{"id":16359,"date":"2012-10-06T14:57:14","date_gmt":"2012-10-06T13:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/?p=16359"},"modified":"2012-10-10T14:56:23","modified_gmt":"2012-10-10T13:56:23","slug":"marilyn-saklatvala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/?p=16359","title":{"rendered":"Marilyn Saklatvala"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bare Bones<\/strong><\/p>\n

“But they’re not a bit alike!” That was my first thought. I had come across this photo of two young women. The caption said “Twins, Kate and Claire Cavanaugh, outside their newly opened Brisbane branch of ‘Craft Cavanaugh’.
\nAnd I thought \u201cbut they’re not a bit alike\u201d; then I thought \u201c \u2018Craft Cavanaugh\u2019 \u2013 what a naf pretentious name.\u201d Then I looked at them, the twins. The one on the right was short and skinny with mousy hair. The other one, towering beside her, was me.
\nI have an aunt, Connie, she works for an organisation called Jigsaw, connecting up adoptees and their natural families.
\nDear Connie, Have reason to believe I have a sister in Qld. How do I go about checking? Love \u2013 Hannah.<\/em>
\nDear Hannah, I’m very sorry, QLD doesn’t allow siblings direct access to the information. Anyway, you need proof of the relationship. Do you have any? If so, I may be able to help. Why not log onto Facebook and we can chat. Love \u2013 Connie<\/em>
\nLater, to my sister,
\nDear Sarah, attached is a copy of a copy of a photo I saw in the National Portrait Gallery. It is part of an exhibition called ‘Antipodean Portrait Photography’. Only the one on the left looks exactly like me. Do you know anything about this? Do I have a twin? I have spoken to Connie and she’s given me some help. Do you think I am mad? And no, I don’t want to chat on Facebook! Regards to Matt, Lots of Love. Hannah.<\/em>
\nDear Han, would you think I would know anymore than you if you were a twin! Grow up, girl! Here’s something to think about:<\/em>
\n1.Perhaps you are one of triplets. <\/em>
\n2. You are one of twins and one of you got swapped at birth. <\/em>
\n3. The likeness is a coincidence (most likely, I think). <\/em>
\nOther points to ponder \u2013 your picture is black and white. Colour could change the whole picture (excuse the pun). Your ‘likeness’ could have red hair (lucky thing!) Also the smaller one could be a seven months twin, and that’s why she’s smaller. Don’t let this get to you. We still love you. Sarah<\/em>
\nLater again, Mother, reading the local paper: “There’s to be a folk festival at Tewkesbury next weekend. Amongst artists appearing are the \u2018Cavanaugh Twins\u2019.”
\nWe went, came across a crowd gathered in a glade, listening. One deep husky voice, the other light, almost instrumental, in harmony. We stopped.. I was looking at myself. Maybe her skin was a shade darker than mine but the grey eyes and over-generous mouth were the same. The shoulder-length wavy black hair was the same as mine. Almost reluctantly, I looked at the other one, Kate. She seemed small and mousy beside Claire but hers was the impressive, deep voice.
\nI sat holding an envelope. Then I told myself I was being silly and opened it. My birth certificate \u2013 my mother’s name was Esther Van Overloop. I was born at Sydney Women’s Hospital, on the date I shared with Kate and Claire, 13th October. No details were given for the father.
\nKate, on the phone: \u201cOur Grandpapa’s name is Marcel Van Overloop. Our mother was Eva-Marie.” she paused and I thought \u201cEva-Marie and Esther, the names go together.\u201d
\nKate’s voice again, “But we were born in a different hospital.”
\nClaire, days later: “Grandpapa’s amazed we met. He and his first wife, the one from Ethiopia, had twin girls, Eva-Marie and Esther. When the parents split they each took a daughter. Our Grandpapa says we are cousins!”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Journalist’s Tale<\/strong><\/p>\n

21st July 2027<\/strong>
\n\u201cYou’re not going to print this? If I tell you?” Stupid old biddy. What did she think; I’m a journalist. But these days, we don’t print, we publish online, so I didn’t feel guilty reassuring her.
\n\u201cIt’s just, well, you know, a secret. The EU’ll put a stop to it, then what’ll we do. Bloody EU!”
\nWow! That was unexpected. I’d overheard a conversation. Well, I am a journalist, and if they will talk into their mobiles, as if the whole world wants to know, what do they expect?
\nI’d gone back to my editor and suggested a trip to Hastings to check it out.
\n“A trip? A trip? What do you think this is, a travel agency? Do what you’re paid for, check it out online. Everything’s on the Internet these days. Only do check the dates. Don’t want a repeat of that business when the ‘news’ turned out to be three years old!”
\nHe sniggered. But it hadn’t been my fault. A respected political blogger lauding some Australian initiative and I picked it up. Only some nosey reader remembered reading it some years before, and knew that it hadn’t even eventuated. And she provided all the references! But this time, I won. Because it wasn’t online. I’d looked, and to make sure I’d asked our librarian to double-check, and she’s good!
\nSo there was I, off to Hastings. It was a cold miserable day leaving London, but I arrived in Hastings to blue skies. A sign at the station told me \u2018Hastings, a day isn’t long enough!\u2019 I’d have to take their word for it, a day was all I had.
\nI managed to find my way to this little street in the Old Town (alright, I took a taxi, it’s called using my initiative) and had been invited in and given quite a decent cup of tea. Then I broached the subject.
\n\u201cBut how did you hear of it, how do you know? The EU insists we shop online, so . . .\u201d
\nI calmed her down, said I’d been told by someone who thought it was something we should all try to do.
\n“Don’t be silly, dearie,” she said “it’s what we all used to do. And some of us still prefer it that way. We’re used to picking up our goods, feeling them, smelling them, deciding what we’ll buy because of it.”
\n\u201cYes, but you can do all that online now. Press the fruit, you get a smell, you can feel how ripe it is. What’s the difference?”
\n\u201cIf you don’t know dear, well, I’m sorry for you. Alright then, I’ll show you.”
\nThat’s when she’d asked me to promise not to print it. I followed her out her back door, through a gate into a little alley, up some steps, down some steps, into a small house and down into the cellar. What a cellar! Bright, cool, shelves of food of every kind, packaged and fresh, long open fridges displaying fresh produce. It was a paradise, and full of people.
\n“How do you get the stuff?” I asked the manager.
\n“Well, this is Hastings.”
\nI wasn’t sure what he meant. Until someone muttered “Four and twenty ponies trotting through the dark . . .” My Grandad used to say that poem to me, so I knew what was meant. I was really onto something here.
\n30th September, 2027<\/strong>
\nThey were right, you know, a day really isn’t long enough. So I’m living here now, still a journalist \u2013 after all, these days it can all be done online. But I don’t do my shopping online . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bare Bones “But they’re not a bit alike!” That was my first thought. I had come across this photo of two young women. The caption said “Twins, Kate and Claire Cavanaugh, outside their newly opened Brisbane branch of ‘Craft Cavanaugh’. And I… Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16359"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16359"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16885,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16359\/revisions\/16885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}