Dad took out the contents of the DNA test kit for twins. There were two cotton swabs on sticks like suckers, each sealed in a plastic container. There were two metal things about 2 inches long, again each sealed in a plastic container. There were four cards, each sealed in a little plastic bag. There several foil packets of antiseptic swabs in a plastic bag. There were forms to be filled out, one for me and one for Carson. There were four labels with spaces for our names and social security numbers. There was a sheet with instructions and a booklet about DNA testing. Finally there was a return shipping box with a prepaid next-day-air label.

Dad read the instructions and Carson and I read the booklet on DNA testing.

“Okay, guys, there are two ways to test your DNA. One is to swab the inside of your mouth and both are sent back for testing. The other is to use the lancets to get a drop of blood from each of you. Carson’s drop is transferred to one of these cards, David’s to the other, and both cards are sent back for testing. The swab method is easier. The blood test is more accurate, but takes longer to be processed.”

“How do we take the blood? What’s the lance thing?”

“The lancet is used to prick the pad of your finger to extract a blood sample. We can do it, or we can ask Uncle Phil to take the samples tonight. According to the instructions, the blood test method when taken by a licensed physician is more accurate and is supposed to be accepted everywhere in the United States. I think that seems to be the best way. However, courts won’t accept either method to unseal records. The other method will have to be used to do that.”

“Does it hurt to have the blood method with that lancet thing?” Carson asked.

“The instructions say most people don’t feel it. I would guess that it’s like sticking your finger with a pin. If Uncle Phil does it I’d think it wouldn’t hurt as much as if I did it.”

I looked at Dad and snickered. “I think we could guarantee that it wouldn’t hurt as much to have Uncle Phil do it. I think that would be best. How about you, Carson?”

“Yeah, I agree that Uncle Phil should do it. No offense intended, Dad.”

“None taken, Carson.”

“What about the second box, Dad?” I asked.

“It’s the same kind of test, from a different company. They have what they call a “Legally Binding Test” but it takes longer. The tests aren’t that expensive, so I decided we should do both.”

Dad opened the box, and the only thing the box contained was a bunch of forms.

“This test takes longer because we have to go to a collection facility that will have the blood draws witnessed. They say it takes at least three working days to schedule an appointment. By the time all of that happens we might have the first test back.”

“Dad, why don’t we just wait for the first test to come back before going through all this collection facility stuff with the second test?”

“That’s a good suggestion, Carson. However, I think it’s better to have both tests done. We’ll have Uncle Phil take your blood samples and send in the first kit, then probably one day next week your mom can take you two to the nearest collection facility after school. We’ll get the first test back sooner because it’s easier to get the blood samples, and see if it comes back with a positive result for the two of you being twins. Regardless if it does or doesn’t, when the second test comes back the results will be legally binding because we used the collection facility.”

“I’ve got another question,” Carson asked. “What’s the difference between the first test with the blood samples taken by Uncle Phil and that’s accepted in all courts, and the second test where we have to go to a special facility to get our blood sample and it’s supposed to be legally binding? Doesn’t being accepted by all courts mean that it’s legally binding?”

“The difference is the one that’s legally binding means that it’s conclusive and no one can contest the results of how two people are related, and the other one, the one that’s accepted by the courts, still means someone could contest the results. Also, the one that’s legally binding can be used to unseal Carson’s birth record at Kettering Hospital, the other can’t be used for that.”

“Okay, can we call Uncle Phil and see if he can come over tonight and take blood out of our fingers?”

“He and Mary and Rebecca are coming over anyway, to have dessert with us to celebrate that Alan is leaving for college.”

I nudged Carson. “That’s cool.”

“What,” he whispered, “the dessert or Uncle Phil sucking blood out of our fingers?”

I poked him in his ribs, and he busted up laughing, trying to say, “Don’t tickle!” That came out sounding like, “doan’ ikel,” and that made me and Dad laugh. I’d forgotten that Carson had told me he was ticklish. I should have guessed because I’m ticklish too… oh my god! I’m already subconsciously assuming we’re twins!

