1
“Sydney, I swear, if you take one more picture I’m going to throw that stupid camera out the window!” Jude Connor told his twin sister in an exasperated tone, as she lowered the silver Canon she was holding. The blinding flash was a slow and yet lethal weapon that would temporarily blind him with every snapshot she took. This would lead to the impending car crash, the hour-long lecture from his uncle on responsibility, and finally the confiscation of his car keys and beloved Ford F250.
Sydney gave her usual smirk-and-eye-roll response. “Sorry,” she said, though the tone of her voice implied she was anything but. Her brother rolled his eyes as well, unable to help the small grin twitching at his mouth.
He wasn’t really mad. It was kind of hard to be mad at her.
Jude eyed his sister while there was a pause in traffic, watching as she went through all of the photos on her camera. What a devil, he thought.
The twins were slowly inching their way down 175th street on their way to the Woodinville theater. The traffic was bumper-to-bumper and the blaring of car horns was almost constant. Jude- who was always calm and composed- didn’t care for complaining when nothing could be done. He used this opportunity to take a quick sip of his Mountain Dew, and then shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he remembered how fast Mountain Dew travels to ones bladder. Anxiously, he peered over the cars in traffic, praying the red light would soon become green. Pretty soon here everything was going to be yellow.
“I don’t suppose you could make this go any faster?” she said, reading his mind. This was not unusual. Because they spent nearly all their time with each other, the twins had developed an almost telepathic ability with each other. Despite the question, though, Sydney didn’t really care about being stuck in traffic. There was not a day when she didn’t enjoy spending time with her brother, even if it just meant kicking it in a mile-long traffic jam.
“Yeah, right.” He answered her, taking another drink of his soda, and then warily setting it down as he realized what he’d done. “I’m not God.”
“Oh, really? I thought that’s what you said last week when we were playing Mario Kart,” she teased, reaching for his beverage and inserting the straw between her lips. He would have taken it back, but it would probably have meant the bumper of the blue Prius in front of them. Instead he rolled his eyes.
“That,” he eyed her seriously, “is totally and completely different.”
She cracked a grin while he punched the stereo’s power button and the screen lit up. “What do you want?” Jude asked her.
Sydney gave a radiant smile. “Skinny Love,” she answered. Not that she really had to, of course, since her answer had been obvious even before he asked the question. Sydney was obsessed with Bon Iver, and had been ever since she’d heard his song on the radio in fifth grade. He fumbled with the controls a few moments until the music was playing softly out of the speakers, and Sydney leaned her head against the window, enjoying the combination of silence and music.
Come on skinny love just last the year
Pour a little salt, we were never here
My my my, my my my, my my
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer
....
The Connor kids were identical twins of sixteen years of age; meaning that sixteen years ago two unfortunate babies were born into a chaotic marriage that neither mother nor father wanted. James Connor was a full-time stock broker from Connecticut. Melanie Penn had been a substitute school teacher from downtown Bothell.
If you had asked the former Miss Penn what drew her to the tall, dark-haired man, chances were she would say something about his ‘intuitive’ stare and his ‘peaceful’ aura. She’d always been kind of a hippie nut. (He would’ve mumbled something about her looking sexy in that red dress and nothing more.)
When they met in a club in downtown Las Vegas, it was- ta da! Love at first sight! The kind of stuff you only read about in fairy-tale books…. Or was it?
Their wedding was rather small, just three close friends who had accompanied James on his trip (and who were also extremely drunk). Their vows were slurred, but their marriage was official.
They woke the next morning with pounding heads and 25 cent rings on their fingers. It took less than an hour to realize that the ‘fateful night’ they’d shared was nothing more than a few too many shots of vodka. By noon, their marriage was annulled. They exchanged a tart goodbye and never saw each other again.
Precisely nine months later Melanie-Penn Connor had her kids.
.......
As they reached the turn in for Woodinville Theater, Jude swerved into the parking lot, eager to get out of the snail traffic. By some unspoken law of bad luck it was packed. Trying to find a spot to park would be harder than solving a Rubik’s Cube.
“I think there’s a space over there,” Sydney suggested helpfully with a rightwards nod, sitting up straighter in the passenger’s seat as the car slowly made its way through the parking lot.
Jude followed her gaze and saw the single open spot among dozens of other filled spaces. He smiled and steered the car towards it, meanwhile reaching for his drink again. Somehow it seemed much emptier than before. Just as he took the last sip, which was probably mostly saliva and melted ice, there was a slight flash and a clicking sound from the passenger seat. He glared at Sydney, who was again holding her camera.
She grinned innocently. “No, I swear. They’ll accept this one into Us Weekly.”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. “Along with the other fifteen photos you’ve taken so far?”
“Idiotic Teen Driver Endangers Sibling!” Sydney predicted the headline with mock severity. “A Sip of Soda Turns to Tragedy at Woodinville Theater!”
“Shut up,” He grinned, and slid into the parking space.
