mirror twins (a story)

They were conceived by the same egg and sperm. They gathered into the same cell. They split into equal portions. No one could tell the difference between them. Not by looks.
Even their parents. Though when they were little, mom would put different outfits on them. Just so she knew which was Susie and which was Ellie.
But when they were older, they would switch so even mom was confused.
It wasn’t their looks that got them into trouble. They were cute enough that boys and men came hunting for them. But they rebuffed them mostly.
You would start to notice the distinction between the girls when you watched them write or reach for something.
Susie was the rightie, Ellie the leftie. If you saw that, you knew then; Susie was the good girl, Ellie was the bad girl. Or so everyone said.
When they did the same things; Susie was being kind and careless, Ellie was being selfish and impulsive. They gave Susie the benefit of the doubt.
Let me give you some examples:
If a man came on to Susie, then she was a pretty girl, and it was no surprise. If a man came on to Ellie, then she was a slut and they were reading her signals.
If Susie went out for drinks, it was to have fun with friends. If Ellie went out for drinks, it was because she was an addict, or a party girl. Out of control.
If Susie brought friends home, their parents made them feel welcome. If Ellie brought them home, their parents screamed and threw them out.
What nobody knew, but the girls, was they were ambidextrous. If for no one else, the girls were protective of each other. Susie would never let Ellie be abused in such a way all the time, with no respite. Neither would Ellie allow Susie to suffer so.
Susie wasn’t a good girl and Ellie wasn’t a bad girl. They were just a couple of kids, acting like a couple of kids. When they were kids.
So as soon as they could, the girls left home. They got a room together. And they worked and saved and studied. And they took turns visitng their parents as Susie. Ellie never went. So their parents disowned her.
Their parents went to their death beds thinking bad of Ellie. And thinking well of Susie.
Do you know why?
Their parents were superstitious. Ellie was left handed, and to them… left handed was a sign of evil.