“Okay, enough of this fun. Let’s go back to the family room and chat with Alan. We won’t see him again until Christmas break.”

As we got up I asked Dad, “Why does his semester start now? It’s after Thanksgiving.”

“They’re on the quarter system, and some of the classes Alan wants to take didn’t start until this quarter.”

“That’s weird. So he can change classes four times a year instead of two?”

“Actually, it’s three times. Even though they call them quarters, there are only three per school year, plus summer session that makes the fourth quarter.”

“That’s even weirder. So that means they divide a year-long class into three parts? How does that work?”

“Ask Alan about it. He’ll explain it, but let me warn you that it might give you a headache trying to understand it if you’re used to the two semester system. I went to UC Berkeley, and they use the semester system. The so-called quarter system doesn’t make any sense to me.”

When we sat down with the others Alan was telling about the apartment he and his friends are renting in San Diego. When he was finished I got to ask my question.

“Alan, how does this quarter system work? How do you get a class that’s one semester long, do they split it across two quarters?”

“No, David. The way it works is that you take fewer classes in one quarter than you would if you were at a school that divided things into two semesters, like a community college. A semester is usually sixteen weeks long, so a school year is thirty-two weeks long. A quarter at UC San Diego is about ten and a half weeks long, so not counting summer sessions it works out to the same number of class hours. Let’s say you were taking six classes each semester at UC Berkeley. Instead of taking six one hour classes in each semester, we take four one and a half hour classes each quarter. Got it?”

“Yeah. So you cram each class into less time, right? So that means you have to learn more in less time.”

“But we take fewer subjects to learn each quarter, two-thirds as many, and we can concentrate on fewer subjects. Other schools like Stanford are also on the quarter system. When we went through orientation they talked about the difference, and at the end of each year it works out to be the same number of courses and the same number of class hours.”

“I see a big difference, you have finals three times a year instead of two. But you have fewer subjects to study for each time. It seems to me like you’d be working on finals a lot more often. What do you think about that?” Carson asked.

“Actually, I hadn’t thought about that,” Alan replied. “If I had to study for six finals all at the same time maybe I wouldn’t do as well as having to study for only four finals. But you’re right that I’ll be studying for finals more often, but then I'll have fewer subjects to study.”

“What about labs?” Dad asked. “When I was at Cal a lot of labs were open hours, meaning we’d have to schedule lab time as we needed to work on a project. Even having a full sixteen week semester often didn’t seem long enough. You’re only going to have about ten weeks for your labs, even if you have half again as many hours that seems like a lot of pressure to finish a project, especially if you’re taking two or three classes that have labs in one quarter.”

“That’s something else that I hadn’t thought about. I don’t know about labs, I have two labs this quarter. I guess I’ll find out real fast.”

“Alan, what’s your major?” Carson asked.

“Biochemistry.”

“Wow! That sounds tough. What will you do with biochemistry when you go looking for a job?”

“I’m interested in research, maybe at a university where I’d do some teaching as well. To do that I know I’ll have to get a PhD.”

“What to biochemists do, what kind of research?” I asked.

“Biochemistry is a combination of chemistry and biology. Biochemists do research to investigate living systems and their relationships in the environment. Some biochemists go into environmental science jobs, others do what I’m interested in doing, teaching and doing research at a university like UC San Diego or UC Berkeley. Some go to work in industry, especially for food companies. I’ll probably get my Masters at San Diego and my PhD at Berkeley. It’s too soon to know exactly what I’ll do. That’s a ways off, maybe eight years or longer.”

The doorbell rang, and I got up to see who was there.

“Hey, Sprout! How you doing?”

It was Uncle Phil, Aunt Mary, and my cousin Rebecca.

“Hi! And Uncle Phil, I guess you’re getting old and forgetful. My name is David. I can get you a pen with indelible ink to write it on the palm of your hand so you don’t forget.”

