This Town

I walked into Alan’s house expecting him to sitting on his couch either asleep or watching TV but he wasn’t there. “Alan?” I called and searched the house for him, but he was nowhere to be found. I ended my search in the kitchen and found a folded piece of paper with my name on it.

I’m down the street.

I tossed the note in the trash and stood in the middle of kitchen for a moment. He was down the street? It then dawned on me that he meant Saint’s house. A couple weeks ago he had mentioned that he went over to her house to say hi. I had no idea they started hanging out though.

The walk to Saint’s house only took a couple of minutes but for some reason felt like it had taken forever. As I was walking up the driveway I could hear music playing from inside the house. Rather than knocking I just walked inside. Even if I had knocked no one would hear me. The sight I was greeted with would forever be ingrained in my mind. Saint was standing on her coffee table dancing and singing at the top of her lungs dressed in black t-shirt dress and her hair in a messy bun. Alan was jumping on the couch in his boxers singing at the top of his lungs as well.

“Well, somebody told me you had a boyfriend that looked like a girlfriend that I had in February of last year!” Alan yelled and threw a pillow at Saint.

“It’s not confidential, I’ve got potential!” Saint yelled in response and threw the pillow back at Alan. At first I wanted to ask Alan why he was dancing with my wife half naked but I stopped myself. Saint wasn’t Taylor. But I could pretend she was. I shook the thought away and continued to watch Saint and my best friend act like idiots with an amused expression.

“You’re way cooler than Austin,” Alan laughed and collapsed onto the couch. Saint bent down and grabbed a remote to pause the music.

“Don’t let him find that out he might not let you hang out with me anymore,” Saint replied and sat down on the table.

“That seems like a reasonable course of action to me,” I stated. I smirked when they looked over at me quickly with wide eyes. “Don’t stop having fun on my account,” I teased.

“What are you doing here?” Saint asked. She hadn’t kicked me out yet so that was a good sign.

“I was looking for my best friend Alan but he seems to have replaced me,” I explained and leaned against the wall.

“Hm. Maybe he decided he wanted to keep more attractive company around,” Saint retorted. I placed my hand over my chest and gasped dramatically.

“Are you saying I’m not attractive?” Saint rolled her eyes.

“Whatever drama queen, come join the party.”






“Alan, are you actually going home today?” Saint asked from the kitchen. She was making lunch while Alan and I picked out a movie.

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Alan replied. Even though I couldn’t see her, I had a feeling Saint rolled her eyes.

“How long have you been here?” I asked and picked up a movie I hadn’t heard of before called Practical Magic.

“Not very long,” Alan shrugged.

“You fucking liar!” Saint yelled in return, “You’ve been here for three days!” She came out a moment later with a tray filled with pizza rolls, fries, and of all things pop tarts in one hand and three beers in the other.

“Do you want some help?” I asked and went to stand up so I could grab something. But Saint shook her head and gracefully set everything down on the coffee table.

“What movie are we watching?” Saint asked as she claimed her spot on the couch.

“I couldn’t decide,” Alan replied. “Did you find anything Austin?” I looked back at the movie in my hand and held it up.

“What about this one?” I suggested. Saint stared at the movie for a moment and seemed to space out. She shook herself out of it and shrugged like she was indifferent about the selection. I could tell that wasn’t the case though. Regardless I put the movie in.

“I wanna sit by Saint!” Alan demanded and jumped onto the couch. Chuckling I sat beside Alan who immediately laid down to use her as a pillow and me as a foot rest. Fifteen minutes into the movie and he was asleep.

“Looks like he’s not going home,” Saint commented. Her eyes never let the TV.

“Why do you say that?” I asked and looked over at her.

“Because he was supposed to go home yesterday and fell asleep while watching a movie and when he woke up he decided that he would stay again since he already fell asleep once here,” Saint explained. “What zoo did you buy him from?”

“I can’t remember, but they won’t let me return him.” We both chuckled and then it gradually turned into full blown laughter. By the time we calmed down Saint was crying and struggling to get Alan off of her so she wouldn’t pee herself.

While she was upstairs I moved decided to clean up a little bit. Pushing Alan’s legs off me I grabbed the half empty tray of food and the empty beer bottles and took them to the kitchen. The house was decorated since the last time I had been there. One decoration caught my attention. Hanging beside the sliding glass door was a canvas photo of a family.

“That’s the only family photo I have,” Saint said suddenly. I jumped at her sudden appearance then looked back at the picture. There was a man and women standing behind two identical little girls who looked to be about four years old. They were standing in front of a giant willow tree and in the distance, was a large, white farmhouse.

“Which one is you?” I asked. Saint stood next to me and pointed to the little girl in front of the man.

“Those are my biological parents. My sister, the girl in front of the woman, and I were put into foster care when we were six years old because they couldn’t take care of us anymore. Unfortunately we were separated and I never saw her again.”

“So were you adopted or were you taken out of the system at eighteen?” I felt bad for asking, but Saint didn’t seem to be bother by it.

“I was adopted. Janice and Michael Riesling adopted me when I was eleven. I don’t know what happened to my sister though.” For some reason I felt uneasy about what Saint was telling me.

“What’s your biological last name?”

“You’re a curious man, aren’t you?” I shrugged and smiled sheepishly.

“You’re interesting,” I admitted.

“It’s Lowrey.” I froze. It had to be coincidence. Lowrey was a common last name wasn’t it?

“What was your sister’s name?” I tried to keep my voice even but my throat was tight.

“Taylor.” Saint gave me a curious look but I ignored her. Everything made sense. Why Saint looked so much like my wife. Why my wife didn’t like to talk about her family. Why my wife was so set on being a good parent.

Saint was Taylor’s identical twin.

Notes