by Sa'id Salaam
“Mm…hmm,” the 5’2, two hundred and fifty pound Mr. Stevenson grunted when Shyne got out. He locked his beady little eyes on the little nubs on her chest before perusing her scrawny legs partially hidden under her shorts. When his eyes finally made it to her face, he saw her glaring back at him. She quickly crossed her arms over her chest to cover her little nubs that looked like a baby reindeer’s first horns.
“Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson? This is David and Dawn, ages nine and ten,” Miss Davis introduced. She had a bad feeling, but still hoped for the best. The spacious, well-kept home had to be better than being locked in a room on the medical floor of Child Protective Services.
“So tender at that age,” Mr. Stevenson said as if Shyne were a cut of meat. A line of drool escaped his thin lips and got lost in the parade of stains on his shirt.
“Can we have them?” Mrs. Stevenson asked, barely able to conceal her lust.
“I guess…” Miss Davis answered warily after a moment of thought. In truth, the kids unnerved her at times. They never ever spoke, yet moved as one person. It was almost like they were communicating through mental telepathy. Sun and Shyne watched as she got back into her car and pulled off.
“Come on inside, guys. We’ll show you to your rooms,” Mrs. Stevenson urged.
“Once you guys get settled, you can take a dip in the pool,” Mr. Stevenson said, eager to get the party started.
The twins looked at each other, took hands and followed them inside.
Mrs. Stevenson let out a grunt with every step as she climbed the stairs. Sun liked big butts and he could not lie, but the wide, flat butt in front of him made him turn his head. Shyne snickered at his dilemma under her breath.
“Whew!” she exclaimed when she conquered the flight of steps. She led them down the hall to two bedrooms opposite each other. “Pink is for girls and blue is for boys.”
She wasn’t talking about nothing as far as Shyne was concerned, so she followed Sun into his room. They sat on the bed until she intervened.
“Un uh, you have your own room,” the woman stated and took Shyne by the hand. Shyne almost lost it when she felt the clammy hand on hers.
“Chill,” Sun said with his eyes and she relaxed.
The woman led her across the hall and into her own room. She pasted a fake smile on her face and sat on the bed. Once the creaking stairs indicated she’d reached the bottom, Shyne got up and went back across the hall.
“What’s the plan?” she asked as she took a seat next to Sun.
“Same as before, find Daddy so we can go home.” he replied. “We better hurry, too, cuz that man is creepy. He’s going to be a problem.”
“No problem at all. Just get me some matches,” Shyne giggled. She was definitely her mother’s daughter.
Chapter 17
“You guys can go swimming before dinner!” Mr. Stevenson announced as if the kids had won some sort of sweepstakes. He extended swimsuits to the both of them. Shyne wanted to decline but saw her brother wanted to swim, so she gave in. The last couple of months had been hard and he needed some fun.
“Thank you, sir,” they said as one and accepted the suits.
“Whoa! What’s all this sir stuff! You guys can call me Father and the Mrs. Mother,” he corrected.
“Motherfu-,” Sun almost lost it but Shyne found it.
“Okay, Father,” she smiled wickedly. Sometimes in life, you have to do things you don’t want to do and this was one of them.
“Great! See you guys in a bit,” he said happily and rushed away.
“Thanks,” Sun said as Shyne left to go change. He knew she relented for his sake and appreciated it. She cracked a half smile as a ‘you’re welcome’ and went to her room.
“A two piece!” She frowned upon seeing the swimsuit he’d given her to wear was a bikini. It was bad but got worse when she turned the bottom around. “Oh hell nah!”
“Hold up!” Sun protested as his sister barged in on him changing into his swim trunks. He quickly snatched them up since she still came on in anyway. “What?”
“This is what!” she snapped, showing him the little thong bikini.
Sun thought that was the funniest thing in the world. He doubled over with laughter while Shyne twisted her lips up at him. It took a few minutes for him to calm down. “You may as well wear it, you ain’t got nothing!” Sun said and cracked up again. “Just swim in your shorts.”
