Estranged Twins

Eric Massey

Eric and Derek arrived as twins to their somewhat surprised parents during the War. They were identical twins, so much alike that "I think we suffered both when we were young, and later on in life from this identity crisis - who are we, these two people in one body". This issue about identity was enhanced by the fact that they had to wear badges to differentiate one from the other.

The boys used to exploit the fact that they were identical, by doing things like picking on the teachers and seeing if they could figure out who had been naughty (unfortunately the teachers solved this by caning them both). When they were older they played tricks on various girlfriends, one in particular called Gillian Reynolds. "We used to play awful tricks by sharing her. Alternate weekends of going out and pretending one was the other...she didn't really know which one she was going out with. It was very deceitful".

The two were very close. Once Eric was coming home from a football match in his early teens. He developed a terrible stomach pain, went to the doctor who said he had peritonitis. He was about to go into hospital, and was vomiting violently, but it was Derek who went into the hospital and had his appendix out whilst Eric was in fact fine. It happened often that one would know what the other was doing, though they were apart.

Eric now feels that, as twins, they felt they were special and they exploited it, but that it cased problems: "That released the jealousies in later life". The twins went into the music business together, winning a series of 'Opportunity Knocks' with a band, before that broke up and they continued as a double-act.

Eventually, however, a misunderstanding over a holiday home between Eric and Derek worsened into a feud because of poor communication, until they were 'almost at war'. Eric feels, despite the lack of contact with his brother, that they can't escape each other because they are often accosted by people mistaking one for the other.

Eric's daughter, who has never known her uncle though she has heard much about him and his relationship with her father, went to see Derek and they had an 'amicable' meeting. She suggested they all met up, though nothing has yet happened. Eric doesn't know what he'd say to Derek if they met now, though he hopes he'd be able to extend a hand and that they could re-establish the closeness they once had. "I could literally pick the phone up now and ring him I suppose, but I don't know what would happen".

(Edit:Ruby)