Good News and Tears - PT. 1
Ìspirah was visibly drained from the day. As I walked her to the courtyard’s gate, the gravel tried to distract us from the tension, loudly crushing beneath our steps - but, it was no use.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at Marilyn’s” I offered.
She kept her eyes on the ground.
“Yeah-”
I buzzed the gate to unlock it for her. She was about to open it, but stopped, stare urgent.
“-If the twins become too much, please, just text me! I’ll be back here, immediately”
“Of course, but I doubt it’ll come to that” I grinned, eager to reassure her and let her rest “Take care of yourself, Ìspirah”
“Again, Michael, thank you so much”
“It’s alright”
She forced one last smile, then took her leave.
When I finally shut the gate, Nonna Rosi called me from her balcony.
“Ehi, Michael!” she barked a hoarse laugh, amongst her nicotine puffs “I see you’ve gotta little friend there!”
Deciding to ignore most of her words, I limited my response to a wave and headed back to my place, hoping the twins hadn’t set my home on fire, or something else along such lines.
In my living room, Pryra was dangling upside down from the staircase, nearly touching the bottom floor.
“Well, boy-toy? What do we do now?”
“You can do whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t involve destroying anything”
“Not even a mess?” Aspion joined his sister.
“No, not even a mess, please” I firmly stated “If you want, I can put a movie on for you guys. I have work to finish”
They crouched over and crawled downstairs, which I found this unnecessary, being that the ceiling was well high enough for them to stand up straight. Then, while slithering onto the couch, they timed their next phrases - it was beyond me, how they managed to so perfectly.
“We’re gonna build a fort” they giggled “Movie, please~”
While they undid the couch and pulled out blankets, I suspired, realising I’d have to give up on the idea of maintaining an organised house for the time being.
“I think you might like this one” I waved the VHS to show them the cover “It’s called ‘The Emperor’s New Groove’ - my brother loves it”
“Yes!” they were already snuggled in the piles of pillows “Commence it!”
I pushed the videocassette into the VCR and let it play for them.
“Ok, I’ll be in my studio - come get me if you need anything and help yourselves to any food in the kitchen”
No answer came my way, though. I gazed at them and noticed that their eyes had increased in size, entirely entranced by the screen. They were oddly pacified, like they’d never watched television before.
I let them be.
……
Hours later, I had finally wrapped up my first draft of the Dante article and had sent it to my boss. Now, I had to wait for his constructive criticisms, before continuing with corrections or writing anything more. I was satisfied with the topic I’d opted for in the end: a thorough analysis of Purgatory’s Limbo.
Back in the living room, Pryra and Aspion had not changed position. They were as immobile as stone statues, still fixated on the TV, as Aspion subtly tinkered with the remote in his hand- Huh… They were alternating between rewinding the videocassette and letting it play for merely handfuls of seconds at a time, back and forth, almost rhythmically.
“I have other ones” I supplied “Just so you know”
Without interrupting their fun with the remote, they slowly turned their big black eyes towards me.
“You do?”
“Well, yeah, here-”
I knelt down, opened up the drawer where I kept my cassettes, and showed them all I had.
“They’re mostly animated - they belonged to my cousin, but she started buying the DVD versions and eventually gave me her whole collection. I don’t watch them, but she didn’t want to throw them away”
The twins crawled out of their fort to glance inside the drawer and, upon his first peek, Aspion let out a light gasp.
“There are so many” Pryra realised, picking at ‘The Road to El Dorado’ tape “Can we watch all of them?”
I stood up and let their curiosity guide them.
“Sure, I don’t mind, as long as you rewind them when you’re done and put them away where you found them”
“YES!” they exclaimed together “THANK YOU, BOY-TOY!”
Within an instant of digging in the drawer, they had laid out most of the cassettes on the floor, asking what they were about. I tried to remember the plots… When I was younger and still living with my aunt and uncle, we’d watch an animated film almost every night at dinnertime - but, I hadn’t watched any of these in years.
“This one~!” they sang, pulling out ‘Sleeping Beauty’ “Watch it with us, boy-toy!”
Tall children.
That’s what they were like.
They were like two very tall children, completely overflowing with wonder and excitement.
I smiled to myself.
Ok, I had to admit it, they were starting to grow on me.
“Sure, let me just get some dinner ready for us”
“Don’t bother” Pryra commenced, followed by her brother “We can’t eat here”
“Oh, uhm, ok… I’ll make some dinner for myself, then” I headed towards the kitchen to throw together a quick salad “I’m guessing it has something to do with your sacred key”
“Yep, without that, we can barely do anything~ Can’t go home, can’t cha-”
Pryra immediately elbowed Aspion in the ribs, hushing him.
“It’s ok, you don’t have to explain anything, I was just curious” I reassured, sitting at my table to eat “You must be from Sweden, though - being that you know about her family and all”
Aspion burst into laughter “The Sweden area? Who on earth is from the Sweden area? Ìspirah? Hah!” Pryra joined in on the cackles “Is that what Ìspirah’s been telling everyone? Oh dear, then yes, I guess we’re all from the Sweden area! Haha! Whatever works!”
A bit of my appetite faded. I didn’t like lies, but I knew she must’ve had good reasons to make up such a thing.
I still had so much to learn about her.
“I thought you two wanted to watch cartoons” I tried to tranquillise them.
“Oh, yeah!”
After getting up and popping in the tape for them, like magic, they were silenced. I calmly went back to finishing my food, contemplating this new information concerning Ìspirah, debating how I should feel about it.
The twins were loose canons when it came to info-spilling - I wasn’t going to take advantage of that any more than I unintentionally already had. To be completely honest, I didn’t know if I even wanted to know anything else. At least, not before Ìspirah decided she wanted me to.
When I finished, I washed everything up and settled onto the couch with the twins, certain they hadn’t noticed me take a seat next to them.
……
It was fairly late by the time the movie ended, making me get up to rewind the cassette and turn off the screen. The twins’ eyes shrunk back to their normal - but, still eerily massive - size, most likely meaning that they were reconnecting to reality.
“Alright, bedtime, guys”
Aspion snapped first “Seriously? Come on, one more! These are so short!”
“Yeah!” Pryra snarked “Besides, who has a bedtime at your age?”
“I do, it’s how I get everything done”
“Urgh! Fine!”
They lazily crawled their way upstairs.
I considered whether or not to offer them pyjamas, but, then again, they were much taller than me, nothing of mine would’ve fit them. However, I did dig up some blankets they could use.
“Here, let me know if you need more”
Pryra’s long white hair unravelled from the upper floor, head dangling upside down, as her hand reached out for the grab.
“Thanks, boy-toy! Goodnight!”
She darted back up, disappearing from my sights.
Finally, with those two taken care of, I fixed the couch into my bed, changed into PJs, and went to sleep.