“Here they are!” Mr. Stevenson announced as Sun and Shyne stepped into the backyard. His face changed when he saw that Shyne hadn’t. “Hey, where’s your swimsuit?”
“That is not appropriate!” Shyne shot back indignantly.
Mrs. Stevenson gave her husband a look that said ‘slow down.’ They hadn’t had any kids in a while and he was moving way too fast.
“You guys have fun. I’ll start dinner,” she sang and waddled back inside the house.
Sun ran to the pool and did a front flip into the water. Shyne did the same but added a twist to hers. The kids swam, laughed and squealed like the kids that they were. Their father had taught them how to swim, shoot and use a knife. They’d had fun while doing it but he knew that he was teaching them survival tactics. Dusk snuck up on them while they played.
“Dinner’s ready, guys!” Mrs. Stevenson called from the door. She locked in on Sun as he climbed out of the pool. Her eyes lit up once he fully emerged from the water. Shyne snapped her head towards her brother to see what had the woman so happy.
“Sun! Your trunks!” she screamed, snatching her eyes away. The trunks were designed to become sheer when wet. They clung to his ten-year-old frame, showing off his ten-year-old package. The happy lady clapped happily. Sun covered his public privates and ran into the house with his sister’s howling laughter ringing in his ears.
****
“That’s not funny,” Sun huffed when he met his sister in the hall to go to dinner.
“You right, it’s hilarious!” she said and cracked up some more.
Ol’ Sun could dish it out but couldn’t take it when it was dished back. Shyne laughed all the way down the stairs but had her game face on when they reached the dining room.
“Dinner…is…served!” the fat lady sang as she sat the steaming bowls in front of the kids.
“What the he- What is this?” Sun wanted to know. He didn’t recognize anything except the pieces of carrots.
“That’s her famous beef tripe stew!” Mr. Stevenson said and pulled out a large piece of stomach meat and shoved it in his mouth.
Both kids retched but luckily for them, they had nothing in their stomachs to throw up.
“Eat up and you guys can get on the computer,” Mrs. Stevenson said. They’d both noticed Mr. Stevenson sitting poolside on a laptop and had been plotting on how to get it. Now all that stood between them and the internet was a big, steamy bowl of cow’s guts, or so they thought.
The twins looked at each other like they wanted to cry. They then shook their heads sadly and dug in. It would have been a lot easier if the tripe had been cut into pieces small enough to swallow but there was no such luck. Instead, they actually had to chew the tough meat enough to get it down their constricted throats.
“Good job!” Mrs. Stevenson cheered when the teary eyed children finished their food. “Would you guys like dessert?”
“Yes.” “No,” Sun and Shyne replied at the same time. His head nodded up and down while hers went left to right.
“Hog head cheese, coming up!” she squealed and served her husband and Sun.
Shyne fell out of her chair laughing. It took several minutes before he could get it down and it was finally computer time.
****
“Inbox Christi and Asad and tell them…” Sun said eagerly over Shyne’s shoulder.
“Okay, okay. Oh no!” she whined and broke down. “There’s no internet!”
“So we ate all that for nothing?” Sun said, feeling his stomach start to bubble. He took off like a rocket up the stairs and into the bathroom
to throw it all up. Shyne just continued to stare at the screen for the next hour, plotting on Mrs. Stevenson laptop.
“Okay, guys, it’s bath time!” Mr. Stevenson sang as he came in. He was so giddy, it put Shyne on high alert.
“Me first!” Sun shouted and rushed into the bathroom. Shyne knew he would be a while. He didn’t use soap or the wash cloth as he played in the tub. Luckily for him, all the splashing rinsed the chlorine off of him. The water was ice cold when he finally got out.
Shyne made sure to lock the door when she entered the bathroom. She still felt like she was being watched as she came out of her clothes. She showered quickly and just as quickly got dressed again. Once she got into her room, she got into bed and took a nap.
Sun was sound asleep when Shyne crept back out of her room. She listened to the Stevensons having a snoring and farting contest for a minute and then made her move. She grabbed the laptop and tiptoed away.
