by Natasha Lowe
Chloe shrugged, looking slightly embarrassed. “It didn’t take long, and I love to paint.”
“Your dad and Chloe went back to the Put and Take and nabbed the rest of the paint before anyone else took it,” Mrs. Castor said.
“But why?” Lucy questioned, studying her mother. She had an uneasy feeling something else was going on, but she couldn’t put her finger on what that something else might be.
“Because you’re right, Lucy,” Mrs. Castor said, rubbing a hand across her belly. “Things have been gloomy around here lately. I haven’t been feeling well and your dad’s been worrying a lot. But you reminded us that life is actually pretty wonderful and we have a lot to be happy about.” Mrs. Castor glanced at her husband, and the uneasy feeling inside Lucy grew. “Now every time we look at the fence, we’ll remember the petunia moments and not all the yucky stuff.”
“So let’s have a picnic tea in the garden,” Mr. Castor suggested, which made Lucy smile because only her dad would suggest a picnic outside at the end of October. “It’s not that cold out there.” Lucy saw her mother raise her eyebrows. “Okay, it’s a little on the cool side,” Mr. Castor added. “But we can bundle up in our coats. It’ll probably be the last picnic of the season.”
“Right, I’m off,” Chloe said hastily, giving Lucy a quick hug. “Glad you like it.”
“Wait, Chloe gets to stay too, right?” Lucy said. “You can’t do all that work and not stay for the picnic.”
“Mel and Jack are coming over,” Chloe said. “Plus, I think this is a special sort of family picnic, Lucy.” And before Lucy could ask her again, Chloe had already left.
The cake wasn’t homemade, but it was chocolate and it was delicious. Lucy ate three slices, scattering crumbs down her thick wool sweater. She was just thinking about a fourth slice when Mrs. Castor cleared her throat in the way grown-ups do before they make an announcement.
“So, Lucy, remember how you were saying prime numbers were so special? How you didn’t like four because it was all boring and common?”
Lucy looked at her mother, the uneasy feeling returning. She wasn’t sure where this conversation was going, but something about it made her extremely nervous.
“Why are we talking about prime numbers?” said Lucy, her mouth going dry.
Her parents glanced at each other again. “Because we’re going to be a family of five, not four,” Mrs. Castor said.
“Oh, you’re getting me a dog!” Lucy squealed. “A proper pet. I knew something else was going on. I could just tell by your faces, and you kept giving each other those looks.”
“Lucy,” Mrs. Castor said.
“Can we have a yellow Lab? I know they’re big dogs, but they make the best companions. Or a golden retriever or a Great Dane?”
“Lucy,” Mr. Castor said. “Calm down a minute. We’re not talking about getting a dog.”
“We’re not?” Lucy said, her excitement fizzling away. “What are we talking about then?”
Mrs. Castor rested her hands on her belly and smiled. She looked bigger than usual, but that was probably because she was wearing her puffy down coat. “We’re having twins.”
“Twins?” Lucy repeated. Even though she knew what twins were, she could not quite believe what she was hearing. “Twins,” she said again.
“That’s what the doctor told us this morning,” Mrs. Castor explained. “That’s why I’ve been feeling so sick.”
Lucy stared at her parents, but no words came out of her mouth.
“Aren’t you pleased?” Mr. Castor said, slipping an arm around his wife. “Twins, Lucy. Can you believe it?”
Lucy nodded, but she still couldn’t speak.
“It’s certainly going to get a little louder around here,” Mrs. Castor said.
“We’ll be just like the O’Briens,” Mr. Castor joked, which Lucy did not find the least bit funny. “A houseful of screaming toddlers!”
Mrs. Castor glanced at the fence. “Poor Mrs. Minor. She’s not going to like all the extra noise.”
“Aren’t you excited, Lucy?” Mr. Castor said.
Her parents clearly were, and Lucy hated to disappoint them. Especially since they had let Chloe paint petunias on the fence and cleaned up all Lucy’s mess.
“It’s great,” Lucy finally managed to reply, trying her hardest not to burst into tears.
