I listened for her sigh of frustration, and it was gigantic

"I still don't see the point of what you are doing. You said it yourself that you are not sure, so why am I even doing this?" She asked me

"I don't know. Why are you doing this? Maybe it's time for some self reflection. Don't you think?"

I watched her climb the last flight of stairs with furrowed brows.

"This isn't funny anymore Kenya. I feel like such an idiot now."

"Great. Now I just need to start guiding you towards our destination. " I reached for her and guided her again.

"Your muscles are tensed up, relax." I told her.

She jerked free of my hold and yanked off the blindfold.

"This is a classic waste of time, and I can't believe I humored you. So tell me, what does this prove?"

"You tell me. You want to hear the result of your assessment?" I asked with amusement, which seemed to infuriate her the more.

"This is what I was saying. You didn't have to rub it in you know."

"Now you are taking the highway of self-pity. What is ridiculous is what you are doing to yourself. " I argued, as I casually walked away from her, slowly leading us through the garage to the front porch where I'd set a table for us to eat.

"Wait. You really had something planned out didn't you? " She asked as she took in the sight in front of her.

"Well, join me." I said as I pulled out a seat for myself.

"Now I want to hear it. What was it all about." She sat in front of me and gave me a defiant look.

"From the start, you were going to fail." I began " Although you followed through with my plan because you also wanted answers."

"Wow. Such a nice thing to say to your twin." She muttered

"You used your brain, instead of your senses all together. Plus I meant your instincts as the sixth sense, not really your brain. I would have assumed you'd notice the scorching sun, or when a shadow is cast over you. Distant sound of moving vehicles. Hawkers selling their wares, but you were focused on your one disability at the time. You couldn't see. Guess what? Even if you can see, you wouldn't have noticed either." I said as I shoved a forkful of spaghetti into my mouth

"I call all that nonsense. I still don't see where you are going." Heather argued

"You say you are the least preferred twin at school and at home, and I think you've just been reading cliche books. We are no stereotype twins. We are each a victim of how we designed our lives." I said and Drew the jug of juice closer to myself

"How can you say that?Do you have any idea what it feels like to be constantly measured against you?" She challenged me

"No,I don't. Now you've proven me right. You are looking at the things I can do better than you, and that's your disability, and you blame it for the situation but in reality you are not putting the effort."

"Great blame me." She rolled her eyes "everyone else does, why would you be different?" She hadn't even touched her food.

"I threw possible life scenerios at you, and you failed. You don't trust me when I was guiding you, yet you weren't going to help yourself. When I made you climb down the stairs on your own, you did it grudgingly and ten felt ridiculous after wards. That's the difference between me and you, not that I'm preferred, but that I'm not afraid to look ridiculous. And sometimes you have to go it alone, looking ridiculous without a cheerleader or so much as a little support system, but maybe if you fell, you'd realized someone is there in the background, silently cheering you on."

"That was what you did with the stairs. See? My brain doesn't work as fast as yours. You came up with that within how many minutes of our earlier argument?"

"And just when you could have gotten there, you quit. Yes Heather, that is one of your major problems. You quit.". I stood up from the table and let her follow me.

"Find your own strength and own it, but please stop saying things like I'm the preferred twin, because if I was going to speak in self-pity like you, then I would say that nobody really knows me. All they see is my achievements and all the awards I'd won. When they talk about me, it's usually my academic life and not me as a person, but when they talk about you. It's usually your adventures and friends and you are my only friend. How does that make me feel?" I challenged her.

"Come with me Kenya." Heather sighed

She took the blind fold and placed it over my eyes and tested me just like I did with her earlier.

"Really?" I chuckled to myself.

Once we got to the garage where I could feel the table, she removed the blindfold.

"See, I did everything right. I felt the breeze, I heard a door slam. You were there." I grinned at her.

"Kenya, but you never spoke to me the whole time I was by your side. Even when I spoke to you, you were simply focused on your goal." Heather responded

"Yeah well, you could have slowed me down." I responded

"Yes I could have, or we could have made memories that would last longer than that silly test. We could have laughed or fought or I could have learnt a thing or two from you, but I guess we'll never know now."

We both sat down there staring at each other.

Checkmate.

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