Are you seeing double?
Them: Are you guys twins?
Us: nope
Them: no you must be. Or are you at least cousins?
Lorraine: **rolls eyes** Neo: *smiles politely*
What you are reading above is a daily interaction we have with strangers who are adamant we look alike (which we obviously do not).
Urban dictionary defines a doppelganger as someone that looks the exact same as another person. Yet not a twin.
While that’s fair and well, we are not doppelgangers, just Neo and Lorraine, two black girls who happen to be the same height. Because of this, people tend to mistake one for the other or do not look at us hard enough. There have been many a time (and probably more to come) when this has happened.
Working and living together means we spend a considerable amount of time with each other. For example,we will be on our way home, and amaTaxi driver, would ask, “ningamaTwin?” then proceed to assume that Lorraine is the naughty one because of her tattoo.
This happens at work too:) Blame it on freudian slip, a lot of times Allan mistakenly refers to Lorraine as Neo. Similarly Chief Senor, Carel, will send an email to one of us which was intended for the other.
Even though our stature makes it difficult for people to tell us apart, we are quite different.
Let’s just say, if we were PowerPuff Girls, Neo would be Bubbles and Lorraine would be Buttercup.