The Goddess Twins

by Yodassa Williams

  I groan as I put on my shoes, “Family destiny? You’ve really chugged the Kool-Aid about this goddess mojo crap? You’re just fully on board to follow these chicks wherever they lead? All you need to focus on is that we’re freaks, Arden, and we need to get away from these freakier freaks before they freaking kill us.”

  Arden and I finish dressing in the next moment. As we turn to each other, I gasp with a gross realization that we’re twinning way too hard. She’s in a red sweater with a giant black heart in the center and black pleated skirt. I threw on a black sweater with a white X in the center, and shiny red jeggings. I usually straighten my hair, but I haven’t had time since washing it after the house party, so we each have a lion’s mane of dark brown curls framing our faces. It’s like we’re cosplay for an old school Doublemint gum ad.

  “God, I hate being a twin!” I growl and begin taking off my sweater. I feel heat surging through me, but I reach for calm, breathing deeply like Liberty showed me. I don’t want my mojo to do something partially regrettable, like accidentally snapping Arden’s neck. I close my eyes, trying to reason with my emotions. I’m not truly mad at Arden. I’m just on edge and I don’t know what more I can do to convince her that we need to leave. I wiggle out of the red leggings like they’ve caught on fire.

  “You’re beyond dramatic, Rora,” Arden says. “I can’t believe you sometimes! Who cares if we both have red and black on today?” Air puffs out her mouth in frustration. “We’re identical twins, okay? Stop hating on it and stop punishing me for being your sister.” She stomps off toward the full length mirror in the corner and begins twisting and pinning her hair. “All you want to do is push away anyone who might get close to you, including me. But I can’t abandon the chance to rescue Mom from danger just because you don’t want to trust the cousins. I just can’t. I’m going to meet Gran Gran, with or without you. That’s what I need to do.”

  “Wow!” I freeze in the middle of pulling on my black jeans, my entire body stung. I can barely process what she’s said. Through everything in our lives, we have always, for better or worse, been together. We’re twins, sisters, and as much as we annoy each other, best friends. Of course, I nag her and want to be seen as independent of her, but still … we’re each other’s ride or die, right? Except now, and for these cousins and Gran Gran, Arden is ready to drop me like I’m dead weight? Okay. All right. I see how it is. We can play it that way.

  I stand up and start securing all my essentials in my book bag and purse. I can leave where I’m not wanted, make my way to a hotel, and start investigating London on my own. Or maybe I’ll just head back home to Ohio, since Arden’s got this entire rescuing Mother thing, without me.

  “Aurora, please stop. I didn’t mean it like it came out,” Arden says.

  I ignore her as I put on my jacket. With or without you, she said. Well, “Team Aurora” is ready to proceed without one irritating identical twin.

  “I’m sorry,” Arden tries again. “I know what I said, but it came out wrong, and it was a rotten thing to say. I don’t want us to separate!” I zip up my bag, avoiding her eyes, but I see Arden shake her head hard at me. “Please stay!”

  “Oh, don’t back down now, sister, it’s a ‘with or without you’ kind of world we live in,” I say coolly. “I can’t stay with these chicks anymore. It doesn’t feel right to me. We can’t blindly trust people our mother has avoided for years—and probably for very good reason. I mean, you can, but I just can’t. I am out.” My hand is on the doorknob and I’m ready to leave without my twin, but Arden swiftly embraces me, and I feel her tears seep down the back of my neck. Crap.

  “Aurora, I love you, okay? I know it’s hard for you to trust and this has been a lot, so I feel you, I really do! I wish you could just hear my thoughts to know for yourself. But it’s beyond important that we meet Gran and hear what she has to say. I feel it, down to my toes, that she is the only one who can get us started with finding Mom. After that, we can decide if we should go it on our own, but please don’t just leave.”

  “Are you girls about ready to head out to Gran Gran’s?” Liberty yells from the hallway.

  Arden lets me go, and we hear Lib and Lilo giggling and chatting. I close my eyes, my hand still on the doorknob. I can just feel Lilo dancing or doing some other annoying thing on the other side of the door, and I shake my head. They might be dangerous or they might not be, but I can’t leave my sister with these kooks. I look at Arden’s face as she wipes her tears, and I know my own face is looking pretty defeated. I sigh, hating the decision as I make it. “Okay. We stay together and go to Gran’s. But we need to be on guard, because something’s not right about all this.”

