Part 6. By Cristina DC Pastor and Elizabeth Cueva
This is the story of Eloisa, a Filipina Nurse, who works as a nurse at the Elmhurst Hospital, the epicenter of the COVID19 contagion in New York written by Story Weavers Ann Constantino Beck, DJ Chinita, Elizabeth Cueva, Grace Labaguis, Joyce Andes-David, Lara Gregory, Laura Garcia, Mona Kuker, Muriel Iturralde, Nieva Quezon-Burdick, Vanette Colmenares, Vivian Talambiras-Cruz, Cristina DC Pastor, and Marivir Montebon.
Cristina: Brandon and George are both alike and different. As brothers they have the same father but different mothers. Brandon, who is older by a few years, has smoldering dark looks with a strong resemblance to actor Andy Garcia, his features passed on from his immigrant Cuban mother. George on the other hand looks all-American Wasp-ish, his mom a postal worker from Kentucky who now works as a Super in NYC.
Both are attracted to the Filipina nurse, Eloisa. While Brandon is not sure about being serious with her because there are other women in his life, George is unsure about Eloisa’s true intentions: Is she looking for a green card? Both are determined to find out if Eloisa is to be their true love or one simply looking to marry for visa and money.
Elizabeth: Brandon was out on bail. Apparently, the police officers arrested him without reading him his Miranda rights. Great! Brandon took the chaotic situation in New York to his advantage. He already had lot of brush-ins with the law that he already knew his legal rights. He already had two years at NYU Law School and he would have continued it were it not for the spiraling loans that he had incurred to support his legal education. How ironic that he had to resort to extra-legal ways to become a lawyer. Brandon refuses to consider the alternative medicine trade as illegal. He heard that a lot of prisoners will be released anyway due to the Covid19 threat. Ahh… so much for that.
Fresh from the shower, Brandon dried himself and put on the towel around his waste to start to prepare for the day. His olive skin glistened like Adonis. “Isn’t it strange?”, Brandon caught himself glancing at his handsome image in the mirror and admiring his visage. “How could people confuse me with that pale-faced brother of mine ?” He had such contempt for his brother George, whom he thought was such a weakling and a Mama’s boy.
“What would people say if they knew that I have a twin from another mother? How incongruous and unbelievable is that? Hahaha!” He laughed at himself while preening. “I can be mistaken more for Andy Garcia!” he thought. He splashed on the Old Spice that reminded him of his proud and arrogant father and his so-called “mother.”
A dark scowl crossed Brandon’s demeanor. He has a love-hate relationship with them. “Wow, they treated us like a petri dish experiment!” You see, 27 years ago, his parents were dead-set on conceiving their own children rather than adopting so they approached a Dr. Joseph Mendele-like OB-GYN physician to impregnate his mother with his father’s sperm. Alas, his mother had no egg cells of her own.
The brothers George and Brandon were conceived using their father’s sperm cell fertilizing the egg cells of two different female egg donors in a petri dish. And once the zygots were formed, the fertilized eggs were introduced to their mother’s womb. “Ahhh! The wonders of science!”, Brandon caught himself saying. He began dancing some weird dance movies and singing, “I think I’m a clone now!” to Weird Al Yankovic’s funny parody of “I think We’re Alone Now!” maniacally laughing out loud. “Hahahaha!”
But I am not a clone. Am I a twin? Then he smelled a strawberry scent wafting in the air and his mind went, “Ah…. the beautiful but naive Eloisa and her equally naive friends! They could not even distinguish how markedly different my features are from my doltish brother, George! I bet with Mom bossing him around, he would soon end up like Norman Bates of ‘Psycho.’ This! This pandemic! This is because of man trying to be a god! God help us!
(To be continued. Part 6 of 9)
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