“Me, too,” I added quickly.
Mother nodded. “That’s fine. Go on, Kaylee. You get cleaned up, too. I’ll be up in a while to pick out your outfit and brush your hair.”
We started to turn.
“Wait!” she cried, and we looked at her. “What’s that on your right ring finger, Haylee?”
Haylee looked at it as if she had never known it was there. It was a piece of green ribbon. “Nothing. I was just pretending I had a ring,” she said.
“Get it off this instant. Never put anything on that Kaylee isn’t wearing. That includes make-believe jewelry. You know how I hate it when someone gives one of you something and not the other.”
Haylee ripped it off quickly.
“Okay, go on,” Mother said.
We walked out quickly. At the bottom of the stairway, Haylee turned to me and smiled. “You don’t really want chocolate more than you want blueberry, do you?” she asked.
“It’s all right.”
She widened her smile. “See? I can make you do anything I want,” she said, and laughed.
“I can do the same to you,” I countered, even though it was something I wouldn’t even think of doing.
She rushed ahead of me up the stairs. Daddy poked his head out of their bedroom when he heard our footsteps.
“Hey, what’s up?” he asked. He was in his robe and was rubbing a towel over his hair.
“We’re going to a restaurant after all,” I said. “And maybe for frozen yogurt for dessert.”
His face brightened. “Way to go, girls, whatever you did,” he said.
“We helped each other,” Haylee told him. “We will always do what’s better for both of us. We’ll never be selfish.”
She said it with such assurance that I actually believed her, until I saw her turn away and smile, and something about that smile sent a chill through me. It was so different from any smile I might make, even the impish smile she had flashed at the bottom of the stairway. Maybe she knew that, too, because she kept it off her face the rest of the night.
As usual, at the restaurant, people who knew Daddy would stop by and comment on how perfectly identical we were. Even strangers did it. One man paused to say, “I’m going to my optometrist. I’m seeing double again.” He laughed, but neither Haylee nor I did. We had heard that so many times that the humor had long since been washed away. However, Mother soaked up all the compliments like a flower absorbing sunlight. I saw the way she looked at Daddy each time, as if to say, See how well I’m doing with them? Never challenge me again.
He seemed to be in full retreat now anyway, and that moment of defiance I had seen in the great room earlier was a fading memory. He talked more about his business, his plans for the future, and some vacation ideas. Mother listened, but her eyes were always on us, especially noticing the way Haylee was fidgeting. This was something I didn’t do nearly as much as she did. Despite how good a student Haylee believed she was, she had a more limited attention span than mine. Instinctively, because I knew Mother was looking for it, whenever Haylee grew bored, I tried to look just as bored. I knew that if I didn’t, she would be angrier at Haylee than normal, and that could end with another punishment we’d both endure. We were supposed to protect each other even from boredom.
“Stop playing with your food,” she muttered. “Don’t swing your legs under the table. Wipe the food from your mouth. Don’t lean over your plate so much.”
These orders were always meant for us both, even though I didn’t do those things as much. She gave the commands while she listened to Daddy describe some new project he was working on. It was easy to see that her snapping at us in the restaurant bothered him, but criticizing her for criticizing one of us would only make things worse.
That night, however, I woke from what I thought was a bad dream. It was really the sound of our parents arguing. It was rare to hear Daddy raise his voice, especially this late in the evening, but that was what was happening. I looked at Haylee. She was in a deep sleep, so I rose and tiptoed to the slightly opened bedroom door to listen better. They were in their bedroom.
“Don’t you see?” Daddy said. “Haylee lied because she
wants you to like her more. It’s only natural. You don’t have to be a psychologist to figure it out, Keri.”
“No, it’s exactly the opposite. It’s unnatural. If she wants me to like her more, then she wants me to like Kaylee less. That’s harmful. She shouldn’t want to harm her sister, ever.”
“But isn’t it natural for them to be somewhat competitive? They have no other children to compete with as long as you keep them homeschooled. So they have to compete with each other. It’s human nature. I appreciate how you’re teaching them, how much they’ve learned, and how much further along they are, but they’ll have to compete with other students in many ways eventually. There are social hurdles, especially for kids today.”
“Exactly. I’m training them to be a team for just that reason. Don’t you see how careful I am to protect them, to be sure they have self-confidence? Since when do you question the way I’m bringing them up? You’re doing it more and more lately. Who’s been talking to you? I sensed it this afternoon when you heard what Haylee had done and learned about her punishment. Well? It’s that secretary of yours, that woman who looks like a chipmunk, isn’t it? I’ve seen the way she looks at me every time the girls and I visit you at your office. ‘They’re so exact,’ she says, as if that was a mistake. ‘You keep them so exact. I would never know who was who.’ Like that was something terrible. Well? Was it that woman?”
“Stop it,” he said. “Of course not. There’s no reason to call her ‘that woman.’ She’s been with me for five years. Her name is Nancy Brand.”
“Why isn’t she married with a family of her own so she doesn’t have to sniff like a chipmunk around ours?”