The Other ME

Feeling determination and trepidation, Anna and Jessica searched for their birth parents

- Elizabeth Dale

THE STORY SO FAR: When Anna and Jessica, who share the same birthday, are mistaken for each other, Anna wonders if they are twins. After all, Anna is adopted. But Jessica is sure she isn’t adopted, until she asks her mother, Evelyn, who reluctantly confirms that she is. The twins meet and immediately form a bond. When Anna’s adoptive parents, Margaret and Simon, suggest they search for their birth mother, Augusta, Jessica worries it will upset Evelyn. But then Evelyn suggests it too. So the twins travel to Augusta’s last-known address, but unfortunately she has moved. However, they meet Wendy, Augusta’s childhood friend, who immediately guesses their identity. Wendy doesn’t know where Augusta lives now – but she has the address of Paul, their birth father, if they’re interested...

Jessica smiled at Anna nervously as she parked outside the elegant terraced house. To think that last week they hadn’t even known of the other’s existence and now, maybe, they were about to meet Paul, their birth father.

While Jessica knocked on front door, Anna sniffed the crocuses growing beside it. She’d always adored crocuses. Maybe she’d inherited that from her dad?

She straightened up, but no one opened the door.

‘I guess he must be out,’ Jessica sighed after she’d knocked again.

‘Well, let’s leave a note saying we’ll call back later,’ Anna said, pulling some paper from her bag. ‘Then if he pops home, hopefully he’ll wait in for us.’

‘Don’t say who we are,’ said Jessica anxiously. ‘We don’t know how he’ll react.’