02/08/2026
My parents were told by the police that my twin sister had died. Sixty‑eight years later, I met a woman who looked exactly like me.
When I was five, my twin, Ella, vanished. My parents were at work, and Ella and I were staying with our grandmother. I fell very ill, and grandmother tended to me until I slept. While I slept, Ella ran outside to play with her ball. Later, our grandmother went out to call Ella back, but there was only silence. We lived near a forest, and they found only her ball there.
The police searched for her for a long time, and a few months later they informed my parents that she had been found dead. Even though I was so young, Ella was everything to me. We shared toys, tried on our mother’s dresses, and never fought.
I remember little of the details. I kept asking my mother what had happened to Ella—where she was found, when, how. My mother told me I didn’t need that knowledge and that my questions were hurting her. I stopped asking.
There was no funeral, or at least I don’t recall one.
Sixty‑eight years have passed. I built my own family, and at first glance my life seemed wonderful, yet thoughts of Ella never left me.
My granddaughter was recently accepted to a college in another state. I flew out to visit her for a few days. One morning, while she was in class, I decided to take a walk. I entered a small, cozy café and queued for coffee. Suddenly I heard a voice that sounded like mine. A woman was at the counter, picking up her coffee to go. She turned around, and my blood ran cold. She looked exactly like me—same voice, same face, same age. It felt like looking at myself in a mirror.
I thought I was about to faint. How could this be? I couldn’t just stand there, so I tapped the woman’s shoulder. She turned, shocked, just like me. My voice broke as I asked, “OH MY GOD… ELLA?!”
