My Twin

I never knew it before, but I have a twin. Okay, so we were born in different states 12-15 years apart to different sets of parents, we have no siblings or relatives or blood type or DNA in common, but I’m telling you, we’re twins. Soulmates. Sistahs from anotha motha, as my daughter would say.

Not long after I started working as a checker at Hy Vee, my twin came to work part time. Her name is Janene. When Dolly introduced us to each other, I said, “It’s nice to meet you. People call me Janene all the time.”

She said, “Yeah, people are always calling me Janell.”

Then simultaneously we both said, “Or Jeanette.”

And the fun just continues every day. Janene works from 5-10 PM and I’m 3-11 so we started to call ourselves “The Ladies of the Evening” but Janene likes “Girls of the Night” better. Dolly and the other supervisors call us “The Twins.” They consistently call me Janene and they call her Janell, though once in a while, they actually call us by our given names. But we’ve each learned to answer to both names. One night, we switched nametags and I started calling her Janell and she started calling me Janene and it was a long time before the Supervisor on duty even noticed. To his credit, we were pretty busy that evening and he probably didn’t get a chance to think about it until things slowed down a little in the later hours. Another evening, we did a three-way nametag switch with one of the Courtesy Clerks – a teenaged boy named Alex. The switch came to light when the Supervisor asked Janene, “Where’s Janell?” I was actually standing at the register right behind him.

And she answered, “Janell is out bringing in carts.” (This is something only the Courtesy Clerks do and I would never have been sent out to the parking lot to forage for carts.)

He looked at her nametag, which said “Alex” and then it dawned on him what we had done. He rolled his eyes and walked away shaking his head.

Our little nametag switching game is keeping them on their toes, though. I’ve noticed they get our names right more often than not nowadays.



PS; I received good news from the independant computer repairman and I am hopeful that my 'puter will be home, soon.

(PPS Ralph; I put up a new post over at Nellie's)