Mei Bo and Mei Li were sisters, and they were smarter than most people realized. Of course, most people had no idea that they were, in fact, two separate people. Mei Li was the older sister, and as such, she had hatched a plan to get herself and her sister out of Korea. They were not Korean, themselves, or at least, Mei Li didn’t think they were, but they had been abandoned at a Korean orphanage as babies. Mei Bo and Mei Li were identical twins, and superstition implied that one or more of them were evil. Certainly they staged their share of wicked tricks on teachers in their youth, but it wasn’t until Mei Li was an adolescent that she realized the full potential of their identical selves.

At fifteen, the Mei sisters were about to be turned loose from the orphanage. The only jobs available at that time were for barmaids and prostitutes. Neither girl wanted either career for their future. Then Li heard about an American church sponsoring children to come to America to study. She and her sister both applied, but only Mei Li was accepted to the sponsorship program. This was where their sameness would finally pay off.

Mei Li went to the United States according to the guides of her sponsors. She went to church and to school and learned English and waited for the day she would be able to see her sister again. When she graduated from school, Mei Li took the first bus to Jasmine Falls to see a man named Dennis Braxton about a job. The position was for a full time live-in housekeeper; salary, plus room and board. It was exactly what Mei Li was looking for. She went to interview for the position, and she said exactly what Mr. Braxton had wanted to hear, that she was a hard worker, that she would be quiet, and that she would accept the salary he offered with no haggling. It was a bonus to him that she spoke such good English.

As soon as her position in his manor was secure, Mei Li tucked her passport and some clothes with money hidden in the pockets into a small box and mailed it to her sister in Korea. There was a slight hiccup getting Mei Bo out of the country, but once her plane touched down in America, Mei Bo was home free.

Mei Li waited until Mr. Braxton went out for the day, and then she sneaked her sibling into the house. Together they lived in her bedroom suite off the laundry room. It was adjacent to the kitchen, and had its own bathroom, and certainly the two of them had lived in meaner conditions than these during their lives. Braxton hardly looked at Mei Li, and didn’t notice at all when he saw Mei Bo in her stead. As far as he knew, he only had one maid with a healthy appetite who somehow never got sick. In truth, if either became ill, the other took over all the duties, to prevent the master from checking into the room. Their clothes fit interchangeably, and since Braxton required his housekeeper to wear a uniform, there was no chance of them being outed by their selection of garb. In this manner, they would break up the duties, and clean the house in half the time that any of his former housekeepers had been able to. Braxton was a busy man, and he never questioned Mei’s abilities. He was just glad to have quiet help who kept the place in good order and liked to watch cable television in her room at night.

After a few years like this, they had grown bored of the arrangement, and the twin sisters decided to save up money to purchase a home for themselves, one where they could each have their own bedroom. To accomplish this, Mei Bo found a housekeeping position on the border between Cherry Hills and Jasmine Falls. Her employer was a widow with an odd child. Mei Bo still lived with her sister, but this way they were able to draw two salaries without having to pay rent.

It was a solid plan until the day that the widow’s odd child had gone missing. Money had been taken from the safe, the widow had called the police, and everyone was searching. Mei Bo had been called in for questioning, and was under the scrutiny of the law. They wanted her home address, and she’d been forced to supply it—Mr. Braxton’s house. So far the police had not yet come to see her there, but Mei Bo and Mei Li both feared that it was only a matter of time until they did. They were already suspicious about her status for being legally in the country; Mei Li’s student visa had expired long ago, and she had yet to file for naturalization. Until now, it had not seemed a pressing matter.

Mei Li kicked herself for taking their good life for granted. They needed to hurry up and find a place of their own; neither one of them wanted to go back to Korea. They had come to enjoy their lifestyle here, and neither wanted to give that up.

Mei Li lay awake at night, thinking very hard about what to do. Most people in her position might not have been so calm, but she was very smart, and her brain had not yet failed her, and besides, Mei Li was not most people.