Something truly out of the ordinary has happened.  Unexpected.  Something with life-transforming or at the very least paradigm-shifting potential. I got an e-mail in Quirky Berkeley e-mail from someone purporting to be my friend’s twin brother.

This was a shocker to me.  I have heard many stories over the years from my friend about his family.  A time or two he let slip something about a twin.  I sensed a strong sensitivity on the point and never pressed.  His family history is filled with hurt, at least after things started to go bad, after the father and son stuff kicked in.

The person who wrote the letter had seen a Quirky Berkeley post and recognized my friend, he claimed, as his long-lost twin.

After we looked at the Bulwinkle painted wall photos I showed the e-mail to my friend.   What did my friend think? What would he do?

Well, first of all, there was no drama.  No theatrical reaction.  No expletives.  No visible shock.

“Don’t even know if this dude is him. Could be somebody trying to cash in on my fame, somebody from Detroit who knew I had a twin.”

He showed me the one childhood photo he had of his twin, out for a birthday dinner.  Without my friend, who was home sick.

Now there is an email, more than 50 years since they last saw each other.

What will he do?

“When we were 17 I went to New York and he went to Flint.  I heard from him once, about two years later.”

“He sent me a picture of the house he’d bought in the Halls Flats neighborhood and one of him with his car.  After that – radio silence.  I don’t know if this dude is him.  There are a couple things only my twin knows.”

He got serious – “You know the Jell-O box with the Rosenbergs, right?”

Yes I do.  David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg’s brother, turned rat and testified that he passed confidential information from Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Rosenbergs.  Greenberg said that Julius devised a cut Jell-O box top as a way for Greenglass to verify Rosenberg’s courier’s identity.  According to Greenglass, Julius cut the box top and gave half to Greenglass and half to the courier.

At trial, that lying bastard Roy Cohn had Greenglass cut a Jell-O box to show how it had been done.  Dramatic!  There is no mention of the Jell-O box in Gold’s initial interrogation by the feds about his role in the espionage. Greenglass later recanted his testimony and admitted that he had committed perjury to save himself and protect his wife.

“Are you telling me that story because you and your twin cut up a Jell-O box and you wonder if he still has his half?”

“No dude – don’t be so literal.”  He had written the person claiming to be his twin, with a three-part test.

1) My friend asked him to send a photo of him holding a sign saying the words that they constantly said to each other in high school.

2) Where was this photo taken, which they had had hanging in their room at home, implying their twin status?

3) What was the family’s favorite amusement park and what was the favorite ride?

What will happen? Anybody’s guess, but I can’t imagine anybody claiming to be his twin if he wasn’t.  Just sayin’.

What does my friend think of this turn of events?