John and Bernice Younger were thrilled when the pregnancy test showed that Bernice was, indeed, pregnant. They had been trying for several years, without success, and were awaiting an appointment for IVF treatment when the pregnancy was confirmed. At the first scan, it was also confirmed that they were expecting twins, although they chose not to find out whether they were boys or girls, preferring to be surprised when they were born.
In due course, John and Bernice became the proud parents of two healthy baby daughters. It took them a while to choose names they both liked, but eventually they settled on Georgia and Olivia.
Over the next few years the girls grew steadily. As they were identical twins, most people had trouble telling the two apart, and John and Bernice did little to help, preferring to buy two of everything, and to dress the girls identically whenever possible. It also prevented arguments as the twins became more aware of the world around them. As they grew, it became clear that they had inherited some of both of their parents’ genes. The physical resemblance to their mother was plain for all to see, with their long, brown hair and brown eyes, and their competitive streak and athleticism definitely came from their father.
It came as no surprise when, at the age of nine, a routine eye test revealed both of the girls to be slightly short-sighted; they could have inherited this from either of their parents. On this occasion, however, Bernice insisted that the girls choose different frames as they needed to be able to tell the glasses apart, as Georgia needed -1.00 in both eyes, whereas Olivia only required -0.75. Georgia insisted she needed to choose first as her eyes were worse than her sister’s, so she was obviously going to need to wear them more, but in the end they settled on the same style of frame, in dark brown plastic for Georgia, and black for Olivia. When they got home, they swapped glasses; Olivia reckoned that she could see better with Georgia’s glasses than she could with her own, although Georgia said she couldn’t tell the difference between them. The teachers at school were pleased that they had got different glasses as it made it easier to tell the girls apart, although their sense of mischief led to them swapping in school from time to time, much to everyone else’s confusion.
Most of the time, the girls were the best of friends, although there were occasional squabbles between them. It was during one of these that Georgia’s glasses were knocked off. Although they landed safely on the ground, surviving the impact, Georgia was off-balance and could not help stepping on them, causing the frame to break across the bridge of the nose. Her dad, John, did his best to repair them with a piece of sticking plaster, but it was clear that new frames were needed, so the following day, Bernice took the twins into town after school to get some new frames for Georgia.
It would not have been difficult to replace the frame, but when the optician looked up Georgia’s details on the computer, he noticed that it had been 9 months since she had got the glasses, and suggested that it would not be a bad idea to get her eyes tested as they were likely to have changed a little in that time. Although he had no spaces that afternoon, they had a couple of free slots the following day. Bernice decided they might as well take both of them and get Olivia’s eyes checked at the same time, so they did.
After the girls had had their eyes tested, they were beginning to squabble about who was going to get first choice of frames this time, when their mother stepped in and announced that they would be having the same frames as before. This time, both Georgia and Olivia were to be wearing -1.25 lenses, so it didn’t really matter whether the frames were different or not, but it saved a lot of arguments, and it also helped those who relied on the girls’ glasses to tell them apart. It also meant it was easy to tell which of the twins had left their glasses lying around if they had taken them off after watching the television, or which of them had forgotten to put them in their bags ready for school.
By the time the next reminder for the twins’ eye tests came around, they were busy with the various festivities and trips which are organised to celebrate the end of Primary school, so Bernice decided to leave it for a couple more months, so they could go on to Secondary school with an up-to-date prescription. Neither of the girls had complained about having any trouble seeing, and she could not make up her mind whether the fact that they were wearing their glasses a little more often was because they needed them to see better, or just laziness in not taking them off. In truth, it was probably a bit of both, as their next eye test revealed. Georgia’s new prescription was for -1.75 in both eyes, whereas Olivia required -2.00. Olivia claimed the right to the first choice of frames this time round (Bernice had no grounds to refuse her), and promptly chose a frame which was not dissimilar to what she had been wearing for the last two years. Georgia went for something a bit different, but still in brown plastic. In the days between the sight tests and the arrival of the new glasses, Olivia experimented with wearing both pairs of her glasses at the same time. When they went to pick up the glasses, the optician suggested that they should start to wear their glasses most of the time. Bernice agreed, especially as she had had to go up to the children’s primary school on more than one occasion to take in a pair of glasses for one or other of the girls who had left them at home.
Shortly before Easter, Olivia came home complaining that she was struggling to see the board at school. Her maths teacher had seated them all in alphabetical order which meant, with a surname of Younger, she was in the back row. Although Georgia had not mentioned any difficulty in seeing, Bernice booked a sight test for both of her daughters to take place during the holidays, as she knew that their eyes were likely to change a little more rapidly now that they were reaching puberty. The optometrist was not particularly surprised that they had not waited the full year between sight tests. Georgia could probably have waited until August before returning, as her prescription was now -2.25 in both eyes, whereas Olivia’s prescription had risen to -2.75. When Bernice asked why there was a difference between identical twins, the optometrist explained that it was probably down more to how the children used their eyes rather than any specific difference in genetics. This made sense to Bernice, as Georgia was the more sporting of her two daughters, whereas Olivia’s grades were slightly better. He also suggested that they might be well-advised to come back again at Christmas, rather than wait a year, as it was important that the girls could see as well as possible at this stage of their education.
Although they were identical twins, the differences between Georgia and Olivia were becoming slowly more apparent. Their love of sport saw Georgia taking an avid interest in athletics, whereas Olivia preferred cycling. Georgia enjoyed going to the cinema to watch a film, while Olivia preferred to read the same story in a book. They were both reasonably good academically, although Olivia’s grades were better as she would spend more time on her homework, whereas Georgia tended to complete it as quickly as possible so she could go to a sports club before or after her homework.
The Christmas holidays came, as did the girls’ sight tests. This time, both of them had been saying that they had problems seeing at school in the last few weeks before the test. Olivia had mentioned the problem to some of her teachers and been moved to sit in the front row in certain classes, whereas Georgia had battled on regardless, and it was she who did the pestering this time to make sure their mother did not try to leave the tests because she was too busy in the run-up to Christmas. Increased prescriptions duly followed; -3.00 for Georgia, -3.75 for Olivia, together with an instruction to bring the girls back before they restarted school in September. The optometrist agreed that Olivia had done the sensible thing in asking to be moved to the front of the class and suggested that, for September, Bernice contacted the school to get both of her daughters sitting at the front, as the changes in their vision, although nothing to worry about, seemed to have happened relatively quickly, and that this was one way of ensuring that any future changes had as little impact on their schooling as possible.
The next five years saw a number of changes in the girls’ vision. Once they reached the age of 15, they were able to go back to annual sight checks, and by the time they reached the end of their school days, Georgia’s glasses were -6.75 in both eyes, and Olivia’s glasses were -9.25. Now, they chose to wear the same frames, as there was no danger they would accidentally pick up the wrong glasses as neither could function in the other’s eyewear.
One evening, John and Bernice were watching television. Georgia and Olivia had gone out for the evening, Georgia to her athletics club, and Olivia to her cycling club. It was just getting dark, when someone rang the doorbell several times in quick succession, and knocked on the door for good measure. As John went to see who was there, he could make out the figures of a couple of police officers outside, and his heart sank.