“Maybe I’d better write it on your forehead. Or even better we'll get it tattooed. That way whenever I see you I’ll see your name, too.”

“Ignore him, David!” Aunt Mary said as she hugged me.

“Hi, David,” Becca hugged me. That’s her nickname now. She made that decision all by herself.

“Come on in. Everyone’s in the family room. Alan has been telling us about being a biochemist and what going to UC San Diego is going to be like. Did you know they’re on the quarter system?”

“No, but I went to the University of Michigan and they’re on a trimester system, three ten week sessions.”

“That’s the same as UC San Diego, but they call it a quarter system,” I told Uncle Phil as we walked into the family room. “Alan, Uncle Phil says he went to the University of Michigan and they are on a trimester system but it sounds like the same as your quarter system.”

We sat and listened to Alan talk about the courses he was going to take this year, and his roommates, and the great Mexican restaurants in San Diego. He told Uncle Phil and Aunt Mary about moving Jen into her dorm in San Luis Obispo and the tour of the Cal Poly campus all of which Carson and I had already heard. Finally Mom stood and said she was going to get the dessert ready, and Aunt Mary and Lynn went into the kitchen to help her.

Dad started telling Uncle Phil about the DNA kits, and that’s what interested me and Carson the most.

“Phil, I have two DNA test kits that are designed to identify siblings and twins. We’d like you to take blood samples from David and Carson that we can send in for testing. They included two lancets but I want to make sure that it’s done correctly and with minimal pain for the boys. Is this okay with you?”

“Sure. Let me see the instructions, and we’ll do it now. That way if they start bleeding uncontrollably we can call an ambulance or the coroner, depending on whether they’re still alive or have already bled to death by the time we make the call.” Uncle Phil turned and grinned at me and Carson.

“Daddy!” Becca told him, “Don’t be mean.”

“Oh, honey, they know I’m kidding, don’t you David? Carson?”

I shook my head and stared at Uncle Phil. “I don’t know. Aren’t doctors always supposed to tell the truth?”

“I don’t remember, did they ever talk about that in medical school? Hmm… I just can’t recall them saying anything about that. So if I can’t remember it must never been discussed. But since you’re my relatives, I guess I have to do it the quick and painless way. And bloodless, or mostly bloodless, way.”

Dad stood. “Alright, come on into my office. The kits are there.”

“Can I come too? This is interesting and relates to biochem,” Alan asked.

“Me too!” Barb said.

“And me!” Becca added.

So the seven of us went to Dad’s office. Now, his office wasn’t very large what with the desk and chairs and the bookcases and file cabinet, so it got crowded as soon as we were all there.

Dad explained the two kits.

“This kit is the one Phil is going to help us with. He’ll take the blood samples and we can ship it back tomorrow. This faster test will have the results back to us in about one week. This other kit is for legally binding DNA tests. The blood samples are taken by a technician and will be witnessed and notarized. The results will be back in about two to three weeks. We’ll use the first test to have a quick decision whether Carson and David are related as twins, and the second test which will be legally binding.”

“Why do you need a test that’s legally binding?” Uncle Phil asked.

“Because there are two birth certificates for Carson, one from Redwood Hospital and one from Kettering Hospital. It will cause confusion when we file the adoption application as well as at the hearing in court. Having legally binding results that they are twins would help speed up our adoption of Carson and prevent any objections by CPS, CDSS, or anyone who decides they want to contest that Carson and David are twins. It’s the only test that can be used to unseal birth records that were sealed by court order.”

“What’s CDSS?” I asked.

“The California Department of Social Services. CPS handles kids who are being fostered, CDSS handles kids who are being adopted.

“Why were they sealed by court order?” Uncle Phil asked.

“We don’t know. We’ll find out when we take the legally binding results to court and the records are unsealed.” 

“Alright, I understand. Let’s take the blood draws and get this kit ready to return to the testing service tomorrow morning.”

