I turned off the lawnmower and ran the back of my hand across my forehead to wipe away sweat, though all I managed to do was smear it around. God, it was hot out today.
I turned toward the pair of children running toward me across the half mown lawn, one boy, one girl, both eleven, both blond-haired like their mother. They came up to me in a flurry of child energy, skin tanned from being outside all summer, their hair bleached almost white from all the sun they'd gotten. They both wore T-shirts and shorts and both were barefoot. I always had a hell of a time getting them to wear shoes when it was warm out, and my first thought was that one of them had stepped on something sharp, a nail or a piece of broken glass. But the guilty expressions on their faces told me neither was injured and I relaxed a bit.
'What's up, kiddos?' I asked. My lower back gave a twinge and I winced. Devona had been after me to get a riding mower for a while now, but I insisted on using a push mower for the exercise. But this season my back had been putting in its vote for a riding mower too and I was seriously considering breaking down and getting one. After all, I wasn't getting any younger.
'It's not our fault!' Lily said.
'You mean it's not my fault,' Toby said, giving his sister a sideways glance.
Lily shot him a dark look that accused him of betraying her before turning her attention back to me. 'Not our fault,' she insisted.
I sighed. You know how twins are supposed to be inseparably close? Maybe that was true for identical twins, but for fraternal ones – at least for my twins – that wasn't always the case. Maybe they didn't fight anymore than other siblings, but sometimes it sure seemed like it.
'What happened? And don't both of you talk at the same time. Lily first.'
Toby pursed his lips in irritation. 'Why does she get to go first?'
Because she doesn't let her emotions get the better of her, I thought. Out loud I said, 'We're going in alphabetical order.'
Lily gave her brother a triumphant smirk before launching into her story.
'We were playing catch in the backyard near Mom's garden…' she began.
I already didn't like the sound of this.
'… when Toby threw the baseball too hard-'
'I did not!' Toby's hands curled into fists and his cheeks flushed with a mix of anger and embarrassment.
'… and it flew right by me. I tried to catch it, Daddy, really I did!' She lowered her gaze. 'But I missed.'
'What happened?' I had a basic idea by that point, but I wanted them to tell me on their own.
Lily didn't answer and Toby looked at her. When he saw how upset she was, the anger drained out of him. he sighed – sounding too much like me – and said, 'You know the Buddha statue Mom has in the garden?'
'Yes…'
'The ball hit the statue pretty hard -' he glanced at Lily but she was still looking at the ground – 'and, well, the head got knocked off.'
I imagined Buddha's decapitated head lying on the ground amidst Devona's petunias and sunflowers. Something about the image of a headless body struck a strange chord in me, but I didn't know why. I decided to put it out of my mind and I laid a hand on each of my children's shoulders and gave them what I hoped was a reassuring squeeze.
'It was an accident, guys. Don't worry about it.'
Some of the tension left them then and Lily's head snapped up, her expression suddenly hopeful. 'Do you think maybe we can glue the head back on?' she asked.
' Before Mom gets back?' Toby added.
I started to answer, but another image flashed through my mind then: I was lying on a table, a nightmarish machine hanging above me, arms protruding from it, each gripping a stainless steel surgical instrument in its hand. The image faded as quickly as it had come, but it was so disturbing that for a moment all I could do was stand there and stare at my children. Eventually, I gave my head a shake to clear it – and for some odd reason I was reassured that it remained solidly attached to my neck.
I forced a smile.
'We can give it a try,' I said, 'but I think we'll need a lot of glue.'
My smile, weak though it was, seemed to reassure the twins further and they smiled back. Before any of us could say anything else, though, we heard the sound of a car approaching and we turned to see Devona driving down the road in her Prius. She honked the horn in greeting as she slowed and then pulled into the driveway. The twins left me and raced across the lawn to greet their mother – and no doubt shower her with love in the hope of ameliorating her reaction when she learned about the fate of her Buddha statue.
Devona got out of the car. She'd gone out to play tennis with a friend, and she wore a sleeveless white blouse and athletic shorts, and she looked damned good to me. She hadn't returned empty-handed, though. She held a cardboard drink carrier with four cups on it. The twins squealed in delight when she held the carrier out for them to select a pair of drinks, all thoughts of the decapitated Buddha forgotten. They grabbed two, along with a pair of straws, stuck them through the plastic lids, and sipped.
'Milkshakes!' Toby said.
'I got chocolate,' Lily said, making a face.
'Mine's strawberry.'
The twins switched cups, took another sip, and were both much happier.
Devona and I laughed and I started walking over to the car.
'Why don't you two go play in the backyard some more while I break the news to your mom.' I paused. 'And I do mean break.'
The twins looked worried again, but I gave them a wink and a smile to let them know everything would be all right. Their own smiles returned and they ran around the side of the house, carrying their milkshakes with them.
'I decided to run through a drive-thru on my way home,' Devona said. She held the drink carrier out to me. 'What's your pleasure, Mr. Richter? Chocolate or strawberry?'
' You're my pleasure, Mrs. Richter.'
I leaned forward and kissed her with a bit more passion than was perhaps decorous for suburbia on a Saturday afternoon out in the open, but what the hell?
When we parted, I took a chocolate shake, popped a straw in it, and took a long sip.
'That's good. Doesn't quite hit the spot like a cold beer would right now, but it's an acceptable substitute.'
She grinned as she took a sip of her shake – strawberry, her favorite flavor. Which was of course why I'd taken the chocolate.
'They didn't have any beer-flavored shakes,' she smiled. 'Sorry.'
She took another sip and a little spilled out of the corner of her mouth. But instead of being a light pink color, the liquid was a deep crimson.
'Something wrong?' she asked.
I realized then that I was staring at the thick red substance trailing down her chin. I touched my own chin to signal her what was wrong, and she reached up and caught some of the liquid with her finger. She frowned as she examined it.
'That's weird. Maybe they didn't mix it properly and there's a pocket of strawberry syrup at the bottom.'
'Maybe.' But that explanation didn't feel right and the substance on Devona's chin didn't look like strawberry syrup so much as it looked like… like… The word refused to come and I found my thoughts drifting back to the yard work that still lay before me.
Our home was a ranch house sitting at the end of a cul-de-sac bordering a small park. The kids loved the park's playground equipment and the small woods with a stream running through it. Devona loved the large oak trees and weeping willows. Me? I loved living next to a giant yard I didn't have to mow and trees whose leaves I didn't have to rake every autumn. Dealing with my own yard was enough work for me.
It wasn't quite lunchtime yet and I'd managed to get half the front yard done, but I still had to finish up here and then do the back before I could call it quits for the day. I glanced up at the blazing sun hanging in the summer
