Twin Tales (8 page)

Connie woke up early the next morning. She could hear an occasional car going by in the road outside. She could hear a few sparrows singing in the garden. She could hear the hum of a milk float. She could hear Dad snoring in the room further down the landing. She could hear Mum sigh sleepily as she turned over in bed. But she couldn't hear anything else.

She couldn't hear the twins. They'd both been roaring their heads off long before this, yesterday. Connie waited. Still no sound. Not a wail, not a whimper. She sat up in bed and scratched her head. Her fingers slipped through her hair. She realised the plait had gone, and the two blue beads. The beads had proved very magical indeed, after all.

Connie remembered what she had half wished when Nurse Meade first gave her the beads . . . She wondered if she might accidentally have clinked them together in the night. Maybe the beads could really take away twins as well as adding them?

Connie shot out of bed and ran into the twins' room. She charged to their cots, feeling sick with terror. Just for a moment she couldn't spot the two small heads on their pillows. But then she blinked and the teary blur went and she saw Claire in one cot, Charles in the other.

Connie skidded to a halt, breathing a huge sigh of relief. It only made a little whistling sound in the room but it was enough to waken one of the babies. Claire. She made a tiny yowling sound like a kitten and opened her eyes. They were big and blue, almost as blue as the beads. They seemed to be looking right up at Connie.

‘Hello, little sister,' Connie whispered.

Charles woke up, too. He did it differently, screwing up his face and smacking his small lips together before opening his eyes. They were big and bead-blue, too, and they blinked when Connie bent over him.

‘Hello, little brother,' Connie whispered.

She waited for them to start crying. But they seemed surprisingly content to lie on their backs and look at her. Connie looked back at them.

‘Maybe you're not so bad after all, little babies,' said Connie.

She stood between the cots, letting her hands dangle. She gently stroked their poor little bald heads. She felt very soft down. Maybe they'd soon get to be curly after all. She touched their tiny button noses and tickled them under their chins. They didn't laugh but they looked as if they wanted to, if they only knew how. Then she played with their small starfish hands. Claire gripped her tightly round the left little finger. Charles clung to her right little finger, his fist clenched.

‘Make friends?' said Connie.

 

Contents

1. Swim Scare

‘We're going swimming!' Connie sang happily.

‘Sh!' said Dad. ‘You'll wake the babies.'

Connie clamped her hand over her mouth, giggling. She certainly didn't want to wake her little brother and sister. They were called Claire and Charles and they were twins. They were both bald, with beady blue eyes, big tummies and bendy legs. Connie's gran said they were the most beautiful babies in the whole world. Connie thought Gran had gone a bit crackers. The twins looked terrible.

Their behaviour wasn't up to much either. They cried a lot during the day. They cried a lot during the night, too.

‘Little monsters,' said Dad, yawning. ‘They just wouldn't stop crying last night.'

‘Tut, tut,' said Connie, shaking her head at the silly twins. ‘
They
won't be able to go swimming for years and years, will they, Dad?'

It seemed like years and years since Connie and Dad had gone swimming. Dad had been promising to take her for ages. But since the twins were born he was always too tired.

‘
Next
Sunday,' he always said. But now
this
Sunday he was really taking her.

‘I love love love going swimming,' said Connie.

She made impressive sweeping movements with her arms, swimming through thin air.

‘Look, Dad! I can remember how to do it,' said Connie.

She ‘swam' right out of the house, tiptoeing down the stairs and along the hall. Dad closed the front door very gently behind them.

He put his ear to the door and listened. ‘Silence! The twins are still asleep. And so is Mum. Lucky Mum.'

‘Lucky
us
,' said Connie. ‘We're going swimming.'

‘Lucky us,' said Dad – but he didn't sound as if he meant it.

Connie practised her swimming strokes in the back of the car.

‘Hey, stop kicking my seat!' said Dad.

‘I'm doing my leg movements,' said Connie. ‘Like a little frog. Just the way you showed me, Dad. I'm going to swim right up and down the little pool, you just wait and see.'

‘Without keeping one foot on the bottom all the time?' said Dad, grinning.

‘Cheek!' said Connie.

She got changed quickly in the cubicle at the swimming-bath. Her swimming costume was getting a bit small for her. Connie had to pull it down hard to make sure it covered her bottom properly. It had a blue dolphin on the front, with a big smiley mouth. Connie gave him a little pat, her own mouth big and smiley.

‘I'm ready, Dad! Let's get in the little pool quick,' said Connie.

But Connie and Dad found that the learner pool was roped off. There were lots of mums and a few dads and a lot of babies in the pool so Connie ducked under the rope ready to join them.

‘No, dear, you can't come in here,' said the attendant. ‘There's a parent-and-baby session taking place.'

‘But we always go in the little pool,' said Connie. ‘Dad's my parent.' ‘She's my very big baby,' said Dad, joking.

‘Much
too
big, I'm afraid,' said the attendant.

‘Never mind, we'll go in the big pool,' said Dad. He took hold of Connie's hand. ‘It'll be much more fun.'

Connie wasn't so sure. The big pool was very very big. The water got very deep and every fifteen minutes they switched the wave machine on. Huge waves rippled up and down the big pool and everyone shouted and screamed.

‘The waves might knock me over, Dad,' said Connie.

‘We'll keep to the edge when the wave machine is on,' said Dad. ‘Come on, Connie. Let's get in the water, eh?'

Dad went down the steps into the water. It came up to his waist. Connie went down the steps very slowly, one at a time. She would have stayed halfway down, but some bigger girls wanted to get in the water too.

‘Move out of the way, you're blocking the steps,' they said, and when Connie didn't budge one of them pushed her.

It was only a little push, but Connie lost her grip on the handrail. She fell forward, screaming. She went splosh into the bright blue water. It closed over her head and she clawed and kicked in this new terrifying blue world. Then something grabbed hold of her. She was whirled upwards and her head burst out in the air, ears popping with the sudden noise.