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The girls looked at each other. 'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' asked Katy, breaking the intolerable silence.

'Yes,' replied Nicole. 'Let's get back. Fast.'

Gathering up their reins, the two wheeled their horses around and trotted their horses back across the meadow, jumping and levels of riding long forgotten. They reluctantly slowed to a walk as they entered the field. Although they were in a hurry, they walked the horses to cool them off, then led them into their barns and untacked, groomed, and put them away. They met at the entrance at the same time and set off toward the parking lot.

Nicole stopped in her tracks suddenly. 'Oops. Karen told me that my parents were planning to pick me up. Maybe I should wait for them.'

'Well, hop on the back of my bike. We'll get home faster with the two of us riding. I don't think you'll want to run all the way home, and there's no way this is going to wait for them to come pick us up. Did they go home, saying they would pick you up later?' asked Katy.

'I think that was kind of implied. I guess I can ride with you. Let's go!''' Nicole said. She hauled herself up behind Katy on the bicycle seat and settled in as Katy began peddling furiously to pull their combined weight along.

Katy bore them both along and went as fast as she could toward their houses. She panted as she screeched to a stop in her driveway. Nicole hopped off the seat and laughed. 'I guess that's the advantage to riding. That's exactly what it is, because I don't have to do any work!'

Katy glared at her. 'Next time you're doing the pedaling,' she threatened her new friend - and possibly, sister.

Katy parked her bike and walked into the garage where her grandfather was putting the finishing touches on his workbench. Nicole followed.

'Grampa, I'd like you to meet Nicole Evans,' Katy introduced.

Her grandfather started and looked up, a slow smile beginning to spread across his face. Then, seeing that the girls were watching him, he regained his composure in time to hear his granddaughter's next words.

'Nicole is sixteen, just like me, and her birthday is in September 19^th, 1986, and we have the same last names and the same parents and grandparents' names. And we look alike, to top it all off. Would you please explain that?' Katy demanded, hands on her hips.

Her grandfather suddenly looked much younger than his years, showing a bright, cheerful smile and emitting a radiance that Katy had only seen a few times in her life. 'Nicole, go get your parents. We've got something to tell you girls,' he commanded, turning to the other girl.

Nicole looked apprehensive and very puzzled. 'Okay...'

'Well, hurry up now, Nicole! This can't wait any longer! We all need to talk.'

Nicole was back in a few minutes with her parents. When Nicole's mother saw Katy's grandmother, she ran forward and hugged the older lady. 'Mom! How are you! It's been, what, almost sixteen years since I last saw you! I'm so glad we were able to contact you. We wanted to fly out and visit you or something, but we couldn't because I didn't want Nicole to get suspicious.'

Nicole looked indignant. 'Didn't want me to get suspicious about what?' she asked.

Nicole's mother turned and saw Katy standing next to her daughter. Recognition dawned on her face and she flew forward to grasp the girl in her arms. 'Kaitlin, oh, my precious Kaitlin. You can't imagine how long I've waited for this very moment. Sixteen long years have passed, and I had no knowledge where you were or even if you were alive. What a miracle this is.'

After the embracing was over, the girls' elders turned to them. 'Boy, have we got a story for you,' Nicole's father said. He was a handsome man in a business suit, and he had finely carved features not unlike that of Katy's own.

Gran spoke up. 'I can't believe you found us after all this time. The years have erased the unpleasant memories, eh? And as I remember, we didn't exactly part on good terms.' Gran hugged her daughter anyway, sealing the past into oblivion. Nicole's mother reached out and hugged Grampa, who returned it heartily.

Katy looked at Nicole and shrugged. 'Any idea what's going on?' Katy whispered to the other teen.

'Maybe it's a family reunion, and my parents are really your parents, too. This is really strange. Can't just be a coincidence, can it?' Nicole answered in a hushed tone, not wanting to disturb the reunion that was going on before their eyes.

Katy shrugged and cleared her throat. 'What's going on here? What is all this?' she asked loudly.

Nicole's parents and Katy's grandparents turned to them and beamed. 'This was all part of a plan,' Nicole's mother started. 'We've been out of touch for sixteen years, and finally got back together.'

'Why were you out of touch in the first place?' Katy asked, still a little puzzled.

The younger of the two couples glanced at each other before continuing. 'They need to know,' Nicole's father said. His wife nodded and continued.

'Before your father and I had even been married a year, I became pregnant with twins. It was totally out of the question to even consider an abortion, so I decided to wait it out. There was no way we were going to kill one baby by abortion, much less two. We know the Bible is adamant against it, and we totally agreed. We couldn't have lived with ourselves if we had given in.

'To skip ahead here a little, by the time you girls arrived, we had decided to put the babies up for adoption. We were very unsteady in our new lives and had almost nothing to speak for in the world.'

Here their father broke in. 'I was working odd jobs here and there around town, and we never knew from one day to the next if we would have food to put on the table. The situation was getting seriously bad by the end of your mother's pregnancy, and we knew that we had neither the money nor the experience for children. Neither or us were ready.

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