The Twins. Sheldon Cohen

knocked her up. I don’t know who. The kids could be yours. I think it’s only fair that we share the kids.”

      Now Alfred realized the purpose of this meeting. He stormed back, “I’ll make my own kids!”

      “Could be you already did. I want one kid, period. You got to take one. Otherwise, I’ll tell everybody what happened. My wife doesn’t know anything yet. Do you think Helene would like to know that her husband was out getting laid the night before the wedding?”

      Alfred leaned forward and sneered at his brother. “You wouldn’t do that.”

      “Try me.”

      “You must be crazy. How do you think I could explain to my wife about wanting to take an adopted kid to the United States?”

      “I don’t care what the hell you tell her, but whatever you say will be a lot better then what I tell her.”

      Alfred stared at his brother, his mouth agape.

      Werner continued. “As I said, tell her anything. It’s none of my business. In a few weeks, we’ll probably never see each other again. You live your life and I’ll live mine. This’ll stay a secret in the family.”

      “I think you got a screw loose.”

      “I thought you’d say that. Let me sweeten the pot for you. I’ll throw in three thousand marks. I don’t have to do that, but you’re my baby brother after all, and I know you don’t have a pot to piss in. Besides that, I kinda like you, Alfred. You got balls. Will the three thousand marks help?”

      Alfred’s eyes opened wide. God, how I could use that money, he thought. I could buy a home. I wouldn’t have to have money taken out of my wages for years to pay back a loan. We would live like royalty.

      Werner could see that Alfred’s mind was turning this over. He sat back, a smug expression on his face. “Think about it hard. I have to know in the next forty-eight hours. Those kids are already born don’t forget. They’re watching them for a few days, but then they expect me to get them. We’ll go there together, you and me. You’ll take one. I’ll take one. They’ll never know. You’re helping me pick ‘em up, that’s all. You pocket the cash. We say goodbye and go our separate ways. Everybody’s happy. When you get to the United States, I think it would be a good idea to change your name. Get a new identity. You and your family make a fresh start. Maybe some day we tell the boys we adopted them. We never tell them they’re twins. They’re our kids, that’s all. They live in different countries and never see each other or know about each other. Let’s leave it that way. Case closed.”

      Alfred left the beer hall shaking. We’ve got no kids. Helene’s not pregnant. I took the advice of the old man for the first time in my life and didn’t get my wife pregnant. Now I’ve got no job. Kids are all the same as far as I’m concerned. We could take this boy. Three-thousand marks is a fortune and could get us set up for life. What the hell could I tell Helene? He slowed his pace as he walked home, his mind working nonstop.

      CHAPTER 13

      Helene could tell that something was wrong when Alfred returned home. The look on his face betrayed him. They sat in their tiny kitchen sipping tea. “What did your brother have to say?”

      “It was a shock. We’ve got a lot of talking to do.” He slumped in his chair.

      “What? Don’t sit there like a frog on a log. Tell me.”

      “It’s a long story.”

      “Start from the beginning. I’ve got nothing but time.”

      “Remember when I went to the beer hall before the wedding with Werner, Sigmund and Reinhard.”

      “Sure.”

      “First you got to promise that what I tell you tonight will never leave you. It’s confidential.”

      “I swear,” she said leaning forward, her forehead crinkled.

      “Werner met a waitress there. She got off duty at 9:00 o’clock and went back to her quarters behind the beer hall. We were sitting there having a few beers, and then Werner said he had to go to the toilet. He was gone for about fifteen minutes. I started to wonder what happened to him. I thought maybe he got sick or something, so I went to the toilet to check on him. I spotted him coming out of one of the huts in the back. Damn if he hadn’t gone in there and had sex with that waitress. What else could it be? I don’t think he was there to have a cup of tea. I’m sure he didn’t see me. When he came back, I didn’t say a word and I forgot all about it. What he does is his business.”

      “So why are you telling me this?”

      “Wait, the story is just starting. You know that Werner and Brigid are going to adopt a baby. Well it turns out that the waitress got pregnant and it’s her baby that Werner and Brigid are supposed to get.”

      “Unbelievable. I thought they’re not supposed to know who the mother is.”

      “They’re not, but Werner found out.”

      “How’d he find out?”

      “He wouldn’t tell me.”

      “Did he tell Brigid anything?”

      “No.”

      “I still don’t know what this has got to do with us?”

      “Here comes the shocker. The waitress was supposed to have the baby a month from now, but she just delivered. Not one, but two boys.”

      Helene mouthed the words, “Twins.”

      “You got it. Werner says he wants only one baby. He offered me three thousand marks to take the other.”

      “What?”

      “Do I have to repeat it?”

      “What did you tell him?”

      “Nothing. What do you think? He needs an answer in forty-eight hours.”

      “We’ll make our own babies.”

      “I know, but three thousand marks?”

      “You want to take this baby?” Helene asked eyes widely opened.

      “I need to hear from you. You’ll be raising it more than me. You’ll be the busy one. Now that I’m going to have a good job, we could afford it. We’d be able to buy a house, and I wouldn’t have to get a loan from my future boss and pay him back for years. We could get a good start, become a family right away, and make a success of our lives. We can still have as many kids as we want. Werner says we’ll be eight thousand kilometers apart and never see each other again. I’d do it, but it’s up to you.”

      Helene stared at her husband, looking deeply into his eyes. She couldn’t believe he had been so considerate of her, communicating with her about every major decision that had to be made. Could she cope with so sudden a life-altering decision? It was clear he wanted to do this. “I have to sleep on this. We’ll talk again tomorrow,” she said.

      But she couldn’t sleep. They spent half the night talking and bleary-eyed they decided that they would accept Werner’s offer and take one of the twins.

      The next day Alfred spoke to Werner. “We’ll do it,” he said the moment he saw him. “Tell me what I need to do, and tell me when we get the money.”

      Werner nodded his head, a sly smile on his face. “Good choice, Alfred. That makes things easier for both of us. First, I have to tell Brigid. She doesn’t know the kids were born. I had to wait to see what I could work out with you. Now I’ll tell her what happened and that you’re gonna take one of the babies.”

      “What are you going to tell her about why we agreed?”

      “You told your wife something about why you’re doing this. Did I ask you what you told her? No. Remember, I said I do not care what you tell your wife