Chapter 2

Chapter

Two

Wonder Twins

K andie (twenty years ago)

"They are coming tonight." Looking at my twin Kerania, I know she doesn't miss the fear and anger in Daddy's voice.

"We have to get Nicolette that medicine. Her fever is too high," Mommy whispers in a rushed voice as she rushes to pack our baby sister's things.

"You know what we have to do?" Kerania's eyes light with malice and mischief.

I nod. She's the leader — always has been.

"Wonder twins activate," she says and I press my fist to hers wanting so badly to tell her this is not the game we started playing years ago when Daddy first showed us the cartoon from when he was little on YouTube about the superheroes that were twins like my sister and me. Only they were brother and sister, fraternal twins to us, being identical.

"Shape of fire," Kerania says with glee at the chance to set something on fire.

"Form of wildcat," I follow, knowing I can get into all the tight places to activate the traps we set days ago when the people from DHS came to say that our parents didn't provide a safe living environment for us. Which was a dang lie. We were safe out here on my daddy's land. He built this house with his own hands, along with his brothers and cousins.

"Only me and your daddy is the reason they say y'all ain't safe," Mommy told us sadly. "They were okay to leave us alone until we had y'all. Now that they know where we are, they are determined to take y'all from us. My brother's wife has sued for custody, and they are taking y'all over there."

She sounded so sad. And even though I love visiting my uncle, Spence, I knew his wife, Natalia, didn't like us for real. She has some type of strange jealousy for Mommy she ain't never got over. But that's grown folks' business, like Daddy says. Right now, I need to set those traps.

I'm the one whose job it is to set off the firecrackers at the top of the stairs when I hear them pull up. Creeping down to the first landing, I peek out the window.

"So many," I say, seeing all the county vehicles. You'd think they were coming after a serial killer instead of a man, his wife, and three daughters.

"Guys, hurry up. Take what you have and let's get down to the basement," Daddy whisper shouts just as they start banging on the door.

"Josiah, this is Sheriff Hezekiah Shelby. We have an order signed by the state of Alabama Supreme Court for you to render Kerania, Kandice, and Nicolette Love to the custody of Andrew Spence." The sheriff sounds different than I've ever heard him before. He sounds really mad. Only this time I don't know who at. He always seemed apologetic every time my aunt sent them out here on some bogus health and welfare check. Even on the day Mommy had Nicolette in a special made birthing tub, they came saying she was in violation of health and safety for having a home birth.

Grabbing the remote control that sends a spark, I head down the stairs. "Come on," Daddy urges me. "Where is your sister?" he hisses, canting his head, looking left and right as the knocking becomes more persistent.

"She's coming," I say. Just as I hear a clear, "Take it down," from the sheriff.

Just as the battering ram hits the door the first time my heart stutter stops at least three times, Kerania slides past Daddy smelling like gasoline.

"Gotdammit. What did you do, firebug?" he asks exasperated, already knowing.

"They ain't taking what you worked so hard for, Daddy," Kerania says with cool calm assurance I never seem to have.

I think I see a glimmer of pride in Daddy's eyes as he looks down at her just as they bring the door down.

Silently he nods toward the false wall he made out of a shelf full of preserves that Mommy left slightly ajar.

"Wait," I say as he gets ready to pull the door closed. Sticking my hand out, I depress the button I jimmy-rigged. After a second, a chain reaction of firecrackers go off, triggered by the deputies tripping the now active wire.

Shouts follow us as Daddy closes the secret door softly after Kerania and I pass through. "Y'all two are a mess and a half." He winks, knowing full well he taught us all his mad genius ideas from the time we were old enough to handle wires and understand safety. He may not have become the chemical engineer he planned on being, but that didn't stop his genius. There is nothing my daddy can't do. If not for his occasional spells, as he likes to call it, he would have gone on to pursue his career, instead of folks always trying to lock him away in Bryce Hospital up in Tuscaloosa.

Lights illuminate the space as we trek down the passage leading to our family's freedom.

"Our own little Underground Railroad," Kerania whispers.

"You are egregious," I tell her, giggling. She ain't lying, though. This is the only way our family is ever going to be free to live without people trying to tear us apart. Mommy says Daddy already has a plan to take us off the grid. We are going to live with a traveling carnival.

