Living a Lie

Bill woke up suddenly.

What was that? Just a strange dream, or a memory? It was so weird... the people in the car were definitely Carli and Dylan, so why did he think of them as strangers? They were his parents, right? Hadn't he known them his whole life?

Andreas came in.

"Bill, are you alright?"

Bil nodded.

"Yeah...it was just a strange dream, that's all. So what's up?"

"Dinner's read, Carli told me to tell you that."

They always called their parents by their first names.

"Andreas?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever thought that maybe Carli and Dylan aren't our real parents?"

Andreas layed down on the bed next to Bill.

"Why would you think that?"

Bill shrugged.

"I don't know...sometimes I think that maybe we're adopted or something. I have memories...well, I think that they are memories, of living with another family. There was this boy with dreads...I think his name was Tom. We were close... And I also remember my first memory of you, and it was when I was 5. Is it weird that I don't remember anything before that?"

Andreas sighed.

"I don't know. But aren't Carli and Dylan's names on our birth certificates?"

Bill shrugged.

"Yeah, you're right. I knew that it was crazy, just forget about it."

"OK. Do you want to go get dinner now?"

Bill nodded and they both got up and went into the dining room.

"How was your first day of school?" Dylan asked.

"Fine." Bill and Andreas mumbled.

"Were you two OK?" Carli asked. Everyone knew that she was asking because at most of the schools they went to they were called fags, especially Bill.

"No one said anything," said Bill.

"Good. Probably because it's an arts school. Aren't artists weird...unique? Maybe they are more accepting." Carli suggested.

"Maybe," said Bill.

Then he thought of something.

"I was wondering...can i see my birth certificate?"

Carli and Dylan looked at each other.

"Why?" Dylan finally asked.

Bill shrugged.

"Uh...for school. They need a copy of it," he lied.

"I'll look for it tonight, for you to take in tomorrow," Carli said.

After dinner Bill was in his room doing homework when Andreas came in.

"Why the hell were you asking for our birth certificates?" He asked.

Bill sighed.

"I just wanted to see them."

"Why do you think that they aren't;t our parents so much?"

"I'm just curious. Besides, it will tell us where we were born. Don't you want to know that?"

"I don't really care," Andreas replied. He took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it.

"Andreas, don't you ever feel like they are hiding things from us? And why do we move so much? Are we running from something? Don't you want to know?"

Andreas sighed.

"I guess it won't hurt. But if this turns out to be nothing, then I will be very mad at you."

Carli gave them their birth certificates. It said that they were born at a Rawlings Hospital in Germany.

The boys were examining them when Nikki came over.

"What are you two talking about?" She asked.

"Nothing," Bill replied.

"Whatever." She said.

But Bill and Andreas weren't finished talking, so they switched their conversation into German.

"Do you think that we should look up the information online?" Bill asked.

"Ja," replied Andreas.

"What the hell are you two saying?" Nikki asked. "What's so secretive that you can't say it in English. This IS America!"

Bill and Andreas looked at each other. Andreas sighed.

"Bill here is crazy and thinks that our parents aren't our real parents and that we aren't really brothers or something. But our birth certificates say differently."

"Let me see," she said.

Bill and Andreas gave them to her. She took a laptop out of her back pack and went to google. She looked up a few different things until she paused, her mouth open in shock.

"What's wrong?" Bill asked.

"Are you sure that Rawlings is the name of the hospital?"

Bill and Andreas double checked the birth certificates and then nodded.

She turned the laptop so that they could see it.

"That hospital doesn't exist anymore. According to this website, it burned down in 1918 and was never rebuilt."

"Well, what's that supposed to mean?" Andreas asked.

"That means...these birth certificates are fake," Bill said, shocked.