Chapter 59

The mall was packed with people. Shoppers carrying bags of clothes, toys, greeting cards, books, jewellery, families with kids headed for the entertainment centre, teenagers dressed in the sharpest new fashions hanging around in the atrium, seeing and being seen.

Shauna, standing on the fourth-floor bridge between Buildings B and C, saw Sherie as she entered the foyer. She smiled. It was so good to see Sherie again. It had been so long.

She saw Sherie look around, hesitate, check the mall directory on the right hand wall, then head for the Building C escalator. Shauna moved towards C as well, past the bookshop which was hosting some kind of book party thronged with celebs dressed like a fashion show, and rode the escalator down.

They met at the second floor, riding on adjacent escalators, one twin going up, the other down.

Sherie saw her, smiled tentatively, and started to turn. Shauna held out her hand to indicate that she should wait and she herself rode back up to the second floor. She got off and realized her pulse was racing. She hadn't felt so apprehensive about meeting someone since her first date, and she didn't even remember that guy's name! It was funny, feeling this way about her own twin sister.

"Sis," she said softly as they met.

"Hi," Sherie said in reply. She was a little nervous, it was clear, and more than a little unsure about this whole thing. But she was here, that was the main thing. Shauna's plan had worked, even though it had taken Sherie almost three weeks to get that bozo Milan out of her system and accept Shauna's version of the whole fiasco. She was here now, and they were together again at last. Sweet victory.

Shauna couldn't help it. She took Sherie in her arms, and embraced her. And began to cry. And instantly, almost by remote control, Sherie began to cry too.

They stood there, two beautiful, tall, fashionably dressed, immaculately groomed, identical-looking 29-year old women, very obviously twin sisters, on the second floor of Crossroads, the country's largest mall, and cried their hearts out.

The shoppers and browsers and look-cool hangers-around smiled and looked at them as they passed, and went home thinking warmly of the power of family ties and sibling love.