Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, I'm simply borrowing them.
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That morning after I had done all I could for the twins to make them comfortable, I showered and dressed in one of my less revealing sweaters. I sat on my bed with Carrie as Chris looked towards the door ominously from the rocking chair in the corner. Then, right on time as always, the grandmother unlocked the door and came into the room, bearing our food for the day in that dreaded picnic basket. After she set it down on our small table, I stood up. I remember being thankful that I wore a skirt that day, so she couldn't see when my legs give an inadvertent twitch.
"Grandmother?" She turned towards me, keeping her eyes fixated on my hair, or what was left of it. I took a deep breath and continued.
"Could you please get mother for us? You see, the twins are very, very sick. They need their mother, perhaps she could take them to a hospital, or get them something?"
"Please?" I added when she didn't respond. She then turned on her heel and left the room, locking the door behind her. I stared for a while at the closed door, thinking that maybe I had just imagined her being there at all.
"Cathy, come on. Sit down." Asked Chris, indicating his lap. I walked over to the rocking chair and sat next to him, burying my head on his shoulder, and crying as it seemed I often did lately. While I was crying I didn't notice mother walk serenely into the room. I felt Chris look up and did the same. I never before seen that look on mother's face. It had gone slack and seemed to loose that bright glow she had gotten from her daily encounters with the sun. And then I realized why, Christopher and I must remind her of herself and daddy. I could even recall them sitting this same exact way on our living room couch. I stood up quickly when I saw the grandmother come into the room, close on mother's heels.
"Tell her what you told me." Demanded the grandmother while still looking only at my hair.
"Mother, the twins are very sick. They need your help." I asked imploringly. She walked slowly over to the beds. She reached out her hand to brush a coil of curly hair from Cory's face, but quickly retreated her hand after she felt the heat of his forehead.
"I'll get them some medicine." She replied limply, the hand that had brushed Cory's face now encircled her throat and sought invisible beads to twirl.
"Yes, and lots and lots of fruit, and oranges, for my little pumpkins!" She added brightly, resorting back to her old game of make believe.
"Thank you." I said. Happy, that at least something would be done. I backed up, hoping that they both would leave now, and not linger too long. Grandmother walked back to the doorway, as if she were some kind of guard. My breath caught as my mother turned to look at Chris and I. However, her eyes barely flicked over me until they rested solely on her beloved Christopher. I guess being unloved did have it's advantages at times, I thought.
"Oh, Chris!" She exclaimed as she wrapped her jeweled arms around him.
"I got you that microscope you wanted, it'll be delivered soon." She smiled that simpering smile that I had come to hate.
"Thanks, mom." Chris said lamely.
"Your welcome son, see my little children soon, be good." She sang as she left the room with the grandmother. The door was again locked.
"You're lucky mom has stopped looking too closely at you too."
"Oh come on Chris, it's not that noticeable, yet. Besides, mother needed to be told about the twins."
"Well you're not going to be able to rely on their inattentiveness for long."
"Yes but then by then, the twins will have gotten better and we'll have enough money to leave."
The next morning started the twin's new regiment. Fresh oranges were brought every morning along with vitamins and aspirin. In the beginning, I truly believed in our plan. The twins would get better and we would have enough money to leave. Unfortunately, as I seemed to thrive, the twins seemed to get steadily worse. Chris and I did everything we could for them. We made sure they ate as much of the fruit as they could, and even let them eat our share of the doughnuts. Anything, to keep them eating. For they threw up much of what they were able to get down.
That next month was hell. And so it was on that last day of April that Chris and I had finally achieved our goal of five hundred dollars. However, the twins, overcome by stomach pains and vomiting, were unable to leave bed, let alone pack and travel. That morning Chris walked up to the attic with my breakfast. I had taken to spending as much time in the attic as possible, afraid that the grandmother would somehow notice my condition.
"Here's your cereal, Cathy." Chris said as he handed me a bowl and sat down next to me in front of one of the east facing windows. We liked to sit there in the mornings, just to feel a little bit of the sun.
"Thanks." A moment passed.
"What are we going to do about the twins, Chris? I suppose we could tie them to our backs?"
"yes, as we quietly leave the house. I doubt they would be able to keep from moaning or vomiting for five seconds, let alone while we carry them for five minutes on our backs!"
"Chris, what's wrong?" I asked, so unused I was to Chris being the sort of negative person I was.
"I'll tell you what's wrong, Cathy. There's no one for the twins to get a bad flu from up here. And even if there was, why don't we still have it? Why haven't we caught it again? Why haven't they gotten better? This just doesn't make any sense!"
"We don't have to worry about knowing that yet, Chris. We just have to get them to a doct-"
"With what?! The money required for their tests is much, much more than we have."
"But we'll have the jewelry we can hock, that will help."
"And what will the twins do while we're looking for a pawn shop in a city we have never been before?" Chris sighed again and slipped back down to the window sill as he continued.
"I'm going to ask the grandmother to take them to the hospital tomorrow. She won't be able to brush me off. Even she won't be able to ignore the twin's condition now."
"Are you sure that's a good choice, remember the last time you talked to her." I warned.
"I'm sure. Hopefully then the hospital will figure out what's wrong with them soon enough, and then we will be able to leave for good."
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