I knew you were going to do that

We're all familiar with the myths about multiples, am I right? They share everything, are the best of friends, can't be told apart... and have some odd kind of ESP? And that's just for starters. Well I don't claim to be any kind of expert on twins, but my brother and I seem to have a twin-link of our very own - if an odd one. No, we're not twins, he's two years older than me (an ancient 21). We're definitely not identical. None of the other myths seem to hold for long (we're friends sometimes, other times... not so much), but it's gone on long enough that it's the teensiest bit freaky.

In a good way, of course.

First time I can remember it kicking in was when he was celebrating a victorious soccer season with his primary school team at a McDs - families were invited, naturally. I'd gotten a little high on excitement and two large Cokes (I was five - sue me) and was running madly around the playground when one of the boys on his team dropped down off the climbing frame, landed on my back, and wound up breaking my leg.

I spent a couple of weeks in hospital with my leg in traction (slightly complicated by the fact that it took them a week to realise I was fairly violently allergic to the plaster in my cast) - two days later my brother joined me. He'd come down with Meningitis and the hospital wound up putting him in the other bed in my room. I guess it made it easier for the parents to visit or something?

Anyway, the next 'big' thing I can remember was when I was in Year Four. Remember how I mentioned the end-of-school play? Turns out they'd been rehearsing in the school hall after class on a nice hot summer's day when he blacked out (still won't admit he 'fainted'), fell face-first down three stairs and broke his jaw on the hard wooden floor. My mum raced off to take him to the doctor's when the school called, which meant that when I finally got home (the buses around here - well I'll be generous and call them slow) it was my dad who came to the door to let me in - just in time to see me faint and fall off the balcony into the garden. Luckily flowerbeds are softer than hardwood, so I only needed a dozen or so stitches.

Next case of the 'twin-link'? Ice-skating with friends from high-school. We were both there (mutual friend's birthday), and I fell over fairly early on, hurt my wrist and went back to skating after taking a break. He slipped over at the end, bashed his own arm hard enough that the parentals took us by a doctor on the way home. Seems he'd fractured his left wrist and - you guessed it - I'd actually managed to do the same to my right. By the time we finally headed home we each had our plastered arms like mirror-images, and I was puzzling over how to do my exam the next day.

If you're getting the impression that this twin-link of ours is only to do with the many interesting ways we manage to hurt ourselves, think again - those were just the more memorable times. I've lost count of the number of times since he moved out that one of us has gone to call the other, put our hand on the phone - only to have it ring because the other one (he's usually faster than me I 'fess) felt like talking. Not to mention the time we both bought U2 tickets as a present for the other one at Christmas.

Or when my dad died last year and I'd literally just heard when Jason (my brother) rang. "I just felt really down all of a sudden and felt like talking", he said.

It just seems that almost all the major things and many of the minor in my life have been fairly closely mirrored by him (with one exception) or visa-versa and soon after at that - so we joke about our 'twin-link' and leave it at that.

Except he just called this morning to tell me he's going to be a father...

Should I be worried?