The islanders were intrigued to see a strange vessel pull up to their pier. Even more so by the arrival of a priest.
   ‘What brings you to our humble island?’ said Grandpa Timothy, as they met.
   ‘I’ve come to offer condolences to the family of João Ortiz, whom I understand drowned in the sea.’ They spoke to each other in French.
   ‘That is very kind of you, but as it stands, presently, our young João is quite alive and well.’
   ‘I am not altogether surprised to hear that, after some of the other things I’ve heard about these islands. And where can I find Senhor Ernesto Ortiz?’
   ‘I’m sorry to say that he abruptly left us two weeks ago, taking with him his other son, also named João,’ Said Grandpa.
   ‘His other son, also named João?’
   ‘That appears to be the case. Senhor Ortiz arrived, with the same notion as yourself, that his son had drowned. He had even gone so far as to have a monument chiselled, which he proposed to affix to one of the rocks.’
   ‘I myself helped arranged the engraving when he came to Tiguna,’ said the padre.
   ‘Then, instead of a dead son, he was presented with two, very much alive replicas of the same son.’
   The padre registered no surprise.
   ‘May I meet the remaining son?’
   ‘This is he,’ said Grandpa, gently pushing Johnny forward.
   ‘Ah, and he does resemble Senhor Ortiz,’ said Father Argabuendista.
   ‘Won’t you come inside and sit down,’ invited Grandpa. ‘Our story is quite a long one.’
   So both the padre and the seaman went inside. They were served as fine meal as the island could provide, and they listened to the account of the ship full of twins; how they had found their way to this island, thinking that the other life-boat had gone down; and the arrival of Ernesto Ortiz.
   ‘He came to visit quite often, and was of great help to us. However, we found his memory of things was terrible. He always insisted that he remembered things he had never actually said. We thought he was perhaps an overwrought man, but kind hearted otherwise. I had no objection to him marrying my daughter, which he did. Again, he claimed to have already agreed on the time of the wedding, which we hadn’t, and then, on the next trip, that we had already had the wedding, which we hadn’t.
   ‘After the wedding,’ Grandpa went on, ‘life went on as it always did. Young Johnny was born, and grew to the size that you see him now, and things went on their usual course. Senhor Ernesto recently began taking Johnny on his trips to sea with him. He had gone once — though to Johnny, it seemed like twice — and he came back. Then, suddenly, one day, there were two Johnnies. Now, when Senhor Ortiz found out about the second son, he abruptly left again, taking with him the second Johnny.’
   Now, Grandpa leaned up close to the priest. ‘We are given to the opinion that our relatives whom we fancied dead, are in fact alive. We don’t know where. It seems to be another island not unlike this one.’
   ‘I think I can take you to the said island,’ said Father Argabuendista. I suspected that this may be the case when I heard Senhor Ortiz’s story, and then heard the local legend concerning these two islands.’
   ‘Two islands?’
   ‘This one, named Doma, and another called Dtoma. The two islands are called the ‘Twin Islands’ because they are said to look alike. To Europeans, the name of the other one would be same as Doma, the "Dt" sound being a difficult one to pronounce, so it’s likely that the others also believe themselves to be living on Doma.’
   ‘Where is this island?’
   The padre turned to the seaman.
   ‘According to my calculations, it should be just over the horizon in that direction,’ said Senhor Calabrerra.
   ‘On the day he discovered there were two Johnnies, I heard him mutter something about turning two degrees North at some place called "Lao-something"...’
   ‘Lao-tuna,’ put in the seaman.
   ‘... and two degrees South at the same place.’
   ‘That would be the correct bearings for reaching these two islands. Coming from there, the wind blows across one’s path, so one could just as easily take one way as the other with no adjustment to the sail. As for us, we will get there quite quickly, the wind being directly behind us.’
   ‘And I seemed to understand from his muttering in Portuguese (I know just a little bit of Latin) that he just couldn’t bring himself to understand the obvious conclusion that — that...’
   ‘That he had married two wives,’ finished the padre.
   ‘Exactly,’ confirmed Grandpa.
   ‘And so now, he is taking comfort in the local superstition that these islands are haunted, and it wasn’t real people he found on this island, but the dead relatives of those on the other island.’
   ‘I see.’
   ‘Moreover, perhaps,’ the priest went on, ‘it behoves us to pay a visit, which would help the dear man face the realities of life. And I think you would like to meet your long lost twin?’
   ‘That I would very much, and so would everyone on this island,’ replied Grandpa.
   ‘But I think that you, the head of the island, and perhaps young João should go this time. Otherwise, they will be overwhelmed with their look-alikes.’
   So it was decided.

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