What are the odds?－ ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

What are the odds?

As you read this story, you might question the reality of it. I wouldn’t blame you for that as it did sound too surreal to be real. However, it is as true as it can be since I was one of the main characters in this story and I saw it firsthand. My husband and I had an eight-year long-distance relationship. I can testify to the age-old saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Whenever I got the chance, I would fly down to St. Louis, Missouri to visit my husband, then boyfriend.

It was the start of our long-distance relationship when this occurred. It was roughly seventeen years ago, just a few months after I relocated to Minnesota for my first job, upon receiving my graduate degree. I went to visit my husband and we dined at a Chinese buffet restaurant in Chesterfield. While we were half way through our meals, I happened to look around and found my double. When I said double, I meant a complete clone of myself in physical appearance. It was like looking into a mirror and seeing another you walking out of the mirror, except it wasn’t me.

I kept staring at her. It was hard to move my eyes away. What are the odds to meet your double in the quiet Midwest of a huge continent, populated mostly by Caucasians and some Blacks? My husband joked that she might be my half sister. I would say that it would be extremely unlikely that either one of my parents could produce my clone. Would it be possible that two people could be so much alike, like identical twins but without any blood relation, medical intervention or cosmetic surgery? How bizarre could that be? After my husband’s instigation and out of my own intrigue, I approached her and her family. She was dining with her mom and dad. By the way, she looked like me in high school or college. You could probably imagine the astonishment emotion on her face and her family’s when I introduced myself to them.

I don’t usually do things like that. However, I hate to miss the opportunity to talk to my double. It was really a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Luckily, I didn’t find out any secret of my family. She is a complete stranger. She isn’t even a Taiwanese but she is a Chinese. Like the 2^nd generation immigrants who speak mostly their local dialects, she can only speak Cantonese. She is ten years younger than me and was a senior in high school when we met.

It was fun chatting with her and her family. The only thing that I regretted was not having a camera with me at that time. I didn’t have a camera until my son was born. Actually that isn’t my personal camera either. It is a family camera. I used to buy disposable cameras when I was traveling alone.

I truly treasure this experience meeting her, as it opens my eyes to things that seem unexplainable. As I grow older, I learn to see things with open mind, and the older I get, the less I know. I can never say it with 100% certainty that it is 100% impossible, as I saw it with my own eyes the impossible. The universe is full of wonder.