“Come on! Come on!” Shyne urged as the computer slowly booted up and began beeping. “Shh!”
Shyne smiled when the laptop came on completely. Before she could click on the browser, two icons labeled David and Dawn caught her eye. Assuming it wasn’t good, she clicked on her brother’s first.
“Grrrr!” Shyne growled at the video of her brother swimming in the bathtub. She quickly deleted it and hers without looking at her own three minute shower.
She tried to click the browser again but was detoured by recent documents named David and Dawn. Clicking on them, she saw that they were ads listing two gently used ten-year-olds for sale. She was so repulsed that she closed the computer, tucked it under her arm and rushed across the hall.
“Sun, get up! Sun!” Shyne whispered harshly as she shook her brother awake. “Get dressed and let’s go!”
Sun rolled out of bed and get dressed without question. He followed his sister down the stairs and out of the house. Shyne stopped and doubled back towards the garage.
“Where are you going?” Sun called after her.
“To find some gas! Nasty bastards was going to sell us!” she fumed.
“No time for that! Let’s go home,” he demanded. She kept marching so he grabbed her arm and pulled her away.
Shyne rattled turn left then turn right like a human GPS system as they hoofed it towards the train station. They didn’t want a repeat of the last time they’d escaped, so they ducked and hid every time a car approached.
“It’s locked,” Sun announced when he tried the station’s door.
“It doesn’t open until 5:30. That’s also when the next train leaves,” Shyne said as she read from the terminal’s schedule. A glance up at the clock showed it was now only two o’clock.
“Come on. We gotta stay outta sight until then,” Sun reasoned. He led his sister away so they could find a place to hide out.
“Look! Phones!” Shyne cheered at the bank of pay phones on a wall. They both rushed over to the phones then paused, “How do they work?”
“Ion know. I thought you knew…”
****
“Shyne, wake up! Shyne, the train is coming!” Sun urged. He’d stayed awake and let her get some sleep. Droves of early morning commuters had filled the parking lots to begin their trek to work. They joined them on the crowded platform. The doors opened and they boarded.
“We need tickets,” Shyne said into her brother’s face when the conductor began collecting them.
“You need a toothbrush,” he winced, referring to her tart morning breath before pulling her through the car. His plan was to move from car to car staying one step ahead of the conductor. It should work since it was standing room only and they only had a few stops to go.
“Uh oh, look!” Shyne said when she spotted another conductor working his way forward from the other end.
“In here,” Sun said and pulled her into the bathroom. He then slid the lock to show that it was occupied. They had just pulled out of the Deer Park Station when the conductor reached them.
“Tickets!” the conductor called as he knocked on the locked bathroom door. It may have seemed like a good idea to the ten-year-olds but it was actually the oldest trick in the book.
“No speaky English!” Shyne called back and giggled at how clever she thought she was. She quickly shut up when the conductor began speaking fluent Spanish back to her.
“Open this door!” the conductor demanded after using his key to unlock it. The door opened inward and both twins held it closed with their feet. He put his grown man’s weight against it from the other side.
“Get ready,” Sun ordered when the train began to slow. Once it came to a stop, they stepped aside and the man fell inside. They scrambled over him and out of the train’s doors.
Sun and Shyne marched up Straight Path Road towards home. They were both so anxious that neither said a word. Neither would relax until they made it into their house.
The twins passed by their school, but didn’t even bother to turn their heads in its direction. The smell of the school’s lunch wafted in the air, reminding them of how hungry they were and they put a little more pep in their step.
“Almost there,” Sun announced when they turned on their street. Asad had just ridden out of their driveway after once again receiving his daily dose of bad news. Shyne saw her fiancé and took off running.
“Asad! Asad!” Shyne shouted and waved as she ran. Asad turned left and right upon hearing his name to see who was calling his name. Finally, he turned around and he saw her.
“Shyne!” he yelled and jumped off his bike. They ran full speed towards each other and knock each other down when they collided.
