The Other Twin

I've been working on the sequel to Two Mother's Twin Daughters today. here is an excerpt.

Plunging

D

O

W

N

Into the abyss.

Where is hope?

Where is Joy?

Where is God?

Alice stared dry-eyed at the words she had just written. She wondered dully if she had finally shed all the tears she had to shed. She picked up her pencil and wrote one word. God. Is there a God? What means this sadness in my heart, so dull and yet so real? Oh why can’t I ever remember the next line? I wish I had never thrown it out. Alice aimlessly doodled in the corner of her paper. Lines, squares, stacking blocks until she had created a wall, a brick wall that covered half of her page, then she smudged each brick in varying shades of gray.

            She heard a quick knock on the door and Sally peered in.

            “Hi, Alice, what are you doing?”
            “Not much.” She quickly covered her artwork with her arm.

            “Dad wants to get a game of Monopoly going. Care to join us?” They had purchased the game while in Canada.

            “Not really.”

            “Dad will be bugged with you if you don’t. Mum even agreed to play, and you know how much she hates Monopoly.

            Alice casually drew a cloud around the word ‘God’ then put sunrays streaming from it.

            “Okay,” Seems like I am always giving in.

            Alice hardly paid attention to the game and had to be prompted more than once when it was her turn to move.

            It was obvious no one was enthused. It was obvious no one was having fun.

            Finally, David slammed his fist down, making the game pieces skid and bounce.

            “What a grumpy, uncooperative family,” he yelled. “Here I am spending an evening with you girls and all you do is act sulky. Women: Why did I have so many in the first place?”

            “You could always send me away,” Alice blurted.

Everyone turned to stare at Alice. It was so out of character for her to speak out boldly like that.

            David was the first to react. “You,” he cried! “You are the cause of all the trouble around here with all your moping around! It’s high time you snap out of it!”

            Sally leaped to her feet. “You’re not her Dad! How dare you talk to her like that?”

            Alice stared, frozen with shock as her Dad’s hand came up and slapped Sally soundly across the cheek. Never had anyone ever slapped someone across the cheek in their family before. Alice screamed, Sally screamed, and Margaret reached out imploringly to all of them.

            “Pray, children, pray,” she begged. “David, oh David, we must turn back to God with all our hearts or we’ll lose our children. http://www.maryamsmusings.webs.com Two Mothers, Twin Daughters is available from Tate Publishers.