That Day

Flash Fiction

That Day

Our five-year-old, Pearl, came into the living room in a long twirly dress. Her hair was caught all up on top of her head, like ice cream in a cone, her lips and cheeks bright red. She had a basket on one arm, full of plastic flowers, and on the other, our cat, Pickles.

I froze. I was supposed to be watching them while their mother was tied up with her donation group. I thought they were just playing in Pearl’s room, so I was watching the game on TV.

“Ah, hi!” I said when my mouth became useable again, “What cha doing?”

“Pete and I are getting ready for Halloween!”

“Halloween… it’s about seven months from now…”

“We wanted to try out some stuff before we decided. We’ll be six then you know! We want to do a good job.”

The “we” was throwing me off. The kids were twins. Before they came along, I thought a twin was someone just like the other person. In this twinship, Pearl was always the leader.

“Is that your mom’s makeup?” I said, trying not to think of the trouble I would be in when she got home.

“No, it’s from a pen!” she smiled. Ugg! I was so in trouble!!

And that’s when Pete came in. The first thing he said was, “No! It’s chalk, it’ll wash off.” He stood there in his normal clothes, no “outfit” and had his arms crossed like he was evaluating the situation. “I think it looks good! What do you think Dad?”

“It looks good…” I said relieved, and surprised!”

“We have another one to try, we’ll be right back!” They both ran off.

I turned off the TV. Suddenly my babies had become my people. Suddenly, I wanted to be their friend.