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The Stuff That Never Happened by Maddie Dawson
This post is part of the From Left to Write book club today and is inspired by the book The Stuff That Never Happened by Maddie Dawson, a novel about a woman who, after being married for 28 years, realizes that she is still in love with another man from her past. This book was a juicy read! For me, it made me think about my parallel life as a twin.
Last week at BlogHer’10 I reconnected with my friend Stephanie from high school that I haven’t seen for at least 10 5 years. Stephanie and my twin sister, Robin, were good friends in high school, but being a twin means that I am friends with, well, about twice the amount of people in the world. Robin’s friends are my friends. And vice versa.
Did I mention that Robin and I share clothes too? So nice being able to double our wardrobes during visits. Score!
The only thing is….we live across North America from each other. Currently, I’m in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada (her town) for a month long visit. Yes, that’s about as far away from the San Francisco Bay Area as you can get and still be in North America. Whenever I am visiting Robin, I am never truly alone even when I am by myself. St. John’s is a fairly small town, after all. I learned long ago, when we were in college, that I should always smile and say hello to everyone I pass when I am on Robin’s stomping ground. Once, during Robin’s graduation weekend, I was walking around her campus (I went to a different school) just going about my business by myself. I later heard that Robin (me) had “ignored” a bunch of her friends and they wondered what was up (like, how rude!). Oops. So now I err on the side of assuming everyone knows Robin when I am on her turf. I am probably overly friendly to a lot of strangers during my runs around Long Pond here in St. John’s, but oh well.
A couple of days after I arrived I went to the grocery store and my credit card wouldn’t work. (Good job, fraud department of my bank, you did a great job worrying that someone had stolen my card and gone to, of all places, Newfoundland.) I was about the leave the cart of groceries in the store and high tail it back to Robin’s house to call my bank (my cell phone doesn’t work here either), when I heard a voice behind me. “Are you Linsey?”
I turned around and said “….Yes.”
“Hi, I’m Andrea.”
“Oh, Andrea! So nice to meet you,” shaking hands. Andrea works with Robin and I have heard about her for years, but have never actually met her in person.
Andrea offered her help, which I accepted (I wrote her a nice thank you note with a load of cash delivered to her doorstep later).
Of course someone would know me in St. John’s (or mistake me for Robin – that happens more often) and offer to help. Because Robin’s friends are my friends. Thanks friends.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of The Stuff That Never Happened by Maddie Dawson for the From Left to Write Book Club that I founded as a continuation of the SV Moms Group Book Club after founding that book club and serving as the book club editor for SV Moms Group for two years. I was not obligated to write about the book and all opinions are my own.
If you are interested in joining my new virtual book club site, From Left to Write, please contact me. From Left to Write holds regular book clubs, writing not book reviews, but our own stories that are inspired by the books we read.
