Spawn and Kin

They started the year looking different enough, with Charlie’s hair being short cropped and Lucy’s being long as it would grow. With only one haircut—a professional one before Christmas—separating the two from the beginning of the year, their hair was now only distinguishable by how brushed it was. Differentiating the twins through dress was largely off the table because of the demands of rural life, except for special occasions. Today was one of those occasions: A celebratory visit to their grandparents. Lucy wore black stockings and a cornflower blue sundress, Charlie wore a fresh pair of blue jeans and a cream dress shirt.

They giggled, excited and mischievous, as their parents pulled into the packed dirt lot outside their small school. They laughed nervous laughs as their parents got out and picked them up in excited, congratulatory hugs. Charlie kept giggling as Lucy asked in her too-careful way if they could “wide in the back” of the truck on the way grandpa’s. She had been working on her Rs for some time, but she knew sounding more like her brother would be more convincing. Their mother was quiet even after their father answered with “what the hell, sure.” The twins wouldn’t notice the withering stare or the terse argument in the front seat from the truck bed, something they had to climb through the truck’s sliding back window to get to.

The ride itself was bumpy at first, the truck rattling and the tires kicking up dust from the gravel road below. The rumbling and clacking of stones is all consuming in-and-out of the vehicle, a fact that prevented the twins from hearing the argument inside about slowing down for their safety and that prevented the parents from hearing the hushed whispers in the truck bed.

Once they turned onto a paved road, the ride became much smoother. Lucy sat, careful and still, while Charlie sat behind her consumed with focus. She shouted an extended, exaggerated “Wheeee” to cover their scheme. Even as lock after lock of her light hair was sheared from her head, whisked away by the wind on the open road, she kept up her performance. Woops and yelps and squeals of glee. Charlie, for his part, was silent. Dead focused on carving off large chunks of his twin sister’s hair with a pair of craft scissors. The two had already swapped clothes while on the gravel road, Lucy’s stockings hidden under Charlie’s blue jeans, his dress shirt fitting just as well on her as it did him. She knew he wasn’t enjoying sitting on the ridged truck bed in just her dress, but he was being a lot less whiny than usual. When she turned around, allowing him to cut the front parts of her hair as short as the back, she saw him biting his tongue. His childish face was screwed up in deep concentration.

When the truck eventually turned onto a dirt road and pulled out front of their grandparents’, the twins hopped out of the back of the truck before their parents had a chance to park. They ran up to the porch and the front door, Charlie abused the doorbell while Lucy tried the door. It opened and she ran inside, pulling Charlie after her. They sped through an entire conversation with their grandparents. “Look at you big guy, nixing that lisp” made Lucy beam with mischievous pride. Charlie enjoyed being lifted and spun around by his grandma, his sundress billowing in the air. Their parents entered the house, carrying light-packed luggage. The twins ran off, out to somewhere else in the house, prolonging the exposure of their trick just a little longer.

May 27th, 1972. The happiest day of Lucinda Weissman’s life.

Spawn 2

Spawn 1

Spawn and Kin