  “Okay,” Arden nods.

  “And I still think we should leave the cousins,” I add.

  “Totally noted, but we will reassess that particular point after meeting Gran, okay?”

  “Okay,” I agree. “We both should bring backpacks, in case we need to escape on the fly.” Arden starts to protest, but I interrupt, “Okay, just humor me and let me carry your passport.”

  “Okay,” she surrenders, handing me her passport. “Happy now, my sister?”

  “No, not at all,” I say gruffly, and Arden smiles.

  “I know, me neither. Let’s go be miserable teenagers who have to meet their grandmother,” she says. “Our life is so normal!”

  “Oh yeah, we’re totally normal.” I punctuate the statement by opening the door with my mojo. “Let’s go meet the Seer.”

  AFTER A JOURNEY of two buses and walking five blocks alongside beautifully manicured lawns in front of incredibly thin homes, we arrive at our grandmother’s house. It’s a remarkably nondescript, khaki-colored, two-level home with a short white gate and an assortment of black garden gnomes guarding a rose bush out front. The porch light is on, even though the morning sun is blazing behind us. Lilo skips ahead of us to ring the doorbell and then hides behind the rest of us once we assemble on the porch. Together we hear footsteps clomping downstairs. The door swings open, revealing an adorable young girl about six years old, with bright hazel eyes and long hair intricately braided with colorful beads. She looks curiously at Arden and me, but her face splits into a wide grin with one look at Liberty.

  “It’s you!” the girl screeches, and her brown skin begins to glow from the inside, literally beaming brightly, as if her tiny muscles are made of light. I gasp as she rises nearly two feet above her short stature, floating in place as if held up by wires. I glance down to confirm that this girl is levitating in glee. I give Arden a look of surprise. The girl floats back to the ground and she and Liberty embrace warmly, the girl giggling and wiggling inside the hug. I can’t help but smile at this baby goddess, effervescent as electric bubbles come to life. “You guys are late!” she cries, wrangling out of the hug. “Gran’s been waiting! She’s mad. She was even cursing!”

  “Really? Thanks for the warning, Mackenzie. Did you make a pound for your swear jar?” Liberty asks.

  “I made four!” she says proudly, holding up the digits on one hand.

  “I bet you did. Let’s get inside then, eh? We’ve got to show Gran these two, don’t we? But anyway, have you grown taller, girly? It’s only been a week since we’ve seen you last. What is Gran feeding you?”

  “Only the best food goes in here.” She rubs her tiny belly happily. “All the ackee and saltfish and curried chicken and rice and I can eat forever and ever. Come in for breakfast! I helped make the fried dumplings.” She tugs on Liberty’s arm, and Arden and I follow them into a spacious entryway.

  Reggaeton music greets my ears as I look around the room. It has a heavy tropical feel, with warm apricot paint accented by cherrywood stairs and trim. The walls are lined thickly with framed photographs as far as I can see, some in black and white and sepia, others popping with brilliant color. I feel magnetically drawn to them, taking a step closer as I distractedly shrug my coat off my shoulders.

  The frames hold images of gorgeous scenes and
portraits of people from around the world. In one, three teen girls laugh under a waterfall in a rainforest. While the shot was taken too far away to capture their faces, I’m transfixed by how the waterfall arches unnaturally away from the girls, as if they hold an invisible umbrella. In another photo, a toddler Liberty snuggles her face into the body of a grown lion. The lion’s eyes are closed, and I swear the animal is smiling blissfully. I continue down the line until a black and white shot makes me gasp and pause for a closer look. In the frame I see our mother, much younger than she is now and styled like a chocolate Gibson girl, with bouffant hair and intense curves. Tightly held against her hip is a young, sleeping boy, around three or four years old, his face resting in a slightly crooked smile. Mom gazes at him with a look I’ve never seen on her before, a mixture of pride and surrender. She’s completely in love. In most photos with me and Arden, Mom’s smile is forced, her eyes distracted. Here, she is glowing, her eyes popped wide open, her cheeks rounded in a huge smile, overflowing with obvious joy. Her hands curve lovingly around his body. Possessively. Motherly. I don’t think I’ve ever felt a bigger urge to punch a picture in my life. Who is this boy from the past that my mother loved so deeply?