THE NEXT DAY IN SCHOOL Lucy couldn’t think about anything else. It was impossible to concentrate, and as soon as morning meeting was over with and the bell rang for recess, she hurried along to the music room to wait for Rachel, who was having a makeup accordion lesson with Ms. Larkin. Through the window Lucy could see Rachel, playing away, but the noise leaking into the corridor sounded like a herd of dying cows. Worse than a herd of dying cows. This couldn’t possibly be what polka music was meant to sound like, and Lucy wished Rachel hadn’t spotted her because now she would have to think of something nice to say. Although she needn’t have worried because as soon as Rachel came out, she took one look at Lucy’s face and said, “Okay, what’s the matter? I wasn’t that bad was I? You look like you’ve just been tortured.”
Lucy attempted a wobbly smile. “I found out last night. My mom is having twins. It’s just a bit of a shock, that’s all. So many new people in the family.” And then before she could help herself, tears were leaking out of her eyes.
Rachel didn’t say anything, just held out a bag of Cheez Doodles. “Thank you,” Lucy said, helping herself to a few. She sucked on the cheesy, salty puffs, realizing that this was exactly what she felt like eating right now. It was amazing, Lucy thought, how telling Rachel her news and sharing her Cheez Doodles had managed to cheer her up.
On their way back to class they were stopped by Ella and May in the corridor. “I’m sorry about yesterday,” May said, glancing at Lucy. “I just didn’t think you were serious about all that gnome stuff.”
“It’s fine.” Lucy shrugged, her eyes still a little red and watery.
“Lucy, what’s wrong?” Ella said. “You’ve been crying. What’s the matter? You’re not still upset with May, are you?”
There was no point in keeping it a secret, Lucy realized. Everyone was bound to know sooner or later. “My mom feels really unwell,” Lucy said, as if this were the reason for her tears. “She went to the doctor’s yesterday, and they told her she’s been feeling so sick because she’s going to have twins.”
“Twins!” Ella squealed, jumping up and down. “You are so lucky, Lucy.” Lucy was beginning to feel quite worried. Maybe she lacked some big sisterly gene or something.
“Please don’t tell anyone yet though. I know people are going to find out, but I’d like to try and keep it quiet for a bit.”
“Course,” Ella said, and May nodded in agreement. “We won’t say a word.”
By lunchtime, most of Lucy’s grade and a couple of the teachers seemed to have heard that Lucy’s mother was expecting twins.
Thomas and Jarmal made straight for Lucy and Rachel’s table in the cafeteria. “Twins are the worst,” Thomas said right away, unpacking his lunch.
Rachel shot him a warning look. “That does not help. Okay, Thomas?”
“I’m just being honest,” Thomas said. He took a big bite of cheese sandwich and carried on talking as he chewed. “My aunt had twins, and as soon as they were born she started ignoring my oldest cousin. Completely. Lost all interest in him. She even stopped going to his soccer games and told him to hush every time he opened his mouth. And,” Thomas added in a somber tone, “she forgot his packed lunch for weeks in a row. It made Adam so miserable he ran away.”
“You are making that up,” Rachel said. “Take no notice of him, Lucy.”
“It’s the truth,” Thomas replied. “They’re so spoiled, those twins. Get whatever they want and Adam gets nothing.”
“How long did he run away for?” Lucy asked in an anxious voice. “Weren’t his parents worried? Didn’t they miss him?”
“To be honest I don’t think they even
knew he had gone. It was days and days before they realized he hadn’t been coming to the dinner table. Poor Adam.” Thomas sighed, finishing up his sandwich. “It’s a bit better now but not much. He has to sleep in the attic where it’s all dusty and full of spiders, and the twins got his room.”
“Thomas, put a great big sock in your mouth,” Rachel snapped, sounding most un-Rachel-like. “I don’t believe a word of that.”
Lucy had been dreading Halloween without Ella, but it turned into one of those lovely surprises, which are even more wonderful because you don’t see them coming. Chloe had made Lucy a mouse suit out of the remains of the brown velvet curtains. It was as soft and snuggly as a pair of flannel pajamas. She sewed on a long stuffed tail and made a pair of large mouse ears that covered up Lucy’s own mouse ears nicely.
“Perfect,” Lucy squeaked, scurrying around the room. Rachel came over early, and the girls carved pumpkins and ate donuts and apple cider, and then Chloe and Mel took them out trick-or-treating. Lucy wasn’t sure if she wanted Mel to come, even though Mel had dressed up in a pink tutu with bells around her ankles. But she kept twirling around, saying she was Tinker Bell, and Lucy and Rachel couldn’t help laughing, especially when Mel scattered pixie dust over their heads. And after visiting a few houses Lucy realized she was glad to have Mel with them. Mr. Castor had to stay and be on door duty, because Mrs. Castor was curled up in the Nest with Mildred.
