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“Honestly, if you cut your hair, I don’t think Frau Hertz would be able to tell us apart.”
That was the line that started it all. It was a throwaway in a conversation between the two Schlossbauer twins, Eric and Lottie, about how their main school teacher, Frau Hertz, would call out for “Schlossbauer” and then get mad at the twins when they didn’t magically know which one she was referring to.
But, despite its joking nature, there was a level of truth behind it. Despite the fact Eric was thinner eyed, larger nosed and even slightly lighter skinned than his sister, most people on the nice side of town (or even those in the not-so-nice one)’s main exposure to someone that looks like the twins were; the twins themselves, their parents, and international stars who made it into the German news. You would think that would make them care more to differentiate the twins specifically, but Eric had always known that people simply cared less about people that looked like him or his family, even if they were famous like his parents.
It was clear the Lottie had picked up on the idea too because she replied;
“Then we could be like identical twins in books, and swap out when one of us wants to do something the other doesn't.”
And that was where the conversation should have ended, but it wasn’t.
That brings us to the present day, was Eric stands in the doorframe of the bathroom, looking down at a large heap of curly, black hair layed out chaotically on the floor, and across at a characteristically excited Lottie, holding an open pair of scissors, right beside her ear.
“Lottie, put the scissors down!” he exclaimed, “You’re going to cut yourself!”
And that was what alerted their mother.
She called from the kitchen, kindly, clearly unaware of the magnitude of what was happening;
“Eric, sweetie, what is Lottie doing with the scissors?”
Eric walked out into the kitchen, not wanting to get his sister in trouble but seeing no point in lying.
“She cut her hair, Mama.” he said, slowly, “lots of it. She tried to make it look like mine.”
“And why would she do that?” Mrs. Schlossbauer replied, her tone kind but confused. She was used to Lottie’s antics at this point, ‘Incidents’ they were often called. Little did any of them know that in a few years time they would all be dealing with a very different kind of ‘Incident’.
“We made a joke that if she cut her hair we would be able to switch out like identical twins do in books, because Frau Hertz has a hard enough time telling us apart as it is. I didn’t realise she would take it seriously.” Eric really did not want to get in trouble.
“It’s alright,” Mrs. Schlossbauer replied, clearly sensing his fear, “I’ll go and talk to her.” At that moment, she seemed very tired.
~~~~~~~~
The next day, on the way to school, Eric couldn’t help but notice a shift in the way that other people stared at them. He supposed that to a rash and confident person like Lottie, nothing would seem any different from the usual vitriol, but Eric could tell that it was worse.
That previous night, after The Incident, there had been an attempt made to clean up Lottie’s poorly cut hair and, in order to make it anywhere near even, it had to be just as short as Eric’s. She had on a purple cloche hat, chosen to match her girlish, collared dress, but that could only distract a passerby for a few seconds before they noticed the complete lack of any hair at all sticking out.
Once the pair actually arrived at school, Lottie was forced to take off her hat along with her shoes, revealing her new haircut to classmates, staff and passerbys alike. Eric noticed the scrunched up expression of Frau Hertz’s face that acted in her absence of ability to turn to friends and gossip like the children of her class. It seemed that even people who had been nice to the twins previously, because their parents liked their parents, were laughing at them now.
~~~~~~~~
The next time The Hair Cutting Incident became relevant was the next time they had a race in PE. PE was always quite the chore for Eric, just like tests and quizzes about grammar and arithmetic were quite the chore for Lottie. So, knowing the feeling, she made the offer to switch.
“But won’t you do poorly, against the boys?”
“Nonsense, Eric,” she replied, ecstatic, as always, but slightly offended, “I can beat those boys any day. And besides, running is more about fun for me than it is about anything else.”
Eric was still nervous to comply, but pretty quickly Lottie had pretended to be desperate for the loo so that the two could quietly escape behind the sports shed to make a change of clothes.
Lottie quickly threw off her cloche hat (light green this time) and matching gingham dress. Getting the nice clothes dirty on the ground, much to Eric’s dismay. He was much more cautious in taking off his shirt and shorts and vest, but he thought the faint dirt marks made him look even more like his sister when standing in the girls’ line waiting on a turn that would never come.
Lottie had told her closest friends about the switch, the ones that would be able to tell that “Lottie” wasn’t actually Lottie, but other than that no one paid any attention to him. It seemed they already had their fix of hatred in the morning.
Lottie ended up coming third in the boys’ race, and after a second round of pretending to need the loo, a complaint from the PE teacher about the Schlossbauers’ parenting, and a second switch over, she was able to come first in the Girls’.
~~~~~~~~
Lottie seemed to take away the moral of the story as her needing to run more, because being the fastest in the grade is much better than being the fastest girl. And that she needed to beg her parents to let her keep the short hair, which she was actually quite enjoying, separate from the ability to switch. But Eric had made some more quiet observations.
Lessons about being ignored and being disdained and being looked down on, that made him reevaluate some of the things that he thought of as normal for someone like him. Things that would stick in his mind, and become very useful for later.
Very useful indeed.