Author Description

Never underestimate the bond between twins. Doing so with Lauren and Tomas Colburn could be fatal. April 1983 - Patrick and Johanna Colburn are still warm from the afterglow of their November wedding when they discover that they're parents to be. The young couple couldn't be happier. Six months later, Johanna suddenly goes into preterm labor. The doctors discover that Johanna is carrying twins and that they are imminent. The fragile infants arrive ten weeks premature on Halloween night and are rushed to Riley Hospital for Children. In the neonatal ICU, little Lauren Colburn remains stable while her twin brother Tomas quickly regresses. The neonatologist tells Patrick and Lauren their son will die. Knowing this, they place Lauren in her brother's incubator in order to allow the twins to be near each other one last time. The miraculous recovery is almost immediate. Tomas begins to thrive. On December 1st, 1983, the intact family arrives back at the Colburn family farm. September 1988 - The five year old Colburn twins are seemingly happy, healthy and flourishing in every way. Every way save one. While Lauren speaks fluently, Tomas has yet to speak a single word. Odder still, the twins seem able to wordlessly communicate with the simplest glances. Their doctor calls this phenomenon 'idioglossia' and says that its common for twins to speak in rudimentary dialects of their own design until both have mastered common language. This man of science admits that some twins seem connected by a psychic link that no physician can explain. Later that month, Lauren tells her mother not to worry and that everything will be all right when Tomas ('Tom Tom' as the girl calls her brother) gets bruises. Five days later, the bruises appear. Tomas is diagnosed with an aggressive pediatric leukemia and sent back Riley Hospital. This time no one can conjure a miracle. Lauren tells her parents that she needs to stay with Tom Tom in the hospital one night bec