“Well, my son sent in my DNA and my husband’s as a Christmas present. And I can tell you, Mavis, I was mad…Some mysteries belong to the Lord…”

“Yes, yes,” said Mavis impatiently. “We all know that, but how did you find your daddy?”

“They sent us this report, Mavis, and there it was as bold as brass: Sturgis Lee Kersey. And seven more names of siblings — brothers and sisters, you know? You could have knocked me over with a feather…”

At that moment, Mavis gestured and Dorothy saw a smartly dressed girl usher in eight scrawny people — obviously the thin woman’s long-lost relatives. “This is where I get off!” cried Dorothy, and she switched off the TV.

But the blotchy face of the thin woman kept rising in front of her eyes, and those purple cracked lips said, “I wanted to know where I come from, and how come he didn’t love me.”

Dorothy got up and went to her bathroom, turned on the lights, and looked in the mirror. She whispered, “I want to know where I come from, and how come she didn’t love me.” The next day, she decided to search learn more about her own roots.

After doing a considerable amount of research, Dorothy settled on a company that seemed to be the most reliable. She ordered the DNA test, took the cheek swab, and sent it off.

A month later she received the results. One part was a bewildering flood of information about her ethnic heritage but in another section of the report, she saw the words ‘49.96% match’ with the photo of a red-head young woman whom the company identified as Michelle Simpson, 33, her daughter.

“My daughter?” she whispered. “I don’t have a daughter. I don’t have any children whatsoever!” Dorothy sent off a blistering email, accusing the company of incompetence and threatening all kinds of legal mayhem.

The company replied to her through the telephone a few days later. “Mrs. Weaver,” the smooth-voiced man on the other side said. “We’ve consulted our technical team, and faced with your assertion that you have never been pregnant or given birth, they offer the possibility of you having an identical twin.”