I don't know how long we walk, but my legs are tired. I know that much. Finally, we come to the end where Mommy stands holding our baby sister. Neither look good. Nicolette is not even a full month old. Mommy took her for her first check-up and said they had a lot of sick babies at the little regional clinic two counties over. Mommy gave her medicine, but we ran out this morning and haven't had a chance to get her anything.

Nicolette's head lolls in the crook of Mommy's arms. "Poor baby," I whisper, going over to my baby sister kissing her hot forehead. "She's burning up, Mommy."

"I know, sugah," Mom says, casting a worried glance from my baby sister to Kerania and me.

"We'll get something on the way," Daddy assures us. "We need to leave now." He heads up the ladder leading to the surface, pushing it open. Light spills in. The night is clear, and the stars provide the right amount of light to let us see our way up. Climbing out he gets out and surveys the area like we practiced. Coming back down he takes the baby. Fitting the carrier across his chest he straps her to him and climbs out of the tunnel followed by Mommy, Kerania, then me.

Climbing out of the tunnel, the smell of grass and soil fills my lungs along with the crispness of the night. Rising to my full height, I stop seeing the blaze my sister set eating up our house, like a ravenous dog.

"Well, I see y'all have been busy." Mommy slides a dispassionate gaze our way. I look down knowing how much my parents loved that house.

"It was the only way," I say in our defense. "They would find the secret door otherwise." Which is true. The sheriff knew my father well enough to know that he would have made an escape route. Daddy's been known for slipping past the gates and out of windows his entire life.

"Alright, there is nothing for it. We don't live here anymore. We are going on a grand adventure." Waving us to follow him deeper into the woods, Daddy takes us down a trail he's already marked to show up in the dark if you know where to look.

Eventually, we come up to the brand-new truck. With new tags and new IDs the guy from the local biker club, El Diablo assured Daddy would be in the glove box.

And just like he promised, they are exactly where he said they'd be. "Here." He passes Mom hers.

"Goodbye, Shelby-Love," I whisper, watching the flames fade in the distance as Kerania's hand squeezes mine.

"Okay, here's twenty dollars. Get baby acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Keep your hoodie up," Daddy gives me instructions handing the folded bill to me.

"She doesn't know those words, Daddy," my sister chimes in, followed by a loud, "Ow," when I jab her hard in the side. We don't talk about my reading problems just like we don't talk about Daddy seeing things or Mommy's fears or anxiety, as she calls it.

"She knows what they look like, and it probably has a baby on it," Daddy says as my hand closes over the money.

Sticking my tongue out at her I say, "Plus you ain't got no act right. You have money and still be trying to steal. And we can't have that while we're on the lam." I scoot out the door.

"I'm coming too. I'll be good Daddy, I promise." I hear her as she jumps out behind me before they can say anything.

She knows they can't risk discovery yelling at her to come back. This girl, I swear. "Don't do anything dumb." Frowning at her, I pull my hoodie closer around me. "They'll probably think we're stealing gas." I sniff her way at the strong smell wafting off her. "Firebug."

"Wildcat." Looking over, she grins back at me, totally unbothered, having caught up so that we are walking side by side. She's the older twin and can't ever be the one in the back.

"Good evening, little ladies," the ancient store clerk calls as soon as the bell jingles. His mahogany skin shines under the bright light. "Where y'all people at?"

His smile falters when Kerania shrugs. She should know better. Epes is just a county over. People around here ain't no better than Shelby-Love when it comes to minding other people's business.

"Our mom is home with our baby brother. She told us to come get him some medicine. Daddy's working the night shift at the plant." Giving him my best smile, I mingle the truth with lies.

"Ah, y'all one of those new families that came with the car plant," he muses, unknowingly supplying me with more of a background.

"Yes, sir," I say, following my sister.

"The baby stuff is the next aisle over." He nods to his left.

In unison we move to our right heading down the aisle he indicates.

"Fifteen, twenty-nine." Giving us the total, he looks at us. His eyes tighten a little at Kerania. That dang gasoline. He looks outside, then back at us.

"Thank you, sir." Handing him the twenty, I watch as he takes the money.

"Y'all be careful out there. This is a small town, but it's still not okay for little girls to be out this time at night." Casting a look outside, he gives me the change. I don't bother looking. I just pocket the money, already feeling like we are running out of time.