At one point the O’Brien boys surged past. They were all dressed as superheroes, jumping ahead of Mr. O’Brien in a karate kicking pack. Even Toady had joined in, wearing a wooly Batman hat and little cape, bouncing up and down in his baby carrier.
Although the streets were crowded with trick-or-treaters, it was hard to miss the sparkle girls, racing around with their cardboard instruments and sparkly headbands. They didn’t have a grown-up with them, but Lucy wouldn’t have wanted to go without Chloe or her dad. There was something genuinely scary about all those masked faces and ghouls, and Lucy was glad to have Chloe nearby. She was also glad to be going with Rachel, who made a magical elf princess. The last door they knocked on was Mrs. Minor’s. She didn’t have any pumpkin lanterns on her porch, but there was a faint glow of light coming from the front room, even though the curtains were drawn.
Lucy could feel her palms sweating as they banged on the door, deliciously terrified that Mrs. Minor might actually answer. She had images of being hauled inside and locked in a cage while Mrs. Minor stuffed them full of candy until they were plump enough to eat. Glancing over her shoulder Lucy was relieved to see Chloe and Mel waiting for them on the street.
“She’s watching television in the dark,” Rachel whispered, peering through a crack in the curtains. “That’s so sad.”
“Why is it sad?” Lucy hissed. “Mrs. Minor is an evil fence putter-upper.”
“I bet she’s lonely,” Rachel whispered. “Imagine sitting there all by yourself with no family and no friends. People Mrs. Minor’s age should have grandchildren running around. And she probably finds all the big kids in those horrible masks scary. I know my gran does.”
“Now you’re making me feel sorry for her,” Lucy whispered, her eyes glued to the gap in the curtains. This was a new feeling and quite unexpected, but Rachel was right. There was something sad about Mrs. Minor, sitting all by herself on Halloween. That could have been me, Lucy thought dramatically. Sitting all by myself, feeling sad about Ella.
She impulsively slipped a mini bar of chocolate under the door, hoping this might make Mrs. Minor realize she had friends, and then maybe her frozen old heart would thaw a little bit and she’d take down that ugly fence.
LUCY FOUND IT STRANGE THE way her mother’s belly started to grow. It was as if she had swallowed a watermelon and then a beach ball, and still Mrs. Castor kept expanding. The house overflowed with stacks of hand-me-down baby clothes and brightly colored plastic toys, dropped off by the Castors’ friends. “Perhaps some of these things can go to the Put and Take?” Lucy suggested, stepping on a set of plastic keys. “We can’t possibly need all this stuff.”
One afternoon Mrs. O’Brien stopped by with a bag of Toady’s old baby clothes, and Mrs. Castor had invited her to stay for a cup of tea. This would have been fine if she hadn’t brought all the boys along too. Lucy had been enjoying some quiet coloring time at the kitchen table, and now Micky was pressing too hard with her markers, ruining the ends, and Billy was sitting on his book, in case anyone tried to steal it, he had informed them. Although who in their right mind would want to steal such a disgusting soggy thing, Lucy couldn’t imagine.
It took all her willpower not to say anything as she watched Billy waste her special paper, scribbling circles and grabbing another piece before he had even finished filling up the first sheet. Sammy was drawing superheroes with her favorite purple pen, and the Toad was flopped across Mrs. O’Brien, drooling and crying and making Lucy’s head ache.
“He gets terrible tummy aches,” Mrs. O’Brien said as she jiggled Toady up and down. “All windy and gassy, poor boy.”
Trying to ignore the commotion (and Toady’s windy, gassy smell), Lucy focused on her picture of a magical wood she was drawing. She carefully sketched a staircase inside one of the trees, which ended in a doorway leading to the cupboard in her room. Lucy had decided this was how her gnome got in and out. Whenever he heard her opening the door, he slipped out through the back of the cupboard to his gnome wood, except that one time, of course, after vacation, when she had taken him by surprise. He probably got lazy and thought we had moved away, Lucy mused, coloring in her gnome on the stairs.
