Deceptions, Lies, and Butterflies

Melissa Sumner ate breakfast while listening to her sister work in the other room. Her sister called it work. Melissa considered it a bit, well, tawdry. It was one thing to go to a professional if you needed to talk, but to call up and pay money to a total stranger was something completely different. And many times Stacy’s clients wanted to talk about more than just their problems. She had eavesdropped on enough conversations to know that Stacy often went so far as to have phone sex with her clients, even though Stacy would deny it to the end.

She closed her eyes and tried to block out the sounds coming from the living room. How she and Stacy could be related was beyond her. While they looked like nearly identical twins, they were in fact Irish twins born just eleven months apart. Growing up they had often pretended to be each other and had often gotten away with it, even with their parents. They both had the same auburn hair, same hazel eyes, even the same heart-shaped mouth. Since they were the same height and weight, they always traded clothes making it even more difficult to tell them apart.

But once Stacy got to high school everything had changed. She had broken away from the protective shell their parents had tried to create and had rebelled by doing everything imaginable. Things became so difficult that it had affected the family to the point that their parents eventually divorced because of Stacy’s antics. Their parents couldn’t agree on how to handle the situation and one day their mother finally just walked out leaving their dad to cope with it alone, all before Melissa’s fourteenth birthday. Where Stacy went out with a different boy every night, many times all night, Melissa rarely dated. It wasn’t that she didn’t have plenty of offers – any boy who knew Stacy would ask out Melissa in hopes that she was as easy as her sister. Melissa preferred to distance herself from that by refusing to date at all. She stayed home, taking over the duties her mother had left behind. It wasn’t until she was in college, away from the shadow of Stacy, that she even started dating. Even so, her experience with men was limited at best.

Melissa watched her sister go from a straight-A student who never broke the rules to a rebel who skipped school and hung out with the wrong crowd. To compensate, Melissa became an over-achiever graduating with honors and earning enough scholarship money to put herself through college. And now she was a college graduate, without a job, living with her sister who earned more money in one day than most people earned in a week. Stacy, who took advantage of the loneliness of others, was able to afford a beachfront condo, a jazzy convertible, and designer clothes. Melissa, who worked hard to put herself through school and was searching for a legitimate career, was able to afford the dollar menu at McDonalds. They were polar opposites in every way. It was one of those ironies that Melissa found irritating. Every day she pounded the pavement looking for a job. She hung on to the hope that surely someone out there had more to offer than Stacy did. Unfortunately at the end of each day she was still just as unemployed with no leads or prospects. It seemed that no one wanted to take a chance on someone with no experience. Melissa didn’t expect to start at the top or even in the middle; she just wanted a chance to start. She was beginning to feel like she had wasted her time by getting her degree.

That evening Stacy and Melissa were sitting on the balcony taking in the sunset over the beach when Stacy’s ‘business’ phone rang. Melissa was torn between staying outside to watch the beautiful changing colors and having to listen to yet another one of Stacy’s calls, or going inside and missing out on the beautiful scene before her.

Stacy went inside to get the phone and brought it back, along with bright red nail polish. “Might as well kill two birds with one stone.” She answered the phone and began painting her toenails.

Melissa tried to tune Stacy out. She concentrated on the way the reds and yellows mixed to form various shades of orange. She focused on the reflection of the sky’s beauty over the rolling ocean. Living with Stacy was becoming unbearable, but without a job she didn’t stand a chance of living in a run-down trailer, much less a beautiful condo. As much as she wanted to leave, she couldn’t. She had nearly depleted her savings as it was. Soon she would be applying for jobs at fast food places just to be able to pay her bills. She frowned as Stacy’s conversation jarred her away from the colorful sunset.

“That's wonderful, John. I'm happy for you, really.” Stacy rolled her eyes at Melissa. “Sure. That's all you've talked about for weeks.” She made a gagging motion, irritating Melissa.

Melissa wanted to yank the phone away from her and tell the man on the other end just what type of person he was wasting his time and money on, but then she also wanted to ask him what kind of man has to call someone like Stacy.

Stacy finished painting her toenails, barely paying attention to her client. “John, we've talked about this. I like you and I've enjoyed talking with you these past few months.” Suddenly her eyes grew wide and she nearly dropped the phone. She mouthed to Melissa, “Oh my God” before continuing her conversation.

“I'm not allowed to meet customers.”

Melissa wondered just exactly what it was that her client wanted to do. She hadn’t known Stacy to turn down many offers.

“This isn't really normal. I mean, it isn't what I do. I don't know, maybe you should find a… I don't know… a therapist? ….John, if we talk any longer, I'm going to have to charge you for another hour. That's another $89.95 and….”

Holy crap. Stacy was charging this guy nearly a hundred bucks an hour? That was double what she usually charged. Melissa felt a little sick when she thought about how badly her sister was taking advantage of this guy.

“I'm sorry, John, I've got to go.” Stacy hung up the phone and began practically rolling with laughter. “Oh, Mel. You are gonna love this.” She was laughing so hard that tears were beginning to form in her eyes. “This guy wants me to – get this – go to Australia with him while he goes on a walkabout. Not only that, he already bought my ticket and everything. Can you imagine? Me? Out there? With a Crocodile Dundee wannabe? What a hoot! Can you believe it?”

Melissa stared in disbelief at her sister. “Actually, Stacy, I’m a little surprised you didn’t jump at the chance for a free trip. Turning guys down usually isn’t your style.”

“This guy is so not my type. He’s the nice, dependable type; I want reckless. You know that. Plus he’s got to be at least Dad’s age and is as white bread as they come. Bor-ring. And he is a paraplegic. As if I’d be with someone like that. And how is he gonna do this whole walkabout thing if he can’t even walk. As if. Oh, and he is so hung up on his ex that he calls me by her name. He always calls me Helen. I’ll bet next month’s rent he bought the ticket in her name instead of mine. He’s such a dolt. A dolt with enough money to call me at double my normal rate, but still…” Stacy visibly shuddered at the thought of going anywhere with the guy.

“Yet you are willing to charge him big bucks just to talk to you. You never cease to amaze me.” Melissa left her sister sitting on the balcony. As she prepared dinner she pondered what kind of person would invite Stacy to go someplace without ever having met her. She realized that it didn’t matter if he’d met her or not; Stacy told him everything he wanted to hear and he would expect that person to show up. And knowing her sister like she did, that’s exactly who would show up. She would pretend to be this Helen person and con him out of even more of his money and leave him wanting more by the time it was all said and done.

How she shared the same DNA as Stacy was a genetic mystery.