For the Twins: a serial story, parts 4 and 5

By LeAnn Kunz

“Aurelia jumped up from her perch at the base of the tree. The morning sun was peeking through the foliage of the forest, drawing golden lines and shapes on the mossy ground. Aurelia played a quick game of hopscotch on the patterns. Not long into the dance, the masked raccoons, the red-tailed squirrels, the waddling hedgehogs and porcupines, bouncy rabbits, three tiny chipmunks on hind legs, and one stinky, stinky skunk followed Aurelia in an impromptu parade.”

The twins giggled. “Stinky, stinky skunk!”

“This line of merriment disappeared down a new path into the foggy foggy dew of the morning. One could only wonder where they were headed.”

“What do you think?” asked Ben, the twin’s dad. His children’s faces became serious now, wrinkling their brows into thought.

“Maybe she is going back to find the bad-singing people?

“Maybe …” Dad nodded.

“Yeah, and maybe she’ll change into a stinky, stinky skunk!” said a second twin. They all giggled.

“Well, there is only one way to find out,” he said. Just as Ben was about to begin the next part of his tale, the lock to the front door clicked and rotated.

“Mom’s home!” the girls chimed in unison and ran to the front door, abandoning their nighttime story for a hug from their mom who had worked late that day. The knob turned and slowly the door opened to reveal their mother, looking disheveled, wrinkled, and tired in her green suit, but happy to see her twins who jumped into her arms.

“Hi Mom! Daddy’s telling us a story … there’s a wood nymph … and cucumber sandwiches … and a stinky skunk!”

“Oh, and the forest animals stole the sandwiches!” said the second twin, “but they were nice and gave most of them to A-REAL-YA! Mom, can we make some cucumber sandwiches?”

Their mother Audrey sighed as she released her girls. She was short with striking, coffee-colored skin and deep brown eyes that made most people pause. Dad smiled at her, knowing that she was about to back him up as always, and tell the girls that it was getting late and that they needed to finish their story and head to bed. He was tired himself, and ready for a late dinner with his wife and a long talk about their day.

“You know what, girls …” She dropped her bags, “let’s do it!” Mom kicked off her heels and skipped into the kitchen, leaving an aroma of surprising freshness behind her, like the smell of approaching rain.

“Yay!” The girls ran off after her leaving Ben sitting stunned on the sofa. The evening calm had shifted.

Ben got up and peeked into the kitchen to see the three of them snatching items from the fridge. They pulled out whole cucumbers, blueberries, walnuts, and grabbed the loaf of bread from the counter. Audrey seemed to be working in fast-forward, swiping the bread with butter, chopping the cucumbers into thin slices, doling out walnuts and blueberries into brown, paper bags. Her curls danced to the beat of her cutting and she sang a bit of Irish ballad in her lilting voice.

“So all night long, I held her in my arms just to keep her from the foggy, foggy dew …”

“Foggy, foggy doooooo!” chimed in the girls in a unison response. They were twirling in delight in their stocking feet on the tile floor.

Ben watched in astonishment, not quite sure what to make of his wife’s end-of-the-day energy. He thought he had successfully gotten the girls settled down and now they would have to start all over again to get them to go to bed.

“Daddy, Daddy, come on!” One twin whirled toward him and grabbed his hand. “We’re going on a midnight picnic!”

“A midnight what?” Ben was dragged into the kitchen by his daughter and looked bewildered at his wife. She beamed at him, now dressed in an airy, minty green sundress. When did she change? The dress was belted with a string of bluebells, emitting a fruity perfume. A breeze from the open back doorway shifted the skirt softly across her gleaming legs.

Ben stepped toward the door. “Girls, did you open the back door? You know we keep that closed and locked at night.”

His daughters paused in their dancing and looked up at their dad. Their eyes had darkened into black pools, and their ears, seemingly more rounded than normal emerged from their bushy red hair. Earlier he had tamed and brushed their locks into ponytail submission, but now their hair was fluffed and wild.

“Come on, Benny boy!” said Audrey as she grabbed the hand of each twin and winked at him. She hadn’t called him Benny since their dating days.

In confusion and unable to protest the scurry that headed out the back door, Ben slipped on some shoes and grabbed the sacks of food. He took a quick look at himself in the mirror by the doorway and was surprised by the gray and white stripes that he had never noticed streaking his black hair. A scattering of leaves and twigs swept in on a gust of wind. As he stepped into the night to catch up with his family, there was something else in the air. What was that smell?

For the Twins, a serial story: Part 5

By Julie Gentz

The warm night air felt a bit damp on Ben’s face, and he was grateful for the slight breeze that sent small swirls of light fog floating by his face. The foursome stepped out the back gate, navigating the bikes which the girls had dutifully parked in the yard at the end of the day. Ahead of them was a small stand of trees rimming the fringe of the housing development where they lived. It was a favorite destination for the girls who loved to explore and play there, often referring to it as their “Secret Land of Magic.”

Ben purposefully lagged a bit behind and watched as Audrey and the twins moved effortlessly together, laughing as they wound their way along the path through the trees. He could hear the slight rustling of the leaves as the girls skipped on a bit ahead of their mother, all three of them moving so gracefully it was as if the forest were as familiar to them as their own backyard. The light from an unusually bright, full moon fell in shimmering slivers through the branches of the trees, making Audrey’s green dress seem almost sparkling. Thinking that he’d better catch up to them before they got too far ahead, Ben quickened his pace. Just then, as if on cue, he was stopped short as two young raccoons darted across his path. Watching them scurry through the leaves and grass of the forest floor, Ben smiled, thinking how, in a strange way, they reminded him of the girls, racing around the backyard in a game of tag, oblivious to the rest of the world around them.

He had almost reached Audrey and the twins when his eyes caught a glimpse of what looked to be a small scrap of paper on the ground in front of him. If it weren’t for the fact that it seemed to be emitting a softly glowing light, he would never have noticed it at all. He stooped to pick it up. The minute his hand made contact with the paper the glowing stopped. Even so, he could still make out that there was some sort of writing on it. Holding it close to his eyes he read:

“When the full moon shines on the forest deep, wonders await you while others sleep. As moonlight and stardust fill the skies, the forest comes alive right before your eyes.”

Before Ben even had a second to wonder about this strange note, he heard his wife calling to him:

“Hurry up Benny boy! We are almost to our picnic spot!”

Catching up to Audrey, he slipped his hand into hers and the midnight picnickers walked together towards a small clearing just ahead. Something in the air seemed to have shifted, and Ben noticed that the light mist and fog he’d seen earlier had begun to become more frequent and was growing a bit thicker the closer they drew to their destination.

“There seems to be a bit of magic in the air tonight as well as the fog.” Ben mused with a smile.“ “Perhaps we’ll be treated to some of the magic that the twins seem to find in this place,”

And, though it was, at the time, merely a passing thought that had entered his head, there was no way he could have ever anticipated the real magic that lay ahead.