A Short Story: Conversations Between Twins

“Conversations Between Twins”

Birth control isn’t an exact science. There are all kinds of rules and tricks for effectiveness and all kinds of guidelines to follow in order to avoid lowering its effectiveness.  However in this particular case, simple antibiotics and stress allowed her to get pregnant. Well, that and sex.

They weren’t trying, but as all things go when you let your guard down; and when you aren’t looking for something, it usually finds you.  They had only been married a few days short of a year when they found themselves in the doctor’s office to confirm a healthy pregnancy.  Everything was checking out perfectly in the first trimester, when the sonogram tech jokingly kept using specific plural words. Such as, “heartbeats”, “heads”, “spines”.  Her and her husband finally clued in as they gazed at the sonogram screen at the two flashing heartbeats.  They just looked like two white blinking Christmas lights on a black and white screen.  She was silent for a long while and secretly began to panic inside; while her husband verbalized his pounding headache and mumbled something about have a stroke.

So there they were, unprepared in everyway, with twins on the future.  The pregnancy was long and hard. She cried often about how she was going to handle two babies at once and worried about all the things that mother’s worry about when they are pregnant. However, as the twins developed and she watched her belly grow, it became more and more apparent how different the two babies were going to be in everyway. Sometimes it brought her comfort for her worries and entertainment for her conversations and thoughts about the future.

At one of the many doctor’s visits, the doctor had come to refer to the babies as “Twin A” and “Twin B”.  “Twin B” was much larger and active and seemed to smash “Twin A” to the bottle the womb. “Twin A” didn’t seem to be putting up much of a fight for space.

At 38 weeks into the pregnancy, the mother was tired, miserable and begging for the doctor for a c-section to take the babies out.  Thus “Twin A and B” were born.  When “Twin A” was born she was quieter, average size and reserved.  She was given the name “Lily”.  When “Twin B” was born, she cried loudly with her mouth wide open, her arms outstretched and her little hands clinched tight.  When the doctor lifted the almost nine pound baby over the partition for the mother and dad to see; the mother cried, the anesthesiologist pushed more medicine in her IV, and the dad tried unsuccessfully to hide his excitement. “Twin B” was given the name “Morgan”.

And, so, ready or not, it had begun. Morgan and Lily’s parents had no idea what the future was to bring them.

During the first six months the twins never did anything at the same time.  When one slept, the other ate, when cried, the other played. And on and on it went, back and forth to girls changed places, only to create very exhausted parents and a very emotional mother.  Back and forth, twins would change roles without losing their in-utero personalities.  Morgan was still loud when she cried, ate a lot, smiled and giggled.  She was proving to be active and dominate.  Lily was smaller, ate less, and cried frequently, but not as loudly as Morgan.  Lily always seemed unhappy.

As the twins were learning to sit up and crawl, the mother was in the kitchen and heard something curious in the baby monitor from the girl’s nursery.  The twins were talking.  It was baby jibber jabber, but it seemed that they were talking to each other.  The conversation would go back and forth, one would giggle and their tone of voice would change as they jabbered back and forth at each other.  Since they both were in the nursery and figured that no one was listening, they felt it was time to talk about pressing twin baby issues.  However as soon as the mom peeked around the corner to see them have this conversation; they stopped talking.  The twin’s mother laughed and knew that the girls were bonding with each other with a secret twin language.

The secret conversations became common place among all the daily doing of twin girls.  As they continued to grow, so did their vocabulary.  As they learned more about each other and the reactions that arose from one another’s bantering or sweetness, their personalities began to change.

Lily soon learned the art of manipulation. Morgan soon gave in and backed down to Lily’s plans and persuasive ways. Not to mention, Lily was learning how to yell and cry louder in case of trouble.

As one year passed and three-fourths of second had come and gone, the twins were making quite a name for themselves.

One of the famous things Lily was known for was stealing sodas and sweets and then taking them to the bedroom closet to eat and drink in the cover of the dark.

“You’re not supposed to do that.” Morgan said. (As much as a 21 month old toddler can express in words)

“Shhh…keep a look out while I climb these shelves.” Lily instructed.

“Lily, you know that you are going to get a spanking if Mom sees you get those graham crackers.”

“Shhh…you worry too much.  Follow me to the closet.  I will share with you if you don’t cry or tell on me.”

And so, Morgan gave in to Lily, especially since graham crackers are a prized commodity among toddlers. However, when the girl’s mother notices that her twins are being too quiet, she quickly starts too look for them.  All good mothers know that when the children are too quiet, it’s because they don’t want to be found.  After checking a couple of the usual places, she opens the closet door and finds the two girls covered in crumbs with an empty box between them.  Morgan immediately start to cry and turns on the water works, while Lily points her short finger at Morgan and says, “Sister” several times, trying to shift the blame.

Not too long after the graham cracker incident there was a magical disappearing act involving donuts.

“Where are all the donuts?” The mother asked, trying to not to be angry. 

The box of donuts was on the floor and powdered sugar was all over both girl’s faces and hands.

“I dunno.” Lily said

“Did both of you eat all twelve donuts?” The mother said in disbelief.

Lily hung her head and said, “No”.

“So where are they, then?”

Morgan looked up bravely at her mom and said with confidence, “They are in my mouth!”

Now, the twins were six months past their second birthday.  Lily had become more dominant and the more persuasive one.  Morgan was too honest for her own good and had settled on being a follower.  The conversations between them only grew more complex, thus resulting in numerous premeditated toddler mischiefs.

“Morgan, Mom said not to play and dig in the dirt.”

“I know, Lily, but I am making something.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

“I dunno, a dirt castle or something.”

“Doesn’t look like a castle to me.  I would help you, but I am a princess and princesses don’t like to get dirty.” Lily stated as she twirled her blond curly hair.

“Ok…whatever.” Morgan mumbled.

Lily watched Morgan sitting in the dirt and moving it around to form what only her imagination could define.  Lily was deep in thought of how she could get involved with the “castle making” without actually get dirt on herself.

“I have an idea!” She proclaimed.

Morgan looked up silently as Lily pulled over the water hose and turned it on.

“The water will make mud for you castle. It sticks better together that way.” Lily said proudly.

The mother had heard the water turn on outside and she was coming into the backyard to inspect the situation.  She found Morgan soaked and muddied from the top of her head to her soggy diaper.  All the while Lily was on the dry end of the hose, holding it toward Morgan. There wasn’t a drop of water or mud on her.

“Look, Mommy, I am helping Morgan with her mud.”

More time went by for the twin girls and their little family.  More incidents occurred with Lily behind the scheming wheel and Morgan naively along for the ride.  Then one evening the twins had been tucked in bed for the night and were having their usual secret whispering back and forth.  The mother started toward their room to tell them to be quiet, but she stopped just around the hall corner when she noticed both girls cuddled up in the same bed talking to each other.  She tiptoed closer to hear what they were saying.

“Morgan, you’re my sister.”

“Yup, you’re my Lily.”

“It’s ok, my Morgan, go to sleep now.” She patted Morgan on the head.

“Well…ok…but can you get out of my bed?”

“Yes…” said Lily,” But I need to take care of you.”

They both said I love you to each other in the sweetest voices.  Morgan put her thumb in her mouth and rolled over.  Lily sat up and finally noticed her mother standing in the bedroom doorway observing the girls conversation.

“Oh, Mommy…there you are! It’s ok. My Morgan is ok. I put her to sleep.”