LESBIAN TWINS, a study by B.J. Perske

HERE’S THE STORY

Bill’s at the bottom of the staircase with his hands on his hips. He has a curly lock of brown hair on his forehead, and strong, brown eyebrows. His belt is brown and his pants are brown, although his pants are not as brown as his belt. His pen is in his breast pocket and it is red. 

Three stairs above Bill walks Hilda. Hilda is wearing a salmon colored, form-fitting sleeveless dress covered in small, colorful amoebas and question marks. Her hair is blonde, and she is not looking at Bill, but at you. She is walking up the stairs in her smart white pumps, ready to take a nap with her lesbian sister Jane, who awaits her sister Hilda, upstairs.

Upstairs, Jane's door is open. She is on either the salmon-colored bathtub, or the salmon-colored bed. It’s hard to tell. She is either shaving her legs or putting on her shoes or taking them off, as she awaits her lesbian sister Hilda who is on the third stair in her form fitting salmon colored sleeveless dress. Again, it is hard to tell. One thing is for certain: Jane’s dress matches Hilda’s to a T. 

Jane is also ready to take a nap with her equally lesbian sister, Hilda, although you cannot tell this from the way she either puts on her shoes or shaves her legs. Jane is looking at her legs rather than at you, unlike Hilda, and her legs, like Hilda’s, are quite beautiful, even though they are make believe.

Not pictured is the mother of Hilda and Jane, who insists that Hilda and Jane take a nap together. Even though she is not pictured, her presence is strong, as evidenced by the fact that Hilda is walking up the stairs in her salmon dress and Jane awaits her on the bathtub or bed in her salmon colored dress, fully prepared to nap. The word that would describe both Hilda and Jane’s attitude towards their mother in general would be “obedient.”

Still, whether or not Hilda and Jane’s Mom is mean or strange or loving or Swiss German or well dressed or a Communist is impossible to say. Nevertheless, her presence is felt, even though it is mysterious, and her powers are daunting, even without a face or voice or dress or anything at least according to the way in which she is able to convince her lesbian daughters to take a nap, which they are now preparing to do. 

It is worth mentioning that Bill, to my mind a lesser character, is furious. Jealousy stabs at Bill’s heart as ugly visions multiply in Bill’s brain as he stands with his hands on his hips and his curly look, unmoving at the bottom of the staircase, still three steps away from Hilda who looks like she is moving but so far not so much. What Bill’s ugly visions might be we cannot say: suffice to say they are quite ugly. One must ask: who the hell IS Bill? I don’t know. Still, like Hilda, he does not budge. He remains stalwart in pose, simply reflecting on the ugly visions that he claims to have in his brain, no matter who he is or what he is doing there. Bill, like the mother of Hilda and Jane, is mysterious, and although present, inert.

Not that you mention it, Jane hasn’t moved an inch, either. Jane is equally inert, although inherently more provocative. However much shaving she needed to do at the beginning, or however many shoes she needed to put on, the shaving still needs to be done and the shoe still needs to be put on. It's kind of sad, really.

Hilda has not moved, nor has Jane, nor has Bill, and as for Hilda and Jane’s mother, she might not even exist. It’s really hard to imagine anyone moving any time soon. I am not sure that I am prepared to wait for nothing.

I find that this is often a problem with paperbacks.