Another Character Short

This character blog focuses on Margaret and John, the twins’ parents.

I’m doing these two together because this is one of my favorite scenes with them and they are 18 at the moment. All 3 books start with the characters the same age to see how they get from point A to point B and I feel like the last year of high school and the first year of college are a turning point in everyone’s lives. Major decisions are made, every issue feels like life and death, especially with love and relationships. Include trying to find your way for the first time without your parents, if they were like a north star to you, mine were quite the mix of role models of what NOT to do but they did love me very much. Now you need to fly alone.

John 1999

After the short drive to Maggie’s, I go to ring the doorbell, but she opens the door before I can ring it like last night.

“Hey!” I flash her another great smile. She smiles back.

“Hi, come on in.” She looks happier than she did yesterday. Maybe I am warming her up to me. “What’s on the agenda this evening?”

“Math and science.” We fall into a rhythm of working together. She is incredibly patient with me, I’m not the sharpest crayon in the box, but she knows everything and explains it in a way I understand. I love to joke around with her and make her laugh until we both start crying.

We take a break for dinner that she made herself for me.

“Wow, Margaret! This is delicious! How’d you learn to cook like this?” I tell her, trying not to choke on a huge mouthful of food.

“Watching videos and reading about it.”

“Not your mom or anything?” She looks sad. I didn’t want to make her sad, I never want to see that frown again. It makes me sad.

“No, I taught myself, almost everything I know.” That last part was under her breath, but I heard it.

“Are they ever home? Or are they here now and this place is so huge I’d never see them.”

“Oh, you’d see them, they are about 6’2 and 6’4.”

“Is that why you have high ceilings?” She snorts. “Then what happened to you, did you shrink in the wash?” She busts out laughing.

“Maybe I was dry clean only?” now I’m laughing.

Her laugh and voice are infectious. I could listen to her read the phone book. I wouldn’t be bored.  I start staring at her while she is reading to me. Her dark hair looks so smooth and shiny, I would love to touch it just once. Her blue-grey eyes are bright and excited when she is explaining anything to me. I stop paying attention and get lost in them.

“Did you hear me? Hello? Earth to John, come in John!” She snaps me out of her eyes by waving to me.

“72!” I snapped back into attention.

“We finished math an hour ago. We are talking about the Space Race.” She answers.

“I meant 1972.” She furrows her eyebrows at me.

“What happened in 1972 then?” Make a joke, John think fast. I was trying to cover up that I wasn’t listening but failed.

“We found aliens trying to blow up the moon, so we sent an army of chimpanzees to fight them on Mars before they got here. That’s why Saturn has rings.” I said that without cracking, and as dry as possible. She is staring at me like I have two heads.

“Are you serious right now?” she looks unsure if she wants to believe me or not.

“NO! Hah! I’m kidding! Did you think I was? Me, serious?”

“You didn’t hear a word I said.” She shakes her head. “Where were you?”

“Lost”

“By what I was saying? Why didn’t you stop me, where did I lose you?”

“Your eyes” She stops and looks up at me, baffled. When she realizes I said what I said she looks down and blushes.

“I think we are done for today.” she states. I groan, get up and stretch. “We did great today, made a bunch of progress. You are smarter than you think. All you have to do is apply yourself. Maybe you can take the day off tomorrow.”

“Did I say something wrong? Are you upset with me?”

“NO! Not at all, I’m proud of you, I just thought”

“Then I will see you tomorrow, after practice.” I cut her off. We say goodbye and I drive home beaming. She is proud of me.