  “Hey, when was this photo taken?” I ask, still transfixed by the photo. When I turn around, I see no one is paying attention to me or the photographs.

  “But Liberty, stop joking! You never come alone!” Mackenzie pushes past Liberty to open the door and look outside. “I know Lilo’s here somewhere! Oh, there she is!” The young girl giggles as Lilo, now a black cat with purple streaks, jumps through the door and gracefully leaps into Mackenzie’s arms. The girl floats down the hallway and up the stairs with Lilo purring in her grasp. I notice Liberty and Arden taking off their coats and shoes, and I join them. I try to ask about the photo again, but I’m interrupted by a deep, rasping Caribbean voice from inside yelling over a music video blaring from a TV.

  “Wagoan, eh? M’ear you, ya know, Lilo and Liberty. Y’ll bring’t the Yankee twins ere, or ya need more years fi look fi dem?” A husky chuckle emerges, as Gran Gran laughs at her own joke. She knows we’re here. She’s been expecting us for quite some time. Now she’s giving us grief about not getting here quicker. Sass from moment one; it seems certain we’re relatives. But Gran Gran’s anxiousness for this moment only feeds my dread. I look at the front door, which Liberty is now blocking, as if she knows I might try to leave. So much for a last-minute escape. I guess this is really happening, this meeting my goddess grandmother thing. I tug at my wrinkled shirt and shake out my hair with my fingers.

  “You look great, Aurora. She’s going to love you,” Arden nudges me.

  “I hate you,” I whisper to her as we walk the hallway to the living room.

  Liberty follows behind us, poking me in the back when I stall at the doorway. Reluctantly, I enter the room and find myself facing Gran Gran. She’s draped along the couch, radiating an aura of confident strength, like a lion at rest. A goddess in all her glory, our grandmother, the Seer, knew we were coming from miles and years away.

  She is small yet curvy, and so fit she could bench-press Mackenzie for fun. She has impressively long salt-and-pepper dreads woven into an intricate crown around her head, then spilling along her relaxed length, finally ending on the floor. Her hair is decorated generously with shells, beads, crystals, and other shiny bits. I picture her dragging it from room to room, like a weighty, permanent veil.

  For however old she may be, Gran Gran seriously looks good for her age. Her face is flawless with smooth, dark brown skin. Her full lips are relaxed in a mysteriously seductive Mona Lisa smile, but it’s her eyes that literally take my breath away. Their wide depths change from brown to hazel to green as I gaze into them. I am gobsmacked and intimidated standing in the doorway, wondering if I should bow or curtsey. She winks at me.

  “Comyere lilt pickenies, me no bite! De bull you si fi yur eye a cow fi yur heart.”

  “What did she say?” I whisper back to Liberty.

  “Gran Gran speaks like a true Jamaican, in Patois and quick fables. She says don’t be afraid of her; she’s a softie in disguise.”

  I gulp. Yeah, right. Arden’s hand sneaks its way into mine. I’m not sure if it’s to soothe her or me, but I’m grateful for something to hold onto.

  “Gran, this is Aurora and Arden, Selene’s twins from America,” Liberty announces us from across the room. “You gotta talk clean around them—they never hear Patois.”

  Gran Gran smiles. She knows we have no idea what she’s saying, she’s just messing with us. Okay, then. I know what to do when there’s another wise-ass in the room. Be bold and direct. I take a breath and move closer, to the heart of the room. “Hello, Gran Gran,” I say.

  Arden echoes me. “It’s great to finally meet you, Gran Gran. We’ve heard a lot about you from Lib and Lilo.”

  “Ah, they been mouths-a-massie for you? But me sure you heard nothing pon me from your mama. And look how she still living so far from her kitchen; you Yankee girls so skinny! Like these video girls, eh? I don’t know what they think they have to shake! Come sit down, you two need to eat, now! Mackenzie?” she calls loudly.

  After a moment, the girl appears in the doorway with Lilo, still in cat form, now dressed in doll clothes, wrapped in her arms. “Yes Grandmama?” she asks, her head bouncing side to side.

