The twins

The twins as Elena liked to call them, were Alexis and Cassandra. Alexis was born one minute before Cassandra, and two minutes later, Elena was born. The twins were identical in looks and interests. They were different from their sister. Both in looks and in the way they behaved.

When the girls were fourteen years old, while Elena lay at the hospital bed, Alexis had gone shopping with some friends from school when she ran into a top model scout, Edward Jones. He took a keen interest in her and invited her to audition. And as it turned out, she had the talent and the body of a model, her walk was great except for a few mistakes which training corrected. She got the job as a lingerie model and it didn’t take much time for her to climb the ladder to become a top model associated with major brands.

Cassandra had gone with Alexis for her auditioning, she had made an outfit for Alexis to wear that day, this was an opportunity she saw and she wasn’t letting go, Cassandra had made clothes and uniforms for cheerleading back in high school. Ever since she was six years old, she could use a needle, design a website and she worked hard and great. As a junior, she designed tees for events which she sold on the web.

Her career as a fashion designer grew so much and her g****e search would show that she was “an award-winning fashion designer whose clothes had been paraded at the Paris fashion week on several occasions by top models in the industry."

Their mother, Caroline couldn’t be prouder of her girls; Elena inclusive.

The twins had met up in LA and flown into Canada together two days before their twenty-first birthday.

Their mother, Caroline had insisted. She had planned this day for a long time and wanted all three to be together on this day. She hadn’t seen her girls together in the same room for three years. Everyone had a busy schedule so she was glad that they could make it. She missed her family and was lonely most of the time so she was glad the girls had conceded to having this day together. Her heart was full.

This was a big one.

Cassandra had made their mother, Caroline a dress for the occasion and was busy helping her get into it to enable her to check the fitting before heading out. The black silk fabric had been made into a full-length sleeveless evening dress with gold toppings and beads around the neck and down to the sections of her breasts. There was a generous cup inserted into the inner linings of the dress to hold up her breasts like that of a nineteen-year-old and a lace front that showed an appropriate amount of skin for her age.

Caroline loved the dress. Simple and elegant she thought but her daughter was not finished. Cassandra had also made a black cape with gold linings that would sit beautifully atop the dress while gently covering her arms and giving a back view that was befitting of the queen herself.

“merveilleux” Cassandra said in French as she took a thorough look at her mother in the dress.

“why not add a crown,” Caroline said sarcastically as she smiled.

“no mother, it is our birthday, not your coronation; you are not getting a crown, being sixty hasn’t made you the queen of the seniors,” she said with laughter

You see, mother and daughter loved to tease each other. Cassandra was the only one who had inherited her mothers’ wit but her sister, Alexis had gotten the dance skills; they shared the same love for moving their body to any kind of rhythm. Elena on the other hand had gotten.... well, nothing; nothing about Elena stood as a resemblance to her mother. The house had been fun with mother and children in the same space. Fun for some of them. Having both girls around brightened the home. They were the life of every party, well not every party some parties were painful to celebrate or were not held mostly because they had a sister who was always sick as a child and their parents were preoccupied with dealing with her. It drained their mother all the time as she wouldn’t ever leave her daughter’s hospital room, even to take a shower. She would sit there until she was forced by their father to go home for a shower and rest.

Their sister, Elena was different. An aunt had mistakenly dropped her as a baby and she had sustained a brain injury, she had also been unable to walk unaided for fourteen years till her sudden recovery at the hospital almost two months after their fourteenth birthday. Even though she miraculously stopped getting sick since she turned fourteen, she still didn’t have a normal social life and no one knew exactly why. she kept to herself a lot, had no friends except her roommate who doubled as her only friend and she always looked miserable or tired, or a combination of both.

“okay. I am going to take the dress off now mum; I need you to hold still so I unhook the cape” Cassandra said, after fully examining her dress.

“why not just leave it. You can take the cape off, it's quite much. I could wear the dress over to Elena’s place”

Cassandra rolled her eyes at her mother as she said “no. we talked about this. This is just the fitting. And everything looks good. Dinner is still hours away so you can take this off for later. We don’t want it getting rough and dirty before evening.”

She helped her mother out of the dress and handed her a short gold dress which she had left on a hanger.

“here, please put this on for now. It's your pre-dinner dress. And if you can, I need you to sit on this stool when you are done so I can dye your greys. I would also get on with your makeup while I still have the time”.

Caroline did as she was told, there was no point arguing with this one. She put on the much simpler gold dress and sat on the stool facing the dresser mirror, closed her eyes, and surrendered to her daughter to work her magic on her grey hairs and her face.

By noon, Caroline called Elena on the phone to let her know they were on their way. She told Elena to expect them in approximately twelve minutes and from the other end, Elena said

“twelve minutes to still change my mind”

Caroline smirked and gave a burst of dry laughter and said

“see you soon honey” as she cut off the call, she had understood her daughter’s attempt at a joke, she heard the sarcasm behind the statement. And the discomfort that followed. Oh well.

She shrugged it off; Caroline loved her children and missed having her family together so she had made up her mind to enjoy this day no matter how awkward it got.

Caroline worried about her last daughter a lot. She was very different from her sisters and never really got along with any of them, even though they had made efforts to draw her closer

Elena had been her closest as she had spent a lot of time with her at the hospital leaving the other girls to the care of their father. So, she didn’t understand why Elena suddenly pushed her away after she got well. She was fourteen at the time and ever since her little girl came home, she had changed and gone into a shell which she refused to come out of ever since but Caroline wasn’t giving up. She had even upped herself and moved to Ontario from Edmonton just to be close to her daughter again.

Things seemed to be better now than before.

And that was enough for her.

Eleven minutes later, Caroline’s white Mercedes Benz GLC pulled into Elena’s driveway. Elena had already been waiting for them.

“Mother” Elena said as she gave her a quick hug.

Alexis went for a peck on her sister’s cheeks “Elena. How I missed you”

Cassandra patted her on the back “hello stranger” all giggly as they went up the flight of stairs into her apartment.

They took the groceries from the car to the kitchen, along with some bottles of fancy wines as well….

Soon the apartment was filled with music, cooking, and suddenly very busy as dinner preparations were in place. The night looked like it was going to be a fun night after all, and it turned out to be. The four ladies had more than a few laughs as they had their dinner. Elena even told a joke.

Caroline kept looking at her daughters, hoping the night never ended. It was a beautiful night with lots of pictures and selfies as well but Caroline did not need the pictures to remind her of that evening, the memories were etched in her heart forever.