"Yes, sir," this time Kerania chimes in along with me.

The shop bells rings. "Well, I'll be," Deputy Davies from the Shelby-Love Sheriff Department says, letting the door bang against his back as he takes us both in.

"Go," Kerania shouts, picking up one of the first things she lays her hands on by a nearby display and throwing it into his face.

Grabbing the medicine I race to the back of the store. I know I can't go back to the truck when I hear him shout to someone, "Go get the other one."

Running as fast as I can, I turn in the opposite direction from my parents. I hear footfalls eating up the distance behind me. I know if I make it to the nearby neighborhood, I'll be able to climb up something to hide until they give up.

The gates are so high. The blood is pumping in my ears as I race passed house after house, hearing the pounding footsteps behind me. I hear a lot of dogs. Down here, most people keep their dogs outside in their yards. Tapping a gate that doesn't have a bark following, I grab the top of the fence to pull myself over. I'm just getting my leg over the top when a rough hand drags me back down.

I hit the ground with a thud that stings my behind.

"And just where do you think you're going?" an Epes deputy whose name badge I can't see demands.

I don't answer him knowing the hell that awaits.

3 Months Later

"This is your room." The kindly matron shows us into the spartan quarters. There are two beds that are neat but may as well be cots with the mattresses being so thin.

The blankets folded at the base are so threadbare they may as well be sheets. I guess we should be thankful because it's already hot in here and I don't see an air conditioner and the vents don't seem to be on.

"We only turn it on from nine p.m. to five a.m.," the matron says in answer to my unspoken question. "The showers are down the hall and to the right. You will be expected to bathe every night between seven and nine p.m. The temperature of the water is purely determined by first come first serve. You are to maintain your own hair. We have products donated that should meet your needs. You are expected at assembly in twenty minutes." With that, she leaves us alone.

"This place ain't right," I say to Kerania.

"You ain't lying about that. I can't believe Uncle Spence agreed to this," she muses, looking out into the woods that the Shelby Children's Home has been situated on.

"And that preacher? Smarmy." Turning up my nose, I try and fail to quell a shudder.

"Yeah." She turns her eyes on me. "They ain't going to let us near anything that we can make tools out of. That ol' hag told them about our ‘proclivities'." She emphasizes with air quotes.

"We need to make friends. I know there are other kids who want out of this place." I walk over to the window and look down. Nothing on the sides for me to grapple on. These flimsy sheets barely cover the bed. There is no way they could support our weight.

"Yeah, you're better with people. I'm sneakier." I nod then ask, "Do you think they are okay?"

"Yep." For the first time in all these months since we were caught, I see a glimmer of emotion from my sister. Mommy and Daddy never came back. We know it's because they can't. There is a statewide alert on them for kidnapping. How can you kidnap your own children? They blamed them for the arson. Said they were armed and dangerous.

Both of us have been going off nothing but fear and rage from the moment the police captured us and took us to our uncle's home.

Kerania, resorting to her firebug ways, has tried to burn their house down three times. The last time was the final straw, with our aunt turning us over to the state while my uncle was out of the country. Seems like she has been reporting our antisocial behavior all along. There is no way she could just do that overnight. Instead of giving us to our grandparents Mama and Pa-Pete like they've been asking, she put us in the system with no one on my dad's side of the family the wiser.

My parents may have mental health challenges, but she is pure evil. The sheer animus she has for my parents goes far beyond anything like simple jealousy. The fact that she and my mom used to be friends seems unreal.

"Don't worry. You know we can fashion tools out of anything. Look." She nods to the corner of the window. "That nail looks loose." It didn't, but it would only take her half an hour to get it out knowing Kerania.

"I know they probably count the utensils." She nods at my words. "But I bet they won't mind us wanting to clean."

"Yeah, but they know our history. We got to seem like we don't want to do it, like normal kids." We nod together. It's one of those things we do — silently communicate. We can't read each other's mind and we stopped finishing each other's sentences and forgot the language we only spoke to each other a long time ago. That doesn't mean she isn't the other part of my soul.

"We got this." She presses her closed fist close to me.

"Yeah, we do. Wonder twins activate."

Just so happens we don't have it, not even a little bit.

