Glad I never asked to borrow some Coke

When people find out Heather and I are twins they always ask two things: are you identical and do you have that weird twin ESP thing?

No, we’re not identical but yes, sometimes we do channel each other. Often when we’re chatting on the phone we realize we’re cooking the same thing for dinner. And sometimes I’ll pick up the phone to call her only to have her call me at the same time. And last night we were both dealing with local authorities.

She spent a portion of her evening in their street talking with the neighbors and some firemen. Seems the neighbors smelled smoke in their house but couldn’t find a cause. The fire department came out to investigate but couldn’t find anything burning. I’m not sure I’d sleep too well in that house…

I, on the other hand, spent several interesting moments with a local member of the police department and a frantic girlfriend who couldn’t find her boyfriend.

The house across the street has been for sale since we moved here. The owner finally rented it out. I took cookies over to welcome the gentleman to the neighborhood. He barely opened the door, did not give me his name, nor did he seem pleased to meet me. Great, I thought. Another dud of a neighbor.

Apparently he’d have been more interested if I’d had a drug problem.

As I pulled into the driveway Sunday night the man’s girlfriend came over and asked if I’d heard from him or seen any action at the house. Before I could say, “No,” she blurted out, “His door’s been rammed open and the house is a mess!”

She’d been trying to get in touch with him for three days; he hadn’t answered his phone and no one knew where he was. I saw the door and looked inside the front window; it was a shambles and definitely looked as if someone forced his way into the home.

At this point Sean called the police. Perhaps they could tell us if a burglary had been reported or if they knew anything about the man’s whereabouts.

A K-9 unit pulled into the driveway shortly after Sean called. I was still with the girlfriend, trying to calm her down. The officer said he couldn’t tell us anything about the man because this went way above his command, but he was most definitely not here and most definitely in heaps of trouble. The girlfriend completely flipped out.

The officer left and I asked the girlfriend if she’d like to come get a drink of water before driving home. We chatted a bit about her and her children and the boyfriend. She got up to leave as Sean finished a phone conversation – the policeman called back to tell us to get the woman out of our house and to proceed with extreme caution. Of course, I didn’t know that as I was introducing her to my children and telling her if she needed anything to let me know. And would she like to have dinner sometime?

It was an odd night for both my sister and me. Thankfully Heather’s neighbors didn’t experience any damage. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for mine.