Evil Twins by John Glatt

Author:John Glatt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 2011-05-24T00:00:00+00:00

The Eastgate Center for Special Education was situated in a crusty gothic-style Victorian church, eight miles away from their home. During an early visit to the center the two sisters sat side-by-side on a couch sipping tea in perfect unison. Like exact mirror images they would cross and uncross their legs as they slowly brought the tea cups to their mouths like two synchronized swimmers.

During the first week they spoke to no one, appearing to be moving together in slow motion. At lunchtime they would stare at their food, refusing to eat it. Then they would slowly march out of the dining room, one behind the other.

One curious Eastgate teacher secretly left a tape recorder in a room with the twins, to discover if they spoke when alone. Later when it was played back, the teacher was stunned to hear a girlish giggle followed by June’s clear voice.

“What can we say?” asked June.

“God knows, God knows,” replied Jennifer.

Over the next year the Gibbons twins managed to divide and conquer their teachers. Half the staff wanted to separate them to discover if being apart from her Svengali-like sister would benefit June. The others passionately believed that this would be detrimental to both. It led to heated arguments at case meetings.

Eventually it was decided to split them up. When the girls found out, they were furious, embarking on a sinister campaign to stay together. They began plaguing Eastgate staff members at home with anonymous telephone calls in strange, twangy American accents.

“Good evening. This is the twins,” began one of the calls. “We’d like you to know that if you don’t separate us, we’ll start talking next week!”

When a doctor officially told the girls they were to be parted, Jennifer went berserk. Like a crazed cat she lunged at June with her long nails and scratched her face deeply. Then June leaped forward, grabbed her sister’s head and tried to pull her plaits out. It took all the doctor’s strength to pry them apart.

Separated for the first time in their lives, the twins’ behavior degenerated even further. Pining for her sister, June went on a hunger strike. She became almost catatonic except when she was allowed to telephone Jennifer at lunchtimes. During the daily calls June came alive as she feverishly chattered to her sister in girlish giggles. But as soon as she put the phone down she returned to her former zombie state.

Astonished staff who witnessed the conversations became convinced that Jennifer deliberately kept her sister on a psychic leash, refusing ever to let her go.

“There was something almost mystic about their relationship, like black magic,” said one expert who treated them. “I felt June could have been a normal, popular young girl if she had been released from her sister.”

After a few months the twins won their battle as their frustrated doctors were forced to admit defeat and reunited them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.