“Sorry,” Asad offered and pulled her up. Shyne gave him their first kiss and hugged him tightly.
Sun finally caught up and made it a group hug.
They broke it off and ran to the house. Sun and Shyne had made it home.
Chapter 18
“Just told that child they’re not back yet,” Christi grumbled, assuming the knock on the door was Asad returning. It broke her heart to see how distraught he was every day when he got the same bad news. Then, later in the day, she had to again deliver bad news when their father called to check. She was at her wits’ end and absolutely couldn’t take another day of disappointment. Luckily, God doesn’t place more on a person than they can handle. She let out a deep sigh and pulled the door open.
“Christi!” Sun and Shyne screamed as they ran in and tackled her.
“Oh my God! Thank you God!” Christi yelled as the twins brought her down. The siblings giggled as they hugged and kissed while Asad beamed happily. He picked up the laptop that had fallen once again. “Get up! We have to call your father!”
“Daddy! Daddy!” the twins chanted and bounced up and down while their sister dialed. Christi opened her mouth to speak, but Shyne snatched the phone out of her hand.
“Daddy?” the daddy’s girl whimpered.
She braced herself to hear his baritone voice but it wasn’t to be because Sun snatched the phone from her. The phone slid across the hardwood floor back towards Christi as the twins wrestled for it.
“Shyne?” Killa asked, hoping his ears hadn’t played a cruel trick on him. That would have certainly put him in a bad mood, which meant somebody would certainly get fucked up.
“Hello!” Christi yelled into the phone causing Killa to wince. “They’re home! They’re here! Sun and Shyne are home!”
“I’m on my way!” Killa said and hung up. He turned back to Reverend Cash and said, “Goodbye.”
Sun took it easy on his sister as they wrestled over the phone. He shouldn’t have because Shyne kicked him right between his legs, causing Sun to go down in agony as she went for the phone.
“Hello?” she said out of breath. Winded or not, she still fixed her hair as if her father could see her. “Hello?”
“He’s gone. He’s in Atlanta, but he’s on his way home now,” Christi explained. The little girl’s eyes welled with tears, breaking Christi’s heart all over aga
in.
“Cool laptop!” Asad announced, checking out the hardware. The little computer wiz began to rattle off its specs while Shyne came and took it away. She knew what it contained and didn’t want to expose him to it. She was waiting to give it to her father.
“What’s this?” Sun asked, seeing his and Shyne’s birthday gifts still on the table where had left them.
“Oh, your presents,” Asad cheered. He watched as he loaded the game disk into the system. Christi watched too, wondering what ordeals they may have encountered. She was glad they hadn’t asked about their mother yet. She hoped Killa would be there when they did. Shyne went upstairs to change into her own clothes.
“Where’d you get this game from?” Sun demanded with a frown. The boy knew of every video game on the planet but had yet to see this one.
“I made it,” he replied proudly. “Still gotta work the bugs out, though.”
“Bugs in where?” Shyne asked when she returned. She may have been a black belt and excellent marksman but when it came to bugs, she was all girl.
“In the game I made,” Asad replied then frowned at Shyne’s shiny lips. “What’s that?”
“Mango-strawberry-piña colada lip gloss. You like it?”
“Let me see…” Asad said moving closer. He took his palm and wiped her mouth clean. “Nope.”
“You two are too cute!” Christi laughed. She thought it was adorable that they called themselves engaged instead of boyfriend and girlfriend. Yolo instilled in them both a high standard of character and morals. “Let me fix you guys some lunch.”
“Okay!” the three of them agreed and got into the video game.
An hour later, Christi called them into the dining room.
“What is it?” Shyne asked, sniffing at her plate. Christi frowned in concern since she had fixed her favorite, salmon croquettes. A single tear escaped her eye but it was quickly followed by a flood. Soon after she was bawling out of control.
“It’s okay, Shyne, you’re home,” Christi cooed softly as she wrapped her in her arms. “Don’t worry, your father is on the way.”