Uncle Phil went out to his car and got his medical bag. Taking my blood sample was simple. Uncle Phil rubbed the pad of my right index finger with alcohol then with a liquid anesthetic, waited about 30 seconds and used the lancet that came with the kit to prick the end of my little finger and pressed out a couple drops of blood on the collection card. He put a bandage on my finger, mostly to keep me from getting any blood on my clothes. Then he took a blood sample from Carson the same way.

“Okay, guys. Did that hurt?” he asked.

We shook our heads and both said, “No.”

“The blood samples have to dry for twenty minutes, then they can be packaged and sent back to the lab. My job here is done. Now, let’s go eat cake!”

Alan’s favorite cake is the Mocha Cream Cake from Marichi’s Bakery. It’s my favorite too. Because it’s a big cake covered with whipped cream (yum!). We didn’t have any ice cream and I didn’t miss it.

After we were finished eating our dessert, there were some going away gifts for Alan. Mom never told me or Carson about gifts, but she had all of our names on the card on a large gift wrapped box. Alan thanked us, then opened the box. It was a compact microwave oven.

“Oh, this is great! Thanks, all of you. We thought we’d have to go out and buy one for the apartment. This is excellent.”

Uncle Phil gave Alan a ‘Congratulations to the New College Student’ card. With it was a gift card from Amazon.com.

“Alan,” Uncle Phil told him, “You can download textbooks from their website that you can rent or buy and some have Kindle versions that you can read on your laptop. Most textbooks have pages that look exactly like the printed book and those that are in color are shown in color. You can highlight in several different colors, annotate them, do searches, make notes, and print pages. They are shown using the textbook’s actual page numbers so it should be easy to follow your assignments.”

Aunt Mary added, “The prices for renting electronic books are less than for buying electronic or printed copies, and you can keep them for anywhere from six months to a year, or you can keep them forever, depending on the publisher. Only problem is that not all of your textbooks will be available this way.”

“Hey, this is sweet anyway. I’ll have to carry my laptop with me all the time, so being able to put at least some of my textbooks on my laptop will save a lot of weight. Of course, Uncle Phil, it’s going to cut into your income when you discover that I don’t need any fancy orthopedic surgery because I won’t be carrying around a hundred pounds of books and as a result my back won’t be killing me. Thank you, both of you and Becca too.”

I turned to Carson. “I sure wish we could get our textbooks like Alan is able to get his.”

“Maybe someday. I guess it depends on kids having laptops, and that’s expensive.”

Alan overheard us. “If you go on Amazon I think you’ll find that there are Kindle versions of a lot of high school textbooks. Thing is, when you’re taking a class, you get the loan of the textbooks from your school for free. If it’s available and you want the Kindle version you’ll have to pay the rental or purchase price yourself. Netbooks like Carson has aren’t very expensive, and when the schools figure out how much they can save by getting electronic versions of middle school and high school textbooks they’ll jump at signing up for this technology instead of paying for thousands of copies of printed books.”

“I sure hope so. Thing is, by the time they get around to having it Carson and I will be in college. So we still have fifty pounds of books to haul around with us every day. Hey, Uncle Phil, if your business drops off because Alan downloads his books to his laptop, you’ll still have me and Carson as customers because of our heavy books causing us to have bad backs.”

Uncle Phil grinned. “In the medical field we always make sure we’ll have a steady supply of customers. If it isn’t bad backs from carrying around a ton of books, it’ll be bad eyes from straining to read a tiny laptop screen. Or carpal tunnel syndrome from all of the writing you’ll be doing taking notes. You guys will keep me busy and well paid for a long time.”

I yawned, and because Carson saw me yawn he yawned too. It’s weird how contagious yawning is. I remembered how I was at Rob’s house one day and his dog saw me yawning and started yawning too. That was very funny. Mom saw us yawning, and that was enough to go into full tilt ‘Mom Mode’.

