Silent Genius

Chapter 7 - A bit about Tanna

There’s something interesting about my birth that not many people know about. There are lots of people who don’t understand how I’m only seven months younger than Tom. I mean, they all say it’s not possible. But, it is. You see, I was born three months premature. Mum got pregnant only a month after Tom was born and was only six months along when I was born. But there’s something else. There were a lot of complications, one that caused my twin sister to die. Nobody but close family knows about her. Her name was Kirra, or at least for the two hours, ten minutes she was alive. We weren’t identical twins, but fraternal twins.

The doctors say that’s why I’m still alive, that if we’d been identical, we both would’ve died. I’m not sorry that I lived while she didn’t. I know that she’s glad I’m alive and that she’s always with me. I can live because she doesn’t. Mum doesn’t understand how I can’t feel bad. I don’t understand how she can.

I think that’s why Mum worries about Claire so much. She’s afraid to lose another child. Also, I think she wants Claire to be the daughter Kirra couldn’t be.