Evil Twin
"It's a good thing there are two of you: I can still depend on you to give me grandchildren even though Caleb's now out of the running, and it doesn't change a thing."
Mom was joking, of course. Benj returned with a remark about cloning a new batch of grandchildren in a basement lab and laughed along with the rest of the family, but he couldn't help cringing a little inside. He did not particularly care to be reminded about that particular aspect of the difference between him and his twin.
Benj had to admit he was a little jealous of Caleb, which was absurd. Benj was the one with the bright career prospects, after all, while Caleb could now only look forward to a lifetime of community service. Sure, there was that one-in-a-million chance that Caleb could wind up as Pope, but Benj wasn't holding his breath. And of course, Benj was free to fall in love and marry, while Caleb was not....
Benj had always thought Caleb the better suited of the two for fatherhood -- or Fatherhood, as it turned out. Before Caleb announced his intention to enter the Priesthood, Benj had always imagined himself as the bad-but-fun bachelor uncle to whatever brood of little children that Caleb would father. And whatever Bad Uncle Benj's input might be, any child raised by Caleb would be a perfect little angel because Caleb himself was genuinely Good ... so gut-wrenchingly wholesome (without even a hint of priggishness) that Benj sometimes wondered if his brother, the mirror of his own DNA, was even human. Caleb always insisted that the two of them were still much the same, but Benj knew better.
Lost in his own thoughts, Benj hung back from the crowd of well-wishers surrounding the newly-ordained Father Caleb Monaghan. Caleb spotted him, of course; it took him a few minutes to extricate himself, and then he finally approached Benj, a wide grin splitting his face. He reached out to tweak the short fringe of facial hair that Benj had only recently begun to cultivate. "Benj! Nice goatee; it suits you. Better than it would suit me, I think."
That was a joke. They were identical twins, after all. The expected response would be something along the lines of one of them being better-looking than the other -- they'd done this routine countless times before. Instead, Benj smiled and reached out to tap the white spot of Caleb's clerical collar. "Of course. I'm the Evil Twin, don't you know."
Mom was joking, of course. Benj returned with a remark about cloning a new batch of grandchildren in a basement lab and laughed along with the rest of the family, but he couldn't help cringing a little inside. He did not particularly care to be reminded about that particular aspect of the difference between him and his twin.
Benj had to admit he was a little jealous of Caleb, which was absurd. Benj was the one with the bright career prospects, after all, while Caleb could now only look forward to a lifetime of community service. Sure, there was that one-in-a-million chance that Caleb could wind up as Pope, but Benj wasn't holding his breath. And of course, Benj was free to fall in love and marry, while Caleb was not....
Benj had always thought Caleb the better suited of the two for fatherhood -- or Fatherhood, as it turned out. Before Caleb announced his intention to enter the Priesthood, Benj had always imagined himself as the bad-but-fun bachelor uncle to whatever brood of little children that Caleb would father. And whatever Bad Uncle Benj's input might be, any child raised by Caleb would be a perfect little angel because Caleb himself was genuinely Good ... so gut-wrenchingly wholesome (without even a hint of priggishness) that Benj sometimes wondered if his brother, the mirror of his own DNA, was even human. Caleb always insisted that the two of them were still much the same, but Benj knew better.
Lost in his own thoughts, Benj hung back from the crowd of well-wishers surrounding the newly-ordained Father Caleb Monaghan. Caleb spotted him, of course; it took him a few minutes to extricate himself, and then he finally approached Benj, a wide grin splitting his face. He reached out to tweak the short fringe of facial hair that Benj had only recently begun to cultivate. "Benj! Nice goatee; it suits you. Better than it would suit me, I think."
That was a joke. They were identical twins, after all. The expected response would be something along the lines of one of them being better-looking than the other -- they'd done this routine countless times before. Instead, Benj smiled and reached out to tap the white spot of Caleb's clerical collar. "Of course. I'm the Evil Twin, don't you know."