Murdered!!

I am a product of the recent trend of nuclear families and the single child phenomenon. As a child I once asked my mother if I would be called an orphan once both of them die.Alarmed by the thought, she put in a concept that all my cousins were my sisters n brothers and that they would care for me as much as my parents do.I have grown up with this belief and hence have loved my siblings like they were my own. Some reciprocated,a smaller number and some ignored.

There is a brother of mine, I don't know which group to put in. As single kids and having mothers who were twins, we were almost fraternal twins. We would spend all the summer holidays together, he played dolls with me and I would climb trees with him,our school achievements were always compared, a healthy competition was created and prevailed between us and we cared for eachother immensely. There were no secrets between us, as it is with someone your own.

Time passed, we were growing, from kids to teenagers and still were sharing secrets.. galfriends,mischeifs, skipping classes n going for movies n lots of those beyond-the-rules gimmicks.Stepped in together into professional college,he a future engineer and your's truly the future dentist. Our worlds were far apart yet we managed to find things in common..college life, friends, hostel nights, canteen, movies and whole lot of things. He definitely was in the smaller group of my siblings.

Out he came as an engineer and in he went into a management course. Somewhere in between the two, he met this girl. For the first time he kept this to himself. At the fag end of the management program, he decided to let me in on his little secret and arranged for a meeting of the two important women in his life. Both of us had mutually agreed to meet in the abscence of my brother and din't want him anywhere around. I was sure I would like the girl, after all my brother's choice!
We met. We talked.We left. My opinion was not totally positive. She was a nice girl but I was not sure if she would suit my brother's outlook. I was frank with him telling him exactly what I thought. He was obviously a little upset. I vowed to stand by him if he was convinced that he would be happy with this girl.

A few days later he called me and said.."It's been a long time since we have shared things. I have changed a lot over the past 2 years. SHE knows me better now and can easily manage me. I will not force you into supporting me through this. I can do this on my own. She will be a part of my life and how you come to terms with it, is upto you." From that day on, secrets remained secrets.

Don't know when and how my brother eventually jumped the fence to the larger group. Today, as I think back...I don't know which group to put him in.

He was always my 'twin' brother. Somewhere along the line, I died as his 'twin' sister.