“A house full of children and not a dirty diaper or stretch mark to suffer.” Ale was trying to lighten the mood on the trip home. On the plane Marta and Nicholas did cheer up a little. They found out that we had arranged for them to stay out of school for the remainder of the year. We felt that the loss of our parents, the injuries they had suffered, and the need to uproot them from the only world they had ever known warranted a break from the educational process. Plus, they had lost everything in the explosion; we were starting all over.
On the two-and-a-half-hour trip back to New York Marta and Nicholas flooded us with questions. “How big is my closet?”, “Can we have parties when we make new friends?”, “Will I have to make up my bed?”, “Can our friends from Indiana come visit on weekends?”, “Can we drive to school?”
I think it may have hit us at the same time, I looked at Ale and he looked at me. We had not thought this through very well. We were taking two 15-year-olds into a Chrome and Indigo world. Panic seized me and I ran into the bedroom to try to figure out what the hell we thought we were doing.
Ale followed me attempting to rationalize, “There are children and teenagers everywhere in our world. They do just fine.” I took a deep breath and exhaled, “They were born to our world. They were taught the rules from the time they could walk and talk. Their parents had nine months to adjust the way their homes were run to prevent exposure to the sexual parts of lifestyle. We have zero time.”
Just as I said that Nicholas and Marta came in the room. “What about sex?” Nicholas was helping Marta maneuver the room and doorway with a cast on. I snapped, “Nothing Nicholas, what about some privacy!”
Nicholas helped Marta into the bathroom then turned, “I was not invading your privacy, I was helping Marta to the bathroom because it is not easy for her with the casts and crutches. As for sex, I was really hoping that the two of you were more open about the subject than Mom and Dad were. It is not like we do not know about sex, alternate lifestyles, gender identification... What they do not teach us at school we learn from friends. We are not babies.” From behind the bathroom door, “Yea Nicholas is right. Mom and Dad avoided the subject just like they did with you Alex.”
Ale sat down on the end of the bed and waited for Marta to get out of the bathroom. “Okay kids back to the family room, we are going to have a discussion.” We walked back to the living room and Ale helped Marta.
“The judge said that we, your sister and myself, had to take over the responsibilities of your parents. But we do not have the experience with children that your parents had. So, we have to make up the rules and learn as we go.”
Rule one we discuss everything. It is better for you to get the information from us than from a school or friends. Your sister and I will not avoid conversations that we are not comfortable with, we will work our way through it.”
“We will start out by being honest. To answer your question from earlier Nicholas, we were discussing how we were going to adjust our lifestyle to protect the two of you from the more public aspects of our sex lives. I was about to tell your sister that we would figure it out.”
“Dude, it is not like we are ten years old and do not know about sex, and it is not like you are throwing my sister on the dining room table and banging her. Is it? Because if it was any one but my sister I would be like DUDE, but with my sister it would be like dude ewe.” Nicholas was very dramatic, and Ale looked perplexed.
“Nicholas, it is most likely because they planned to run around nude all of the time and have sex all over the house. Unfortunately, they got stuck taking care of us the day after they got married. They have not even had a honeymoon.” It was obvious that Marta was frustrated and felt like they were a burden.
I was floored by her statement, "No Marta, we did not get stuck taking care of you or stuck with you. We have money, we could have shipped the two of you off to a boarding school, but that is not what we wanted. We wanted the two of you in our lives. We want what's best for you, what will make you happy, and successful in life.”
Ale picked up the conversation, “Yes, it will take a little adjusting, but we are a family, and we can do it together. It is not just the two of us adjusting, the two of you have a lot of adjusting to do too. New home, new city, new school, new friends; that has to be a little rough.” The twins agreed.
We all agreed, we would work through things. But that did not solve the conundrum that Ale and I had gotten ourselves into. I had no idea how we were going to balance our real lives and create an illusion of normality for the twins. We were going to need help. Oh hell, we were going to need a miracle.
Even though I was very stressed over making this work, I was relieved to be back home. The driver turned up our drive and we were met by a drive full of town cars and limos. My chest tightened up really not knowing what to expect. Ale was as surprised as I was. He picked up his phone and started texting.
We expected to have things that we needed to deal with when we got home. There was business that we had to take care of; bedrooms to furnish, clothes to buy, and the matter of creating an illusion to hide our real lives. What we never expected when we returned home was a surprise welcome home party hosted by the Society and the House of B.
We were greeted at the door by Walter, Yolanda, Hilda, Ian, and Mrs. J. The foyer was filled with society members and their children; all there to welcome us and the twins home. This is the exact thing I was attempting to avoid. I did not want to expose the twins to the society.
As we walked in Chrome teens and children surrounded Marta and Nicholas. The twins were like new toys to these kids. Unfortunately, Marta and Nicholas instantly fell in love with their newfound popularity.
As we walked through, we were met with several of the members who made suggestions for boarding schools, others recommended the private school founded by the society. Ale met each of the suggestions with a nod and a word of consideration. I followed him and struggled not to shout out HELL NO! They will live an average everyday life! The truth was that nothing about their lives would ever again be average or ordinary.
Before we could ever talk to Mrs. J. about the party and our decision to not expose the twins to the society, Walter was gathering everyone into the ballroom to open presents. Everyone was treating this like a shower for a new baby. Gifts were everywhere. One side of the room had been set aside for Nicholas and the other for Marta.
One young man took an instant liking to Marta. He handed her gifts and helped her open them when her arm and the cast would not cooperate. Now I did not only have to worry about everything else, I had to worry about boys too! Ale leaned over when he noticed “Forget boarding school, we may need a convent.”
Each of the twins got a gift from each house and then one from every person in that house. One of the first gifts that the twins opened was from the House of P. They gave them new smart phones and all of the Chrome teens numbers were already programmed into their contacts. We were quickly passing the point of no return, if we had not already crossed it.
Marta brought several of the gifts over for me to see. “Alex, you have to meet Brad. He asked me if I would go out with him this weekend. Please say yes, please.” Then she turned to Ale, “Please, Brad said you know him and his family.” Ale told her we would discuss it after the party.
We watched the twins open packages and mingle with the others. All of it seemed to pick them up; elevate them to a better state of mind. Every second that we watched the further down the rabbit hole we plummeted.
The last two gifts remained. Two very familiar boxes with crimson bows. Everyone watched with anticipation. They both pulled out charred masks that matched mine and Ale's masks. All of the teens around them went wild. “Coolest masks, like Master Alejandro and Mistress Della's.” “So awesome that the two of you get to live in the House of Purity and Pain with the Sovereign Master and Mistress!”
Ale and I panicked and attempted to do damage control; but it was too late. Both Marta and Nicholas were already giving us some rather strange looks. This was the very introduction that we wanted to avoid.