“You guys and Lynn and Barb should get ready for bed. You have another full day of school tomorrow, Carson. I’m going to phone that sports orthopedist tomorrow morning and make an appointment for you one day after school to have your arm evaluated, as soon as he can see you.”

“Going home is something we have to do as well,” Aunt Mary told us. “Becca has to get up for school too, so, let’s get ready.”

That headed off any complaints from Lynn and Barb, and we all said good night to everyone. Carson and I headed upstairs to my room.

“I guess this is your last night you’ll have to share my room, Carson.”

“You kicking me out, David?”

“Hell no! I don’t want you to leave. But with Alan going to San Diego tomorrow his room becomes your room. Mom will expect you to be using it.”

“Can I sneak back here to sleep with you?”

“Any time you want. All the time is fine with me.” I grinned. “I think I sleep better when you’re in bed with me. It’s less lonely.”

I started to get undressed for bed and noticed that Carson was just standing there looking at me. He looked sad, so I walked up to him.

“Something wrong, Carson?”

He looked at me, then grabbed my left arm.

“David, if it turns out we’re not twins will that make any difference between us?”

“Of course not!” I put my hands on his shoulders. “You’re my brother, Carson, whether we’re twins or not. I love you, man. Being twins is just the cherry on top of a giant sundae.”

“That’s what Mom said, isn’t it.”

“Yes. And I say you shouldn’t worry about my love for you. It’s forever, man. You. Are. My. Brother. Got that? Because you’re my brother I’ll love you forever. No matter what.”

Carson had tears brimming in his eyes. I pulled him close from his shoulders and kissed him on his lips. His eyes opened wide, and the tears started to run down his cheeks. I grinned.

“So, does that show that I love you?”

“I guess so.” Then he pushed back against me and hugged me hard, at least as hard as he could with only one working arm. Then he kissed me back, long and slow and on my lips. Then he leaned back and looked at me and smiled. “Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. We love each other. I don’t know why I keep worrying about things. Actually, I know why. It’s because I’m so lucky, that’s why, and I’ve never been lucky before. I’m just sort of bewildered that it’s happened so suddenly and all at once.”

“I can tell you why, Carson. It’s Mr. Gordon’s fault.”

“Mr. Gordon? The name sounds familiar, but I can’t remember him. Who is he?”

“Mr. Gordon’s dog is Woofie. If he hadn’t raised Woofie from a pup Woofie wouldn’t have escaped from his yard and chased you and we wouldn’t have met. But it did happen. It’s fate, Carson. We were fated to meet. And everything that’s happened is a result of that meeting. It doesn’t make any difference if we’re twins or not, we’re related now. We’re brothers. And I love you. And we’ll love each other forever.”

Carson smiled, and took a deep breath. “You’re right, David. It always seems so… impossible. But it’s true, isn’t it. And we are brothers. And we do love each other. And I’ll love you forever, too. And I don’t need the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae. Ice cream sundaes are wonderful with or without a cherry.”

“I’ve got a brilliant idea. Let’s sneak downstairs right now and make ourselves a couple of chocolate sundaes. No cherries needed.”

“We’d never get away with it. I’ve noticed that Alan hasn’t come back to his room. We would have heard him if he had. He’s still downstairs talking to Mom and Dad, and we’d be busted if we were in the kitchen making ice cream sundaes. So, I have an even better idea about what we can do. You can help me pick a topic for my California History and Government project.”

“Okay, that works for me. Let’s sit down and talk about it.”

So that’s what we did. And about an hour later, right after we’d gone to bed, we heard Alan come upstairs and go into his bedroom, then into the connecting bathroom to shower and brush his teeth. Then we fell asleep. I don’t know about Carson, but I dreamed about getting the DNA test results back, but when I woke up in the morning I couldn’t remember the part of my dream where Dad read the results to us.

Just like in real life, Carson and I were going to have to wait until the results actually arrived. And that wasn’t going to happen until next week for the first test, and then sometime after that for the second test.