The Twins’ Fixation on Reality and Truth

By Bongi Zondo and Bongiwe Zondo

The only way Season and Autumn will live their lives free from criticism is to face their ultimate reality. However, societal expectations don’t have to be the answer to life’s decisions.

The magnitude of the major events that take place in their lives exposes their psychological dilemmas, their bond that’s loosely held, who the enemies are, and who they’re up against.

Bongi and Bongiwe Zondo deliver a story about how they live their lives, which ultimately leaves room for adventure. But “outsiders” believe they’re setting themselves up for ultimate failure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bongi Zondo
• Release date: Jan 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9780620971218

Bongi Zondo

Time to explore your literary horizon.Bongi and Bongiwe Zondo are identical twins, born in 1996 in Vereeniging, South Africa. Both sisters studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and majored in English Literature. The sisters furthered their studies to obtain their BA honours degree in psychological counselling. They are unmarried and have no kids, and currently reside in Fourways, South Africa.Reading has always been a hobby for both sisters. Majoring in English literature prompted them to write for experimental purposes and through that writing share the life experiences that had an impact on who they are, in the form of a gripping narrative.Do enjoy our perspective of life as a twin.Happy reading...

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THE TWINS’ FIXATION

ON REALITY AND TRUTH

BONGI AND BONGIWE ZONDO

A novella

© Bongi & Bongiwe Zondo 2021

The Twins’ Fixation on Reality & Truth

A novella

Published by Bongi & Bongiwe Zondo

Sandton, South Africa

[e-mail] / [e-mail]

ISBN 978-0-620-97121-8

ISBN (ebook) 978-0-620-97122-5

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Layout and cover design by Boutique Books

About the Authors

Bongi and Bongiwe Zondo are identical twins, born in 1996 in Vereeniging, South Africa. Both sisters studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and majored in English Literature. The sisters furthered their studies to obtain their BA honours degree in psychological counselling. They are unmarried and have no kids, and currently reside in South Africa.

Reading has always been a hobby for both sisters. Majoring in English literature prompted them to write for experimental purposes and through that writing share the life experiences that had an impact on who they are, in the form of a gripping narrative.

Contents

About the Authors

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Words and Phrases adapted from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

Acknowledgements

Preface

If the truth be told, we choose and create our own reality. We have spent our entire lives being criticised by society for who we are, according to their perception. Society is a group of people we call the outsiders.

We call them outsiders because they don’t know what it is like to be a twin. Their judgment is biased, as they continuously have something to say about our decisions.

The aim of this novella is not to depict what changed our lives; it’s about how we have become the people we are today. It’s about our lives as twins and how people perceive it. The novella attempts to make the readers understand the world we live in and to answer all the questions that people ask every time they meet us.

This book was written with only a single thought in mind: that we wish to let the world know what it is like to be twins. Probability is like gravity. You cannot negotiate with it, but if you have a chance grasp it and use it. We have a chance to live our lives as if they are a fantasy, which ultimately assumes there’s a happy ending.

We took almost a year to complete this novella. As first-time writers, we didn’t know where to start; what is right and what is wrong. We didn’t know how to tell a story that will not end until the novella was completed. All we knew to do was to put our thoughts on paper. But ultimately writing a novella is not just about having one’s thoughts exposed to the readers. It’s about creativity, predicting and assuming what people find interesting and would like to read.

We underestimated what goes into the process of completing a novella. Our primary motivation was to prove a point and gauge our capabilities. Finding the main topic was not difficult for us; the most challenging part was writing it as a narrative that we hoped would be interesting to our readers. Our aim is that the novella be an optimal hit for an audience whose attention span is increasingly fractured. Therefore, the style of writing is exhilarating, interlinking with the theme of the novel being a fantasy.

Chapter 1

Season

We are walking in the streets of Cape Town. We are in Long Street, which is well known as the centre of life of Cape Town. The place is quite groovy, I must say, with an amazing view surrounded by factory stores of different clothing brands. I look around, and I see people from foreign places united in trying out the food sold by street vendors. It all seems extraordinary to Autumn.

In this case I fail to interact genuinely with people as Autumn does; it is almost a mission impossible for me. This understanding of my personality crossed my mind. Obviously, I’m an introvert and all this time I’ve been conditioned by Autumn on how to behave in public places. Autumn represents the different me, the me I could never be, even if I tried.

Autumn is my identical twin sister and I imagine life impossible to live without her. She is an inch taller than I am and looks quite intimidating, with her careless look. However, she’s a prickly pear, although when you get to know her she’s the most sensitive, empathic person that I know.

I walk amongst people every day not only representing myself but at the same time representing a different me. Interestingly, I don’t think I would consider my sister to be a very polite person. I don’t think that, when we were growing up, I would have spoken very highly of her or would have wanted her to be the person who represents me.

I think that, if I were given an opportunity to describe her, I would proudly tell the person questioning me about Autumn to stop bothering me and to get away from me. I would feel aggravated that I was being questioned about someone who has absolutely nothing to do with me. If I can imagine, then I would think to myself that only the weak would fall into the trap of entertaining the rhetorical questions.

I spend the rest of my day sitting indoors, watching movies. Not because I need a break, but to shift my concentration, I decide to play a royal chess game on my cellphone, which is hardly ever charged to 100% battery life.

I live the life of a couch potato – although I never refer to myself as a couch potato, as I’m often tormented by the thoughts of getting fat. I consider life for a fat person to be quite difficult to live.

Autumn and I don’t care to be surrounded by people for entertainment, but when we are faced with the company of others, Autumn knows just how to behave. She laughs now and then, gives eye contact when necessary and throws in silly jokes to entertain the other person.

I, on the other hand, display a total lack of character when it truly matters but, if I must explain myself, their interests simply don’t align with my interests. Usually, the wildness of an environment disturbs me more than I can express myself.

When you can relax and unwind, there is a different kind of solace. Autumn and I have done almost all the basic activities in Cape Town. This includes, quad biking, parasailing, horse riding, river rafting, boat cruises, wine tasting and sightseeing. So, I’d like to believe that the only reason we keep coming back to Cape Town is for the weather, to experience all four seasons in a day.

Come to think of it, maybe it is fate that Mom named Autumn and me after the special climate conditions that give thanks and welcome thanksgiving.

Autumn

Whenever it is time to go home, it feels as if I was never