Chapter 2: Siamese

My earliest memory is waking up with Kelly’s head on my arm. We must have been ... probably 2 years old? We survived all kinds of neglect and abuse, but Kelly and I got through it together. At school we had to be in all the same classes.

Any time Kelly and I were apart, it seemed like a world-ending catastrophe. Mom took me to the doctor when I was five, and Kelly cried the whole four hours I was gone. That day I only cried two or three times, or maybe it was eight. I choose not to remember clearly.

Our mothers, “Mom” and “Mommy” were sisters and shared a house. They aren’t around anymore, and not that important to us, so I won’t bother with their names. Kelly had no idea who her father was, and neither did I. Our mothers refused to give us any information, other than “They were assholes who abandoned us!”

They figured it was easier for them to team up, and trade off parenting duties. Mom would take care of both of us for a few days, and Mommy the next few days. They treated us like chores to be done, and rarely hugged us or played with us. When they were gone, we didn’t miss them much, as long as Kelly and I were together.

Our family was poor. One day, Mom put just one small bowl of cereal on the table. She said, “Share it, that’s all there is.” If Kelly went hungry, I would be sad. If I went hungry, she would be sad instead. We took turns feeding each other a small spoonful at a time, watching and enjoying as feeding each other made us happy. Cereal in her mouth, Kelly smiled, I was happy. I got a spoonful, I smiled, Kelly was happy. Our bellies were rarely full, but we had each other.

Mom and Mommy also lacked much patience and tended to punish us a lot. When she was 5 years old, Kelly accidentally spilled water on the floor. Mommy grabbed her, flipped Kelly over her lap, and started to spank her. I held on to Mommy’s arm and tried to stop her. She yelled “Karl, get back or you get some too!” I kept trying to stop her, and got a big share of the spanking myself. If I tired Mommy’s arm so Kelly didn’t get as much punishment, it was worth it to me. Several times Kelly did the same.

Mom came up with a devious twist, which totally reformed all our bad behavior. Kelly did something bad one day, and Mom spanked ME instead. Kelly was so upset she behaved perfectly for months.

It was early winter as we shared the last dried-out piece of cake from Kelly’s 6th birthday. It was all we had.

We watched out the window as a new family moved into the big house next door, a man, a woman, and a little blonde girl. It took a long time. They had LOTS of stuff!

A few weeks later, Mom made us go meet the new kid next door. We would have been happy watching tv on the couch, playing on the floor, or even cleaning up the house, as long as Kelly and I were together.

We didn’t think we needed any new kid. We had never been more wrong about anything! It would be eight years before we learned the “new kid” was OUR SOULMATE.

Mom would be mad if we didn’t go along with it, so we dressed in our winter clothes and trudged through the snow. Being six months older and a tiny bit braver, I walked a step ahead. I held Kelly’s hand, just to make sure she didn’t get scared, of course.

Mom knocked on the door and introduced us, “Hello Penelope, this is Kelly and Karl. I’m sure they’re happy to meet you.” She talked to Penny’s Mom Alice and said she would be back by supper time. Penny showed us where to put our coats and snow boots. She was a cute and nice girl, with long blond hair, instead of red like ours.

We immediately noticed how nice Penny’s house was. There were several kinds of fruit in a bowl on the kitchen counter. We smelled cookies baking in the oven. There was a piano in the living room, and they had the biggest TV I had ever seen. Upstairs in Penny’s room she had boxes and boxes of toys. We were drawing and coloring away with some of Penny’s coloring books when her Mom came in and gave us a plate of fresh chocolate chip cookies, still warm.

Kelly said to Penny, “You’re using the red crayon and I need it.” I would have asked Kelly to please wait ‘til I was done. Penny broke the red crayon in half and gave Kelly a piece. Kelly was energetic, silly, and assertive; I was rational and kind; and Penny was very creative. We all got along remarkably well.

When we were at home, most of the time Kelly and I played either knights, dragons and wizards, or pirates. Penny wanted to play princesses and unicorns. As Penny had piles and piles of toys, most of the winter we played princesses and unicorns. Grumble.

Since Penny’s Mom noticed our family wasn’t well off, she never minded us taking snack breaks for fruit, cookies, sandwiches, or the occasional pizza with no olives. All three of us hated olives.

When the weather warmed up, we moved our play outside to Penny’s huge back yard. There was a large patch of grass, but mostly it was woods and a few old buildings. One great place was behind an old stone wall, which couldn’t be seen from the house. There was a small wooden shed behind the wall. It was run-down and ugly, but it kept the rain off when we played outside in the weather. Our parents weren’t very attentive, and we were fine with that.

Penny’s family welcomed us wholeheartedly, and our mothers were glad to have the time alone. Other than school we practically lived at Penny’s. Over the next two years, our play developed into “Knight Champion rescues the Pretty Princess from the evil Pirate Queen.” It was our favorite game.