Chapter Thirty-Five: Life is What You Make It

The twins are having fun on the swings, even if it always ends up into some sort of contest.
"I'm swinging faster!"
"No, I am!"
"I am, and I'm swinging better too!"
"How can you swing better?"
"'Cuz I can!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Uh-huh!"

Isadora scrunches up her face as she jumps off the swing. "I'm getting bored of swinging." Irish shrugs and hops off her own swing. They race over to the see-saw, panting as Isa does a brief victory dance.

"You just had a head start, that's all!" Irish complaints loudly, and Isa sticks her tongue out at her.
"Mom says the crows will eat out your tongue if you stick it out. They're pretty beady characters, I wouldn't mess with them." Isa promtly puts her tongue in it's proper place and sulks a little. They go up and down a little bit, enjoying the feeling of being weightless. In the silence, Irish decides to be nice to her sister for a change, after all everybody knows that it's the ravens that are trouble.
"Your hair reminds me of rubies Isa!"

Isadora smiles somewhat warily, not used to compliments from the normally competitive sister."Thanks Irish. Your hair's awesome too, it sometimes looks like it's blue!" Irish smiles back, she loves it when people notice the dark blue tips in her hair, it reminds her of Dad. Even through the rivalry, the sister bond is strong.

They play quietly for a few minutes, odd for the normally nosy duo.
"I love unicorns!" Irish pipes up after the silence becomes unbearable.
"I love fairies myself, I've heard that a new kid is coming to school soon who's a Fae!" Isa would be jumping up and down in excitement if she wasn't on a see-saw.
"No way! That's so cool! Do you think she owns a unicorn?"
"The Fae's a he, and I don't know. He'll be starting school on Monday! I can't wait to meet him!"

 "I didn't know there were male fairies!" Irish exclaims, surprised.
"That's because you have no imagination! No fae is going to let a little nerd like you!" Irish doesn't know why Isadora is being so mean, but now it's war!
"I do too! And besides, you'll probably bore him to death with your paint talk!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not! You're the boringest person in the world!"
"Nuh-uh, you are!"
"Uh-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
This goes on for a quite a while, the words growing more and more vicious.

After ten minutes, the pair are still fighting loud and dirty. The twins are about to jump off and brawl when they hear Gramma sobbing.
"My grandbabies hate each other! Ned would be so disappointed in me!" Nathalie wails into the cold night. The girls look at each other, chilled by their Gramma's crying.
"I'm sorry Irish, you're a very good writer and I shouldn't have called you unimaginative. And all those other names too!" Irish nods, tears running down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry Isa, I love you and all your paintings! Let's never fight again!"
"Never ever ever!" They both exclaim, jumping off the see-saw and giving each other a ginormous hug. Nathalie suddenly stops crying and obverses the stars with a small smirk on her face.

After the girls are asleep, Nathalie decides to have some fun with her board breaker. She's pleased her ploy to stop the fighting worked, Ned would be proud of her.
"Hi-YEAH! I'm going to get you, suckers!" Nathalie screams, forgetting all about the sleeping girls. Luckily the girls are so tired from their fight that they are dead to the world.

"I see the enemy Captain! All missions ahoy! Let's blow them up!" Nathalie cries out, now pretending she's part of a pirate ship.

With a resounding bam, the mission has been completed, and Nathalie is now the best blue belt the pirate ship has ever seen!
"Maybe next time I'll be the captain?"

After her tiring role-playing/marital arts training, Nathalie relaxes with a nice bowl of fresh Autumn Salad. Roxanne isn't a Ned in the kitchen, but it's much better then the canned stuff she used to eat.

As the girls sleep soundly, Tyson wakes up early and decides to fix up their computer. How the girls managed to obliterate the computer in a matter of days of receiving it he'll never know, but his handy skill should come in handy right now.

After a quick shower, Nathalie is back to her marital arts. She feels so alive when beating up a wooden dummy!

"Are you feeling better Gramma?" Irish asks softly as she walks into the kitchen.
"I've never felt more alive Irish!" Nathalie yells out excitedly. "Just because you're old doesn't mean you're dead! Live in the moment, that's what my mom used to say!" Irish flinches and runs into the kitchen, Nathalie clueless as to the emotional tidal wave she's just inflected on her grandchild.

"Am I a freak Isa? It seems like even Gramma's over Grampa's death, but I just feel so sad...so lifeless. I just don't know where he went off to. What if he's suffering? Oh Isa, I miss him so much!" Irish starts to cry, big fat droplets falling down her face.
"You're not a freak Irish! I think Grampa's in a better place right now, I imagine that he's playing with the angels! And I betcha he can fish all he wants, with a garden that never has annoying weeds!" Irish shakes her head at this, she appreciates the sentiment, but it doesn't sound like real life...or real death.
"I dunno Isa, it just sounds like another one of your stories. I want the facts, not a pretty little tale."

Isa only smiles sadly, knowing her sister is limiting herself by only looking at what she knows.
"It's what I choose to believe. If you want some of your precious facts, maybe you should become a scientist, but life isn't always about facts. Some things just aren't factual, you just need to believe in it and it's true. There's no form of technology that can tell us if we're even real, we just have to believe we are. Anyway, we're going to be late for school, you coming?" Irish nods, deep in thought as she rushes off to the school bus.