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year, for no obvious reason, their fights became harsher, and at the same time, Antonio lost all interest in his studies. Luis’s life, on the other hand, continued along its orderly path. He kept his record spotless, and his grades were very good; in fact, he was first in his class that year. Incredibly, his brother was last and would have to repeat the grade, and that was how the twins’ paths diverged again.
    There was only one school counselor for more than four thousand students, but he took an interest in the twins’ case and called their parents in for a meeting. He offered the theory, not necessarily true, that Antonio had been driven by an unconscious desire (the counselor explained to them, quickly and accurately, exactly what the unconscious was) not to be in the same class as his brother.
    Luis sailed through his senior year with excellent grades, and got outstanding scores on all the university entrance exams, especially History of Chile and Social Studies, on which he got nearly the highest scores in the nation. He entered the University of Chile to study law, on a full scholarship.
    __________
    The twins were never as distant from each other as they were during Luis’s first months in college. Antonio was jealous when he saw his brother leaving for the university, free now of his uniform, while he was still stuck in high school. Some mornings their schedules coincided, butthanks to a tacit and elegant agreement—some version, perhaps, of the famous twin telepathy—they never boarded the same bus.
    They avoided each other, barely greeting one another, though they knew that their estrangement couldn’t last forever. One night, when Luis was already in his second semester of law, Antonio started talking to him again through the partition. “How’s college?” he asked.
    â€œIn what sense?”
    â€œThe girls,” Antonio clarified.
    â€œOh, there are some really hot girls,” Luis replied, trying not to sound boastful.
    â€œYeah, I know there are girls, but how do you do it?”
    â€œHow do we do what?” said Luis, who, deep down, knew exactly what his brother was asking.
    â€œHow do you fart with girls around?”
    â€œWell, you just have to hold it in,” Luis answered.
    They spent that night, as they had when they were children, talking and laughing while they competed with their farts and burps, and from then on they were once again inseparable. They kept up the illusion of independence, especially from Monday to Friday, but on weekends they always went out together, matched each other drink for drink, and played tricks switching places, taking advantage of the fact that, thanks to Luis’s newly long hair and now-clear skin, their physical resemblance was once again almost absolute.
    Antonio’s academic performance had improved a great deal, but he still wasn’t a model student, and toward the end of his senior year he began to get anxious. Though he felt prepared for the aptitude test, he wasn’t sure that he would be able to score high enough to study law at the University of Chile like his brother. The idea was Antonio’s, naturally, but Luis accepted right away, with no blackmailor stipulations, and without an ounce of fear, since at no point did he consider it possible that they would be found out. In December of that year, Luis Covarrubias registered, presenting his brother Antonio’s ID card, to take the test for the second time, and he gave it his all. He tried so hard that he got even better scores than he had the year before: in fact, he received the nation’s highest score on the Social Studies test.
    __________
    â€œBut none of us have twin brothers,” Cordero said that afternoon, when Segovia finished his story. It may have been drizzling or raining, I don’t remember, but I know that the teacher was wearing a blue raincoat. He got up to buy cigarettes, and when he came back to our table he