“I Wish I Didn’t Know Now
What I Didn’t Know Then
I Wish I Could Start
This Whole Thing Over Again”
“I Wish I Didn’t Know Now” By Toby Keith
I slowly opened the box and pulled out the outfit that was on top. It was a light red dress with white flowers on it and white lace around the bottom. “This one’s Kimmy’s.” I whispered. I gently sat it on the bed and then took out the other two. One was a purple dress with pink roses on it and one was pink with purple roses on it.
“Do you know which one’s which?” She asked.
“The truth, I have no idea.” I replied.
“Damn they’ve kept a lot from you.” She said.
“Yea they have and they’re gonna hear about it too. My wonderful boyfriend wasn’t as wonderful as I thought he was.” I said. “Some best friend he’s been.”
“Sure seems that way but how would Brian even know or remember?” She asked.
“I’ve lived in this house all my life. Brian was 6 when I was born and Kevin was 9. We know that she was still here when she was a year old, I mean just look at that picture. So they were both defiantly old enough to remember her.” I said.
“Yea I guess they were. I forgot there was 6 years between you and Brian.” Tania stated.
“Yea you’re not the only one. Let’s look for a picture that tells us which dress is which.” I remarked.
“I got a better idea. Why don’t we find out what her name is first.” She proposed pointing to the box that had the birth certificates in it.
“Guess that would probably be a better place to start huh?” I said giving a small smile.
“Yea it would be.” She smiled.
“Problem.” I stated, “I’m not sure I really want to know. They’ve kept this from me for so long, maybe, maybe I should just leave it buried.”
“You can’t chicken out now. You need to know who she is? What happened to her? If you don’t do this now you may never get another chance. You already know you have a twin so why not find out everything else. Like why she’s not here and why you don’t remember her.” Tania said.
“I hate when you do that. I’m scared I don’t want to know anymore. I wish I didn’t know now.” I exclaimed tears coming to my eyes.
“Why Emily? You were so set on this before what changed?” She asked.
“Because it means the man I love, the love of my life, has lied me for the past 18 years about one of the biggest things in my life, my sister.” I replied as a couple tears ran down my face. She leaned over and gave me a hug letting me cry on her shoulder for a couple minutes.
“I’m sorry. God I said I wouldn’t shed tears no matter what but how could he?” I exclaimed.
“Who knows.” She sighed.
“Yea who knows. Come on let’s find more out about this mystery twin of mine.” I said and grabbed the box. I opened it and pulled out the one lying on top. “Kimberly Renee Winters.” I said reading the name.
“That’s Kimmy’s right?” She asked.
“Yea it is.” I replied. “Emily Danielle Winters. This one’s mine.” I then grabbed the next one knowing this was it. This was going to tell me the name of my sister. I looked at Tania then took a deep breath and looked down at the paper. “Faye Destiny Winters.” I said quietly.
“Oh my god that’s Faye’s name except for the Winters part!” Tania exclaimed. I nodded my head still looking at the paper. ‘Birthplace: St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky; Time of Birth: 6:13 am August 16, 1981; Weight: 6 lbs 3 oz; Length: 18 in.’ I then looked over at mine and they we’re almost identical. ‘Name: Emily Danielle Winters; Birthplace: St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky; Time of Birth: 6:15 am August 16, 1981; Weight: 6lbs 2oz; Length: 18 in’
“I guess we know where she is right? At the park playing basketball.” I choked out.
“Yea.” She agreed looking at the certificates. “How can it not be her. You guys are identical except for your hair and a tattoo. You guys act so much alike it’s not even funny. Not to mention she was put in a foster home when she was 3 because they had no way of contacting her parents because she couldn’t remember her last name or her parents names. She didn’t remember anything else about her self except her first and middle name, where she was born she said she remembered that cause her mom and dad worked there, and her birthday.”
“Yea I know. How could they keep that from me?” I asked. “Seems to be the only thing I’m asking now huh?” I smiled a little.
“Oh well.” She smiled and I started to put the certificates back but she stopped me. “Wait look there’s a couple more papers in there.” I looked down and there sat a piece of aged white paper folded in half, then what looked like to be like two clippings from a newspaper. I grabbed the piece of white paper and unfolded it.
“It’s a police report.” I stated. I quickly read through the report. “It’s says she was kidnapped on September 8, 1983. That was just a little less than a month after we turned 2. After searching for a year and never finding her they pronounced her to be dead but they never found a body.” I summarized what the report had said.
“Whoa.” She stated letting it all soak in as I did the same thing. “I wonder if that’s why they kept it from you cause they thought she was dead.”
“Probably but that still doesn’t give them the right.” I replied.
“You’re right it doesn’t.” She stated. “You gonna see what the newspaper clippings say?”
“Why don’t you read them then tell me what they say. I’m gonna look at some pictures.” I said.
“Ok.” She stated grabbing the two papers.