Everyone always joked that we\u2019d need color-coded bowties just to tell them apart.<\/p>\n
So we did\u2014blue, teal, red.<\/p>\n
Three perfect little copies, right down to the dimples.<\/p>\n
They finished each other\u2019s sentences.<\/p>\n
Had their own language.<\/p>\n
Shared everything.<\/p>\n
It was like raising one soul in three bodies.<\/p>\n
But a few weeks ago, Teal\u2014Eli\u2014started waking up crying.<\/p>\n
Not from nightmares.<\/p>\n
From memories.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what he called them.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d say things like, \u201cRemember the old house with the red door?\u201d We\u2019ve never had a red door.<\/p>\n
Or, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we see Mrs. Langley anymore?<\/p>\n
She always gave me peppermints.\u201d We don\u2019t know anyone named Langley.<\/p>\n
Last night, he looked right at me and said, \u201cI miss Dad\u2019s old Buick.<\/p>\n
The green one with the dented bumper.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was stunned.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t talking about my car.<\/p>\n
I drive a Honda.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s never been a green Buick in our family.<\/p>\n
At first, we reasoned it was imagination.<\/p>\n
The boys were seven.<\/p>\n
They told wild stories constantly\u2014pirate ships, dinosaurs in the attic, fairies under the porch.<\/p>\n
But this was different.<\/p>\n
Eli\u2019s eyes would glaze over when he spoke, as if he were somewhere else.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t trying to impress anyone.<\/p>\n
He genuinely believed what he was saying.<\/p>\n
My wife, Marcie, tried to comfort him.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe you dreamed it, sweetie.<\/p>\n
Dreams can feel real sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eli shook his head slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.<\/p>\n
I remember it.<\/p>\n
The red door had a squeak when you opened it.<\/p>\n
Mom would tell me not to slam it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom\u201d meant me.<\/p>\n
But he wasn\u2019t looking at me when he said it.<\/p>\n
It was like I\u2019d vanished, replaced by someone else in his head.<\/p>\n
Marcie and I started writing down everything he said.<\/p>\n
We intended to discuss it with his pediatrician.<\/p>\n
Perhaps even a child psychologist if it persisted.<\/p>\n
Then Eli started drawing.<\/p>\n
Pages and pages of a house with a red door.<\/p>\n
Always the same details: a chimney with ivy, a stone path, a small garden full of tulips.<\/p>\n
His brothers, Max and Ben, would peek over his shoulder and say, \u201cCool house,\u201d but they didn\u2019t seem disturbed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everyone always joked that we\u2019d need color-coded bowties just to tell them apart. So we did\u2014blue, teal, red. Three perfect little copies, right down to the dimples…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance"],"yoast_head":"\n