Janet’s Bio or The Quantum Entanglement Twin Theory

The theory of Quantum Entanglement states that if two electrons are created together and then get separated, they are forever entangled, regardless of the distance between the two electrons. So a change in quantum spin in one electron will cause the other electron to change spin as well. What Einstein called “spooky action at a distance” is very possibly playing out in the lives of identical twins all over the world. Sharing a womb is as entangled as two human beings can get and so stories abound about twins separated at birth who share identical traits and choose similar life patterns.

My sister and I are no exception–we often finish each other’s sentences, call on the phone simultaneously, and have even shared pain telepathically in a crisis, like many other twins. But we do have a few personality differences to make life interesting. Pam is the right-brained, creative type who relishes in writing dialogue and dramatic scenes. I, on the other hand, will spend months delightedly researching and accumulating fifty references but balk at actually sitting down and writing anything. Which makes us a good team, actually. She can follow her muse while I handle the technical details.

I caught the computer bug in 1985 in self defense when my kids’ computer games kept crashing my home computer. What was first a survival tactic eventually evolved into an I.T. Administrator job. Which I enjoyed until the day I was knee deep in 49 computers.  It was an easy decision to walk away from corporate life to write the next, great bestseller with my twin.

Collaborating together does, however, present a challenge or two. When Pam and I were writing our Nancy Drew book together, she was adamantly holding on to her electric typewriter. She was envisioning handing me pages and pages of text which I would then retype into Microsoft Word and print out for our editor at Mega-Books. Uh….no. With a deadline looming, I had to drag her, kicking and screaming, into computer literacy. It’s one of the many things I dragged her into that she is now thankful for. Well, maybe not that time I talked her into the 16 mile bike ride.

The disadvantages of being a twin are primarily from the perception of other people. Which leads to what we fondly refer to as the “freak” factor. Pam and I were in a specialty pillow store when I asked the salesperson about the features of a side-sleeper’s pillow. Before she could answer, Pam laughed and said, “As opposed to a “normal” pillow for “normal” people.” The lady’s mouth dropped open, her eyes widened and she looked back and forth at both of us. Instead of answering the question, she said, “Oh my, I’m sorry, but your voices are exactly alike, and your faces, it’s just… just… uncanny! Are you twins?” I always feel like answering that question with “No.  Seeing double can be a sign of a serious illness.” Then I would just smile and walk away with my doppelganger.

But instead I say, “Yes, we’re identical.” And let them relish in the freakiness. Movie ticket takers, restaurant servers, people passing by in the street—we can count on the freak factor following us wherever we go. It can even evolve into an interesting twist when people expect us to be virtual clones, like genetically identical white mice. We actually had someone tell us, during a highly anticipated lunch to “meet the twins,” that they were disappointed they could tell us apart. Apparently we are not freaky enough!

Of course, sometimes it’s just darn “cute.” Like when our 4 year old nephew, Ben, first discovered the freakiness of it all. He looked at Pam, then at me, and said with wonder in his eyes, “Did you know there’s two of you?”

Yes, there are two of us, Ben. Conceived and born as two, we are multiples in a singular world–so we may indeed be freaks to some. But even a genious like Einstein couldn’t disprove the entanglement theory during his lifetime. I know it works for me, regardless of how “spooky” it is. My sister and I remain happily entangled as all those electrons keep spinning along.

  Pamela’s Bio or The Twin that got Stuck up the Tree