The Twins

"Damn it Sue!  Not again!!"

As I walked into the house we heard keys being thrown to the kitchen floor and my mom yelling those now famous words.

I had been helping my teacher and family friend Miss Webber in her classroom and it got to be late.  She gave me a ride home to spare me having to walk the ten miles it was to get to my house, in the snow, uphill, barefoot...while dodging snow-scorpions! (this is so going in the movie) Peggi, as I was allowed to call her away from school, and I looked at each other not knowing what to do.  Mom rushed Sue past us and said exasperatedly, "We'll be back." 

We walked into the house and shut the door not knowing where they went, how long they would be gone, or why Mom was mad about going.  Mom didn't ask Peggi to stay.  I'm sure she stayed with me with a mixture of not knowing if it was ok to leave me alone  (probably was, but I appreciated the company) and just plain morbid curiosity.  As for the house, nothing seemed to be terribly out of place.  There was a big black or green (colorblind remember?) garbage bag sitting on the floor of the kitchen but other than that, it looked pretty normal.

I would like to take this break in the action of the story to announce my upcoming multi state three month book tour.  The "But I Digress..." tour.  I would like to, but since no one has asked me to write a book yet, that will have to wait.  The book I am writing (even though no one has asked me to) is plugging along slowly.  I will enjoy the summer off and the time I will have to write.

Back home...After waiting for what was a good sized chunk of time, in kid-years, my mom and Sue came back into the house and we got the story. 

Both of my sister's calves were wrapped in gauze bandages (my sister, the nurse, will tell you that they were steri-strips but to me it was just bandages).   She had stitches in both and we found out that they were nearly identical wounds.  Mirror images of each other.  They were twins.  If memory serves, one had nine stitches and the other ten.  That bothered me.  Symmetry is important in my family.  There she was, both legs bundled up.  For all I know Sue was the person who started the leg-warmers craze!  Two bandaged legs?  Curious. 

Two legs and, apparently, two trips to the doctor.  Just before I used my red aluminum house key that hung on a chain around my neck (I still have that key by the way) Sue and Mom were inside talking about their first trip to the hospital. Mom was trying to wrap her head around the fact that her daughter had just gotten stitches.  I'm sure it was the usual, "You have to be careful." and "The doctor said that you should..." 

And now, the garbage bag.  It was garbage day and Mom was gathering garbages from around the house.  In one of the garbages someone had put the remains of a broken drinking glass.  Knowing our family, it was probably a collectible 'Hamburglar' or 'Grimmace' glass from McDonalds or a 'Mama Bear' or 'Papa Bear' mug from A&W.  We had the complete set of many a decorative glass collection.  If the TV said you got a glass with your food, we pestered Mom and Dad until we got them.  Marketing worked on the Garrett children.  But I digress...

Inside the bag, a shard of glass had worked its way to the outside edge and could not be seen by the naked eye (or the fully clothed eye for that matter).  When this goes into the movie about my blog this scene will have to have very dramatic music and lots of shots of the seemingly harmless garbage bag in the middle of the kitchen floor.  Menacing.  Mocking.  Lying in wait!  Ready to reach out and attack anyone who got within range.

Unbeknownst to Peggi and I, just as we were walking up the steps to the front door Mom and Sue were finishing up their conversation.  As I reached out to open the door (and the movie music reached it's crescendo!)  Mom, in an effort to understand what just happened, said "Just how on Earth did you manage to cut your leg?"  Sue's reply, "All I did was sit down next to this bag...like this."

"Damn it Sue! Not again!!"