Chapter 45

“We’re here!” Yi called out as she entered the main cabin. She found the cabin was toasty warm and the packs full of clothes were stacked up by the stairs. But Paul and Andi were nowhere to be seen. At her call, Wonka peered up from his spot in front of the wood stove. He rose and walked up to Yi, tail wagging with every step. Yi bound up the stairs and found the loft empty, so she went down and made her way over to the kitchen, that was empty too, so was the shower and the sauna and found Paul and Andi’s clothing was in a pile by the sauna door. She was about to look elsewhere when she noticed movement through the rear door window. She saw that out back in the snow were Andi and Paul, naked and kissing, their bodies entwined, steam rising from their skin. Yi tapped gently on the door and Andi saw her peeking at them through the window. She grinned and waggled her eyebrows at her boss, and Andi held up 5 fingers asking for 5 more minutes, then went back to kissing her husband.

Yi replied with a thumbs up and headed back out to her truck. Stepping outside, she showed the girls the basket she had snatched off the table and called out, “Let’s go get us some eggs!”

“OOOHHH KAYYY!” shouted the twins and they both deftly unlatched their child seats and hopped out of the back of the Ranger.

“When did you guys figure out how to get out of your seats?” Yi asked incredulously.

Sandy and Madeline looked at each other and muttered between themselves softly in their private language. Then they both looked at Yi and shrugged.

“Seriously? No other kid on earth knows how to get out of a car seat.”

The twins looked at each other again, and after a quick conversation in TwinBabble™ they looked at Yi. Madeline said, “You’re a silly!” and ran toward the barn.

“Come on, Wonka!” shouted Sandy. “Let’s go get some eggs!” and she raced off to catch up with her sister. “EEEEEEEGGS!” they ran to the barn, yelling at the top of their lungs.

“How the hell does she keep up with them?” muttered Yi as she trudged after the twins.

Not long later, they entered the cabin with a basket full of eggs and the twins were filling Yi with stories of Poppa’s “hamlets” and how good they were. As Yi placed the basket of eggs on the table, Paul and Andi stepped into the main cabin from the kitchen, Andi still drying her hair with a towel. “You guys got it nice and warm in here,” grinned Yi with a saucy wink.

“You know what they say,” said Paul, “rubbing sticks and stones together...”

Yi looked blank; she had never heard such an expression. “No. What do they say?”

“Oh no,” gasped Sandy and Madeline as their parents broke into song.

Thinking’ of you’s workin’ up my appetite Looking forward to a little afternoon delight Rubbin’ sticks and stones together makes the sparks ignite And the thought of lovin’ you is getting so exciting Skyrockets in flight Afternoon delight!

Despite their initial protest, the twins joined Andi and Paul in singing, then broke up the “harmonization” by hopping up and down “Can we do croaky? I want to do croaky!”

“I’m sure Uncle John and Aunt Macy will want to do karaoke tonight,” smiled Andi. “Now take your back packs upstairs and show Miss Yi where you put your stuff.”

“Yayyyyy!” and the twins dashed up the stairs, stopped halfway, ran down the stairs, grabbed their packs, and ran back up.

“Oh, lord, I hate disco,” muttered Yi as she gathered up her pack and trudged up the stairs. Up in the loft, the twins were opening their backpacks. Once they got them open, their expressions changed from mischief to that of disappointment.

“Hey!” cried Madeline as she dumped her clothing out on to the bed.

“Who took all our snacks?” demanded a pouting Sandy as she glared at Yi, her little arms crossed, and her eyebrows lowered.

“Your mom mentioned that she repacked your bags,” said Yi as she placed her clothes in the footlocker at the foot of her full-size bed. “She said that you can’t wear pop-tarts, so she filled your back packs with things like shirts and pants and socks.”

“No fair!” pouted Madeline. “I’m going to tell Poppa, he’ll fix it.”

“Poppa said that if you want snacks, you have to come to me.”

“Awwww, no fair!” they chimed in unison.

“Poppa is making stew for supper, so he doesn’t want you filled up on junk,” scolded Yi, trying her hardest not to sound like her own mother Sunny.

After a collective gasp, the twins shouted, “STOOOOO!” Sandy made a dash for the stairs, but Yi caught her.

“No one leaves until everyone puts their clothes in their footlockers!” Yi’s voice had that Word of Mom’s finality to it that caused the twins to stop in their tracks.

“Oh, kaaay,” they moaned. Madeline tried to be meticulous about transferring her clothing from the pile on her cot to the footlocker. Sandy merely opened her footlocker, moved the tray out of the way, then dropped her entire backpack into her footlocker. Yi noticed that Madeline’s footlocker had a sticker of a cartoon dog from Paw Patrol on the lid, while Sandy’s footlocker had a sticker of a pink tyrannosaurus rex with angel wings. This was the first deviation between the twins that Yi had noticed, so she had to ask.

“How come you have a dinosaur and Madeline has a puppy on your footlockers?”

Sandy sighed sadly. “We ran out of Paw Patrol stickers.” Then Madeline muttered something in their private language and they both shouted “STOOOOOO!” and ran down the stairs.

Yi caught up with them in the kitchen where Paul was preparing the stew. The counters were covered with vegetables of all kinds, and Paul was browning the meat in an 8-quart Dutch oven. Yi peered into the pot and sniffed the aroma of cooking meat. “Smells good. What’s all in there?”