  “Baby girl, start making these tiny Yankees a plate of breakfast before they waste away. And Lilo hates when you dress her up. Leave that girl alone so she can say hello.”

  Mackenzie pouts for a moment, then sets Lilo down before floating off to the kitchen. We all burst out laughing when we see Lilo’s full outfit—a pink frilly dress, bonnet, and slippers. Lilo crosses the room, clearly vexed, kicking and hissing angrily. She was playing nice for Mackenzie before, but now she tries her best to wiggle the bonnet off. Unfortunately, she’s trapped. We continue chuckling as Liberty bends down to undress her.

  Finally free, Lilo shifts back into human form. “Ugh, so much better! That girl wants a cat so badly, but she’s not allowed until I approve of her treatment and, psh, from today’s assessment, she’s nowhere near getting one! She wouldn’t even let me breathe!” Lilo leaps and twirls gracefully across the room to Gran, then bows to kiss her on the cheek.

  “My precious Lilo. Kensie will have her cat soon, but yes, she needs training from her sweet cousin.” She chuckles and adds, “What a man doan know older dan him.”

  I raise my eyebrow at Liberty, and she whispers the translation, “Everyone needs experience.”

  Gran Gran lifts the remote beside her and turns off the TV, then slowly rises from the couch. With one hand, she wraps and drapes the length of her hair over an arm, holding it like an escort to a dance. She nods towards the dining room table, and Liberty pinches my arm to get me moving into a seat. The four of us sit as Gran Gran glides over, the ends of her dreads trailing behind her like a train. Once she sits at the head of the table, she snaps her fingers and Mackenzie floats into the room, followed by four levitating plates piled with ackee and saltfish, cooked bananas, fried dumplings, and four cups filled with steaming liquid.

  “Tank you, me love,” she says, kissing Mackenzie on the cheek. The plates and cups land softly in front of Arden, me, and the cousins.

  “You’re welcome Gran Gran. Enjoy everyone!” Mackenzie floats up the stairs to finish a special project she promises to share with us before we leave.

  After Gran says grace in thick Patois, there is an extended silence; we are all too busy stuffing our faces to make conversation. The food is so delicious that if the house caught on fire, I wouldn’t hesitate to bring the plate along with me. The spiciness of the ackee, the saltiness of the fish, the sweetness of the banana cooked in butter and salt while still green, and the buttery crunch of the dumplings all compete for best flavor in my mouth. I take a sip of the hot chocolate tea, yes, chocolate tea, and I am so in love with the pure cocoa flavor that I moan in delight as its warmth fills my b
elly. If this is eating like a Jamaican goddess, I am totally all in.

  “So, Yankees, tell me about yourselves.” Gran says from the head of the table, with Arden and I seated to each side of her.

  My mouth is full, and while I chew I wonder what kind of Seer needs telling anything? Doesn’t she just know everything about me already? I’m a true skeptic, and I’m sure my vibes will kill the mood, so I say nothing.

  After a few beats, Arden takes the lead. “Well, we grew up travelling on tour with Mom, bouncing between cities and countries around the world for most of our lives. Mom got a teaching gig at the University of Cincinnati for a semester just last year. When it was wrapping up, Aurora insisted we all stay so that she and I could finish high school in one place. So we stayed.”

  I cough from surprise, unconsciously interrupting Arden. Is she trying to pin us being in Cincinnati completely on me? It may have started as my fight, but it was Arden who gave Mother the final push to make us stay. Being in Ohio has benefitted all three of us. She glances at me now, and I squint my eyes at her before she continues on to Gran Gran.

  “So yeah. We’re now finishing our senior year in high school in Ohio. It’s in the Midwest of America.”

  “Oh yeah? Midwest?” Gran Gran chuckles to herself. “And you like that, living in the corn fields like a quashie?”

  At Gran Gran’s question, Lilo snorts into her chocolate tea.

  “Yes,” Arden says, no hesitation. “I mean, it is what it is. It’s less city than London, for sure, but it’s no farm town either. People are really connected to their families, their friends, even as a stranger you feel embraced by it. The city has this quiet hum that touches everything. I like it.” She smiles brightly, and I am amazed at the light in my sister’s eyes. Does she really love living in Cincinnati this much? How did I not know this about her? I look at Gran Gran, whose eyes are now a deeply bright violet.