Name Your Fate
January 27, 2023 – Texarkana, Texas, USA
When the twins arrived, they were named after their mother’s favorite flowers: Violet and Sunflower. According to the birth certificates, Violet arrived first. According to the pediatrician, the two girls were the most identical babies she had ever seen. Neither had a distinguishing mark or characteristic.
The twins’ parents went from having no one crying at home to two mouths constantly wailing. For the first two months, mere survival and stealing hours of sleep were Mom and Dad’s only priorities. They hopelessly lost track of which baby had arrived first and always referred to them collectively as “the flowers.”
“At some point we have to use their real names,” Mom said one day during a peaceful moment.
“Okay. Which one’s which?” Dad asked.
“I have no idea. Does either one look more like a Violet or Sunflower to you?”
“Not that I can see.”
“How about personality? Either one act a certain way?”
Dad shrugged his shoulders. “I think we just have to say from now on one of them is Violet and one of them is Sunflower. Stay consistent.”
“So who’s Violet?”
“It’s not going to make a big difference. Either one can be Violet.”
Mom found purple and yellow ribbons. The purple ribbon was tied around the leg of the baby laying on the left side of the bed. The other baby got the yellow ribbon and from then on, they were distinguished as Violet and Sunflower. Their parents were embarrassed by how careless the ribbon picking might make them sound, so they kept it a secret.
When the ribbons were first attached, the parents fully intended to treat each daughter exactly alike. Despite the intent, tiny differences unconsciously emerged. The ribbon colors had a lot to do with it. The yellow ribbon was a signal that Sunflower should be dressed in lighter, brighter colors. She wore yellows and pinks. Violet wore darker clothes – purple, blue, and gray.
The family moved to a larger home and there was enough space for each girl to have their own bedroom. Sunflower was given the light-filled room facing the south. It was painted in happy pastels. Violet moved into the shadier north-facing room with dim walls. Both girls played with the same toys, but when it came time to dress up their dolls, Sunflower tended to put hers in fun beachwear while Violet chose longer dresses.
The twins became big library fans and when choosing books, Sunflower naturally got the silly, colorful covers that matched her room. Violet seemed to like fairy tales with more complicated plots and endings. On their fifth birthday, the twins were allowed to choose a pet. Sunflower pointed to a chatty bird, which her mom said would feel welcome in all the sunlight of her windows. Violet picked a quiet goldfish with black streaks across its body.
After the girls started school and met a new crowd of children and adults, their parents began describing Sunflower as fun and spontaneous. Violet was more of a serious, deep thinker. Sunflower got a short haircut. Violet’s hair stayed long, a look she kept for years to come.
Sunflower and Violet made friends easily. As they grew older, Sunflower tended toward kids who were interested in dance and sports teams. Violet’s friends were the high achievers who played instruments and acted in plays. By the time they reached high school, the twins were often asked how they could be raised in the same family and turn out so differently. Sunflower was the stereotypical, fun-loving cheerleader. Violet was the smartest kid in the class and surely the most likely to succeed.
During their senior year, Sunflower already looked forward to the excitement of leaving home for college. She and her friends planned to attend Texas A&M and enjoy every night and weekend. Violet had more aggressive aspirations. She narrowed her college choices down to one – Harvard. If she had to attend any of her safety schools, she would feel like a failure.
Violet turned in her Harvard application and was chosen to receive an in-person interview by a Harvard alumnus. A man named Pierce Belliston called from Dallas. He said rather than asking Violet to travel to him, he would stop by and see her while he was on his way to visit a couple of other applicants who lived in Arkansas.
Violet was usually calm and calculating, but news of her interview sent her into an anxious frenzy. She read everything she could about preparing. She made her parents practice sample questions with her. She cleaned the house and scrubbed every stain out of the carpet in the front room.
As a busy and ambitious high school student, Violet was scheduled to attend an overnight student government meeting the day before her Harvard interview. The meeting was 200 miles away, but she was supposed to return in the morning with plenty of time before Piers Belliston arrived. She called her mother that morning in complete hysterics.
“The bus is broken and they don’t know when it will be fixed! If they have to send another bus, there’s no way I’ll make it in time!”
“Calm down. I’m sure you can reschedule the interview if there’s an emergency.”
“No you can’t! They’re looking for reasons to disqualify you!”
“I don’t believe that.”
“It’s true!” Violet went silent for a few seconds before saying, “Put Sunflower on the phone.”
Sunflower knew from her mom’s expression that she was about to be thrown into the middle of a crisis. She reluctantly said, “Hello.”
“You have to do something for me. You have to pretend to be me and do the interview.”
“The Harvard interview? I won’t know any of the right answers.”
“There aren’t right or wrong answers. You’ve heard me practice with mom and dad, you just have to say things I would say. You know me better than anyone.”
“You’ll hate me if I mess it up.”
“No, I won’t. Go put on some of my clothes if it helps. Please! You have to do this. I know this is weird, but you can handle weird stuff. Shmoogies.”
While their personalities may have seemed very different, they were still twins and shared their own language. Shmoogies was a made-up word they used to share scary emotions or deep feelings. It could mean “leave me alone” or “I love you,” depending on the circumstances. Only they could interpret for each other. Sunflower ended the call knowing she had to help.
“What’s going on? Is she going to reschedule?” Sunflower’s mom asked in a flustered voice.
Sunflower stammered, “She’s still figuring it out,” and then she hurried into Violet’s room. She pulled a dozen outfits from Violet’s closet and set them on her bed. She chose the one that reminded her most of her sister and slipped it on. Then she restyled her hair into one of the more boring looks Violet preferred.