Six Months Later

Drip. Drip. Drip. It's cold and dank down here. My skin is clammy and the smock shift dress that is our uniform is hanging off me. Rubbing my lips together, they feel like the tissue paper mom used to stuff in gift boxes. The corners of my mouth are cracked and bleeding. They like to pretend they forget to feed or water us. But that's not it. They want us starving and thirsting. It makes it easier to break us.

Always the plumper of the twins, I always prided myself on being Daddy's little butterball. I'm not that anymore, neither is Kerania. I can't tell which one of us is having it worse. Them starving me or them beating her.

We stay getting in trouble. If we aren't stirring up insurrection as the bishop calls it, we are defying the will of God by not yielding to his tenants. Only those aren't the Lord's tenants, but this sick, evil, so-called man of God's. I wonder what Aunt Natalia would think if she knew she handed us over to a cult. Like a real life honest to goodness cult. One that preys upon kids and sells them to the highest bidder.

Bishop Smith says we are supposed to sanctify ourselves with marriage, only these aren't marriages. Twelve-year-old girls can't get married. And the older girls can't either. This state may be backwards, but this is true for anyone. Esme, the girl they brought from Haiti, says it's illegal there too. Not to mention the dozens of Latina and Hispanic girls they have down here in this basement that is actually used as a prison.

We are all caged in small cells like those you see at an animal shelter, only no one would treat a dog like this and get away with it.

And dogs. I ain't never hated a dog so bad as when they sic'd one on us the first time we tried to escape, and it bit Kerania, leaving huge bite marks on her legs. I know it's not its fault, but I'll tell Daddy when we see him again, he can get me anything but a dog.

"Hey." The urgent whisper has me turning to the sound of my sister's sweet voice.

"Hey, yourself." My voice sounds like I was forced to swallow acid. It may as well have been. They purge me every other day when I refuse to comply with the bishop's wishes. The first time I thought I was getting a reprieve. They bathed and fed me. The food lacked seasoning, but I didn't care. I was so hungry. Afterward, they dressed me in a pretty dove gray dress and took me to Bishop Smith's office. I should have known better. His son was over by the reception area while he called me over to his desk.

It was surreal to see him sitting behind the desk with his penis out, looking like a red and purple eel. I threw up right then all over his nasty self. They brought me right back here and put a muzzle on my mouth. They keep trying. Once or twice a week they march me past the vacant face boy making me kneel so I can be consecrated. He actually got it in my mouth once, and I tried my best to bite that motherfucker off. That's when the purging began. They force me to throw up. They want to break me, but they are only making me angrier.

I've only seen Kerania sporadically since they have been keeping me down here and keeping her in line until she finds a way to escape again. She passed along a message saying there is an older boy from the outside that visits. He found her in the woods one day when she was out hiding the stash of things we'd stolen for our next escape. She says at first he didn't believe her but now he does and he's going to help us, but only us. Anyone else is too risky.

"Look what I have." Opening her hand, she shows me a bloody key. Looking up, I see sheer malicious glee lighting her eyes.

"What did you do?" Scrambling over to her, I press my head to the bars, the cold metal not bothering me. I'm seeing my sister for the first time in months.

"I killed that bitch, and we are about to burn this motherfucker down. We're having an uprising. C'mon," she urges, slipping the key into the lock.

"There's a way out the rear." She starts leading me out the back where there's a hatch I never noticed before.

"Wait." I tug her arm, halting her. "What about them?" I nod to the other kids locked in the cages.

"I'm coming back, but I need to get you out of here first," she assures me. "I'm coming back." She can tell I don't believe her. My sister doesn't care about anyone but me. She's told me that thousands of times. "I promise," she says, her voice cracking. "I see what they do to them. I ain't letting anymore kids go through that. But you're too weak to help me. No, come on." She drags me, stressing the last word.

Following her, I can only pray that she keeps her word.

"Stay here, I'll be back." She says when we make our way over the woods bordering the property. I already see the smoke billowing from the north side of the building.

"Hey, be careful," I croak out.

"Don't worry. We started it on that side for a reason." She winks. "While they put it out, the kids can escape. I love you, wildcat."

"I love you back, firebug." I stretch out my closed fist. "Wonder twins?—"

"Activate." She gives me a wild smile blazing like the fire she just set. She runs to the rescue and out of my life forever.