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Her father’s diary held a shocking revelation: a few years before his untimely death, he’d discovered an identical twin brother—a golden child who had seemingly made nothing but good life decisions. Engrossed in the thin, angled script of her father’s hand, she found his narrative growing bitter, jealous, even callous at times, as he recounted the life this “Jerry” had built for himself, “and what if,” her father pondered, “we just switched places?” While she read closely for any clues to help her track down the unknown uncle herself, she reached a final line that left her breathless: “If you’re reading this, Katie Bear, I must be gone; if it gives you some hope, know that I may still be alive and well somewhere, though in that case you’ve buried the wrong man.”
Interesting, the brother had it all not because he was switched at birth with a rich family or somesuch but because he was totes cool. I’d like to see that story where the character pulls the old switcheroo and then their new awesome life falls apart because they suck.
I will confess that in the original draft of this post, it was more ambiguous as to whether or not the twin even existed (or was something a secretly dying man conjured up.)
If they did switch, I suspect – as you say – it would go badly and for the reasons given. I also guess that means a man murdered his secret twin in order to replace him with no one the wiser. I kind of want to turn this idea into a short-story to see where it goes.