They had a computer sciences degree now – between them. People needed a birth certificate to go to university and they only had one so they couldn’t both go. In the campus office they asked politely if, perhaps, there wasn’t a way around the one birth certificate rule, given their particular circumstances? Wasn’t there some way they could both go to university? But it got awkward quickly, so they said, maybe they could do the degree together? The university advisor pretended not to hear what they’d said in a way that made them think that perhaps if they didn’t say it again, they might get away with it. Then the university advisor broke the silence by saying, ‘There’s some forms to sign,’ and leaned back to get the forms that needed to be filled out. ‘One set of forms,’ he said. ‘One degree. You can fill them out over there.’

The computer sciences degree turned out to be good training in technical skills but also in sharing work. It laid the foundation for a good working relationship. They left each other good notes so one could pick up seamlessly from the other. They worked well together and got excellent grades. For a moment, it looked like they might get a good job. But the better jobs were a lot more nervous about the two of them. There were more background checks and they always wanted both of them to come in for the interview and it was uncomfortable. Sometimes there were people in the room who had never seen two women like them, but the biggest problem was that everyone knew what it meant if there were two of you. They’d been drunk when it happened – very drunk. Only the worst women had split into two. So the better jobs were harder to get despite their grades and letters of recommendation.

They tried lying a few times – applying as one person and then doing the job as two – but it always bit them. Someone would make an offhand in-joke, referring to something that had happened the day before, and then it was weird and people got uncomfortable and immediately looked at Peggy or Greta as the source of the discomfort. ‘Does she look, like, out of kilter?’ ‘Yeah, there’s something up with her.’ The city they moved to was more progressive and there were more government jobs, but it felt smaller and someone was always bound to see them doing shopping, going for lunch in the weekend, walking beside the beach. So, lying wasn’t going to work either.