[14 July, 2024]

It only takes one word to get the young identical twins to talk: “Amsterdam.” They start off mumbling, their heads hidden deep inside their hoodies, but pretty soon they are talking at a rapid pace. They list different types of weed and their characteristics, assuming I know exactly what they are talking about. Quite the opposite is true, but that doesn’t really matter. Watching the twins talk is entertaining enough in itself: They finish each other’s sentences, talk over each other and mimic each other.

Today is laundry day. Their clothes and bedsheets are soggy and damp after the extreme downpours of the last few days. The tent they live in, tucked away in the woods between the Taco Bell and The Hall of Heroes Superhero Museum, barely manages to keep anything dry. “We like to live in nature,” Derek says, as though they are on a cozy camping trip. They’re allowed to use the washing machine of their older friend, Chuck, who lives a hundred yards away in his recently purchased 1950s trailer home. The angelic wallpaper in the trailer’s bathroom reminds me of my childhood album of rhymes.

Chuck, 52, has been keeping an eye on the place for years. “The boys have been through a lot. This country is rotten. Look at this town: They may drive expensive cars there, build big houses, but you can’t put lipstick on a pig.”

Waiting for their laundry, Quentin tells me how their grandmother adopted them when they were little. “She had cancer three times. I’m glad to know, though, that my family has strong DNA that can survive cancer more than once.” Their mother has schizophrenia, and is always on the move. “My relationship with my mom last that I noticed was good,” Derek says, “because I actually got to talk to her, and I got to eat McDonald’s with her.” Time after time, the twins manage to twist tragedy into something positive. “What about your dad?” I ask them.

“My grandma said that he could basically guess any gift he had in a Christmas box just by shaking it,” Derek says, with pride. “I don’t know how he has this kind of instinct to be able to do that, because I can’t do that.” I ask, hesitantly: “And where is your father now?” Quentin, who’s normally the quiet one, answers, “He got caught up trying to cook a lot of meth, and he bumped into somebody’s car at a grocery store, and he didn’t wanna get checked by the police, so he basically just ditched the car, and consumed all the drugs that he had on him.” Derek interjects: “And passed out in the rain.” “He was by a railroad track,” Quentin explains. “They found him frozen to death, in prayer position. So I guess he was on a tree like this.” Quentin presses his hands together. After a brief silence, he adds: “But for the most part, he was very smart when it came to electronics or mechanics.”

“I am smart in another way,” Quentin continues. “I am smart in technology.” What follows is a detailed explanation of how to make money with a smartphone, computers and apps. I understand virtually none of it, but one detail stays with me: “You just need to find the glitch.”