“It’s so much fun having a large family,” Mrs. O’Brien was saying, although, for the life of her, Lucy couldn’t understand where the fun part came in.
“I need purple,” Micky said, trying to grab the marker away from Sammy and knocking over his cup of milk. Before Lucy had time to react, it had spilled across the table, soaking her picture into a wet mess. She watched her wood disappear in a flood of watery colors.
“At least it wasn’t hot tea,” Mrs. Castor said, lurching to her feet. “No one burnt, thank goodness.”
“Oh, Lucy,” Mrs. O’Brien murmured, noticing Lucy’s drawing. “I’m so sorry. Your beautiful picture. Say sorry, Micky.”
“Sorry,” Micky parroted.
Lucy could feel milk dripping onto her favorite pants. She stood up and said rather softly, “I think I’m going to go outside.”
“Me too, me too,” Micky chattered, flinging down his pen.
“No! You can’t,” Lucy snapped, not caring if she sounded rude and wishing the O’Briens lived somewhere very far away.
“I’m really sorry, Lucy,” Mrs. O’Brien called after her.
“It’s okay,” Lucy said, slipping out the back door. But it wasn’t okay at all. She stood for a moment, shivering in the cold, before walking over to Mrs. Minor’s fence and giving it a fierce kick. The hardest kick she could manage.
“Hey, I saw that,” Chloe called out, and Lucy turned with a start. She hadn’t realized Chloe was outside, sorting through the recycling.
“You won’t tell my parents, will you?” Lucy said, her big toe throbbing as she hurried over. “I didn’t break it.”
“That doesn’t make it all right, Lucy. You could easily have cracked one of the boards.”
“Well, it’s not like the police are going to arrest me for kicking a fence,” Lucy said, immediately regretting her words. Chloe’s face flushed as pink as her hair.
“You’re right. But it’s still not okay.” Chloe looked down for a moment and then back at Lucy. “Look, I know what it’s like to be mad, all right. When my parents were getting divorced, I was furious. I hated the way they argued all the time and I hated that my dad was moving out.” She paused for a moment. “So one day, I went into Bella’s Boutique, and I stole a pair of earrings and a scarf.”
“You did?” Lucy stared at Chloe.
“Well, I tried to. Obviously, I wasn’t a very good thief,
because the manager stopped me and called the police. I ended up riding home in a police car. Which gave everyone in Hawthorne something to talk about!” Chloe gave a wry smile, and Lucy couldn’t help feeling bad, remembering how she used to view Chloe. “The point is, Lucy. It’s okay to feel mad, but there are better ways to deal with your anger than stealing stuff and kicking fences.”
“It’s not just the babies,” Lucy said, her throat swelling up. “Or that Micky ruined my picture.” She looked away and brushed a sleeve across her eyes. “Everything’s changing and I can’t stop it.”
“Like what?” Chloe gently pressed. “Because change can be a good thing, Lucy, even if it all feels kind of terrifying right now.”
“What if Rachel becomes a sparkle girl this summer, and I’m left behind without anyone to believe in magic with?” Lucy pulled a crumpled tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose. “I don’t want to go into fifth grade, Chloe. Maybe I’ll have to become a sparkle girl too and start listening to the Jewels and taking hip-hop.” Lucy shuddered. “And that is just not me.”
“It’s not me, either,” Chloe said. She laughed and wiped her hands on her jeans. “The nice thing is once you figure out all you’ve got to be is yourself, life is going to get a whole lot easier, Lucy. Now go and tell your parents you’re coming with me on a Chloe adventure.”
“What’s a Chloe adventure?”
“You’ll see,” Chloe replied. “Just bring a coat and wear your boots, because we’re going down to the river.”
“To do what?”
“You’ll see,” Chloe said again. “And don’t forget gloves.”
A cold wind blew them along Beech Street. Lucy shivered inside her jacket, pulling on her gloves as they walked. This did not seem a particularly good idea, but she was interested to find out where Chloe was taking her. The Deerfield River ran along the west side of Hawthorne, and they cut across one of the many bike paths, weaving their way through a bank of trees and down to the wide, swollen river.
“Now, this is my special place,” Chloe said, sounding serious. “I’ve never taken anyone here, and you have to promise me you won’t tell your parents what I’m going to show you.”