We Look Alike

You will see a family resemblance between my brothers and I. Sometimes, I wonder if its a good thing or not. Being the oldest, I guess it doesn’t bother me so much. We’ve been able to confuse church members quite consistently. Those moments are fun. There’s a lady at church who never gets it right each time we meet. And there are others who try.

One day, I went to the security guardhouse in my condo to get our residents identity card done for my whole family. I passed him all four of our passport-sized photographs (my mom, two brothers and me). The guard laid the photos on the table and looked at me intently as I if I was playing a practical joke on him. “Kenapa semua gambar sama?” (Why did you give me four of the same pictures?) . The head guard, who knew there were four of us, interjected, “Bukan samalah. Satu keluarga” (They’re different photos. It’s a family).

Another time, a man I knew who lived on the same block, whom I had always smiled at in the elevator asked me, “You have brothers right?”. The poor man got confused with the different reactions he had received doing our smile-and-hi routine.

One mother teased her two giggling kids who assumed I was the clown brother (my brother works as a clown). “You know who is this? You know who is this?… This is the clown!” I smiled, acknowledging her suggestion because I didn’t want to ruin her children’s happy, euphoric moment.

In church one morning, my youngest brother was on stage leading the singing for worship. I walked into the hall from the back late (usually the case). An usher saw me and in amazement, instantaneously made some speechless grunts as he tried to make sense of my brother’s omnipresence in both ends of the building.

So having look-a-likes can be quite amusing. But nothing beats the amusing verbal exchange I had with my brother in the car one day. We were once again having a little annoying tiff over something. And to mark his victory, he boldly shoved his closing statement at me: “MY FACE IS LIKE YOUR BACKSIDE!”. I’m quite sure he meant the opposite. It’s conversations like these that create a whole new dimension to our family resemblance.

Lesson: Siblings are fun to have. And when you and your siblings look alike, boy you can have fun. Always smile at people because you will never know if your look-alike has smiled at him before. And when you want to end your arguments with a bang, rehearse your closing statement 15 times aloud to avoid saying the wrong thing.