The change in clothing and hair style calmed Sunflower down. She also sat in the dark closet trying to channel her twin’s energy. She did not emerge until a half hour before Pierce Belliston was scheduled to arrive.
“Why are you dressed like your sister?” her mom demanded.
“I’m doing the interview for her.”
“What? You can’t do that! It’s dishonest! He’ll see right through you! It’s worse than rescheduling!”
Sunflower’s mom freaked herself out until the doorbell rang at exactly the time for Pierce Belliston’s appointment. Sunflower and her mom answered the door together to find a bearded, gray-haired man wearing a red tie and gray jacket. He gave them both a serious and intimidating smile and said, “My name is Pierce. I believe you’re expecting me.”
Sunflower immediately replied with, “Very nice to meet you. I’m Violet. Please come in.”
As Pierce walked inside, Sunflower’s mom melted down and began blathering nonstop about the weather, traffic, the house, the clothes she wore, and the opossum family currently invading their backyard. Sunflower coolly steered Pierce into the front room and he sat down on a high-backed chair, which looked a little like a throne. Sunflower sat next to her mom on the couch as her mom’s opossum story continued.
“We’re so honored to have you in our house,” Sunflower’s mom then nervously said. She turned toward Sunflower and added, “Violet is such a good girl and so smart. I’m not sure if you know she has a twin named Sunflower. We named them after my favorite flowers.”
At that moment, there was an awkward pause. Pierce did not appear ready to respond and Sunflower’s mom strangely decided it was a good time to share a secret she had hidden for 17 years.
“The girls are so identical, we couldn’t tell them apart. One day we had to decide who would go with what name. We put ribbons on them. Violet got the purple ribbon. Sunflower got yellow.”
Sunflower gawked open-mouthed at her mother, forgetting her very important impersonation challenge. Pierce was finally interested in something his interviewee’s mother had to say.
“Is the other sister applying to Harvard as well? Maybe another Ivy school? I’m assuming she’s a high achiever.”
“Oh no. She’s not like Violet.” Sunflower’s mom quickly realized she had talked herself into a corner. She turned red-faced to her daughter and said reassuringly, “Sunflower’s a high achiever too. Just in different things. She’s more of a people person than a straight A person.”
“Do you think your choice in names rubbed off on them?” Pierce asked with a raised eyebrow. “When you name someone Sunflower, seems like she has to be a people person.”
“Oh no, I don’t think the names had anything to do with it. We were just lucky they matched their personalities.”
Pierce smiled like he was not convinced. Then he said, “Would you mind if I spent some time alone with Violet? This room seems like a perfect spot.”
Sunflower’s mom excused herself with an embarrassed voice and slipped away. The cool smile on Sunflower’s face made her seem composed. But inside, her mind flipped upside down from the news that she very easily could have been named Violet. How differently would life have turned out? Would she be the one applying for Harvard?
Pierce gave her a penetrating look and asked, “With all the opportunities available in Texas, why go all the way to Harvard and Boston?”
This was one of the more obvious questions Violet practiced and Sunflower overheard. Sunflower knew the correct answer was something about Violet living up to her potential and surrounding herself with the smartest people possible. Sunflower wanted to explain it that way, but she could not get herself to do it. Maybe her brain was still fuzzy and trying to process the news that she was almost Violet to begin with. Her answer was a lot more Sunflower than it was Violet.
“I think the people at Harvard need me more than the people in Texas.”
Pierce acted surprised. “Is that so? Why would you ever think that?”
“One of my gifts is making people happy. Helping them to look on the bright side of things and see what’s best about themselves. A lot of smart people need that little boost. They act like they don’t, but if you want to accomplish anything, you need to first find the joy in it.”
Pierce nodded and smiled. It was a friendly smile instead of a judgmental one. He asked more questions and Sunflower responded as if she and Violet shared a hybrid personality. She may have sounded a little more like the Sunflower side of the combination.
When the interview was over, Pierce stood up and thanked her. “I enjoyed myself. You were honest and refreshingly different.”
“Then I’ll see you at Harvard?” Sunflower asked playfully.
“Probably not. I live in Dallas, remember?” Pierce replied, just as playfully.
Violet returned that night and demanded a word for word summary of the interview. Sunflower was more interested in the revealed secret about their names.
“You could have been me and I could have been you.”
“Your name doesn’t change who you are inside,” Violet argued.
“I’m sure it matters at least a little.”
Violet shook her head, but from that day on, both sisters stopped seeing any stark differences in their personalities and life choices. And while Violet did appreciate more about her sister, as the days passed without hearing from Harvard, she became convinced that Sunflower had blown the interview. Before turning in her application, Violet talked about the interview as if it only affected the admission decision by 10%. Now she claimed it was more like 50%. She never said so aloud, but inside she knew it was unfair she had not gotten the chance to speak for herself. She was stuck with safety schools because of a broken-down bus.
Mopey Violet was hard to be around until finally the admission decision from Harvard arrived. The first sentence began with “Congratulations,” and all the disappointment disappeared. Violet instantly forgot all the things about safety schools and Sunflower’s role in the interview.
When it was Sunflower’s turn to congratulate her sister, she said, “Didn’t you say something about the interview being worth half the application?”
“I wasn’t being totally serious. But I do owe you. You must have done a great job.”
“Well, I’m thinking Harvard kind of wants both of us. Part of Violet and part of Sunflower. Plus, we’re a little bit interchangeable.”
Violet shook her head and laughed. “We’re not all that interchangeable.”
“How about I go half the year and you go the other half?”
“Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Whenever I need a boost, you could take my place. Shmoogies, little sister.”
“You can’t say that anymore. Remember, I might be your big sister.”
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