Chapter 18
Sydney unlocked the front door of her father's house with the key he'd given her last night and went in. "Hello?" she called, not sure if anyone was awake.
"Morning," Tatiana called, walking out from the living room.
Sydney's jaw dropped when she saw her sister's changed appearance. "Okay, how do you do that?" she said.
"Do what?"
"Make yourself look completely different. It's not just the hair and eye colors; you changed your face somehow."
Tatiana grinned. "Makeup," she said. "There are tricks you can do to emphasize or de-emphasize certain features."
"Well, whatever you did today, keep doing it. You look great."
"I'm not wearing any makeup, actually. For the first time in about ten years. I usually try to make myself look less distinctive, which means toning down my best features."
"You look like Mom all of a sudden. Well, kind of a blend of Mom and Dad, but you've got Mom's eyes and hair."
"And you've got Dad's eyes and otherwise look like Mama. Funny how that turned out."
"Where are they, anyway? Are they sleeping?" Sydney asked.
"Yeah. Dad was asleep when I got here, but I guess Mom woke him up, and they didn't go back to sleep until about two hours ago."
"What were they doing up so late?"
"Having sex," Tatiana answered nonchalantly. "Five times. You think they know how thin the walls in this house are?"
Sydney laughed. "I don't think so. I brought earplugs for tonight; I have an extra pair if you want them."
"That would be great."
"So why aren't you sleeping now?"
"Auto-circadian meditation. All the benefits of sleep…"
"In a fraction of the time," Sydney finished. "Yeah, Mom does that too. But doesn't that take quiet too?"
"Once you've got it down you can learn to tune things out. Although tuning out that was impossible," Tatiana said, glancing at the ceiling. "So I put headphones on and listened to music."
Sydney grinned. "I don't suppose you could teach me some of those makeup tricks?"
"Sure. It took me about three months to learn everything I know now, so I can't teach you everything in one morning, but we could do a few things."
"Works for me." They headed up to Sydney's childhood room to use her old vanity.