599 words
5 minute read
SUPER SONIC HEARING
(Lexie)
You don’t know this, because I haven’t told you yet, but I have a superpower. I can hear things I’m not supposed to. Sometimes, it doesn’t work as good as I want it to - like when Jesse was playing with Shane and Connor and I was watching Animal Planet - but usually it works amazingly.
Jesse has been acting really strange since that day. He talks to me, but not really. He won’t look at me in the eyes and we don’t talk at night anymore, because he says he’s too tired. But I know he’s not really sleeping because I know how his asleep-breathing sounds.
He’s lying, but I don’t know why.
It’s very hard to have secrets when you have a twin, because that’s my best friend in the world. We tell each other everything and always play together. Maybe Jesse is mad at me because I can’t play as much because my legs hurt, or I’m doing therapy a lot. But his leg hurts a lot and he has to do therapy on it, too.
I keep thinking.
I think for weeks.
I concentrate really hard when Jesse is out of the room, to see if my super-hearing will work through doors, but so far, no luck. It doesn’t even work when I mute the TV.
I try talking to Seth, who is the most terrible at keeping secrets, to see what he knows, since he has been back from Grandma and Grandpa’s for a while. I haven’t really missed him much, to be honest, but I am glad he’s back now.
He’s sweet, and he keeps bringing us things he made out of Legos and offering to color on our casts. (Mom and Dad won’t let him because he hasn’t learned to be gentle all the time, and they don’t want him to hurt our legs accidentally.) We give him paper instead. I’m glad when he uses that. Back when we all three shared a room, he colored on my shirt, my hair and my Barbie.
“Hey, Sethie,” I whisper.
“What?” he asks, his eyes glued to the screen where Miss Elena is talking in Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. He’s eating goldfish crackers and getting the crumbs everywhere.
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| [Image: Goldfish crackers] |
“Come here.” I pause the TV.
“Hey! Don’t do that!”
“Just for a second, I promise. I need to ask you something, okay?”
“Fine,” he sighs, and walks over. (He sounds just like me when he says “fine” like that. It makes me kind of proud.)
“Has Jesse told you any secrets lately?” I whisper in his ear.
Seth smiles very slow. “Okay,” he whispers. “I not tell. I promise.”
I wrinkle my forehead. “No! Seth! This isn’t a secret right now. I want to know if Jesse has said anything secret to you?”
“My birthday present!” he yells, excited, and it hurts my ear.
“Your birthday was in March, silly. A long time ago. Has he said anything about Shane and Connor?”
“Connor gots a new toy,” Seth crunches a goldfish two inches away from my face. “It’s a plane.”
“Great,” I say flatly. I unpause the TV, and Seth goes back to watching.
I go back to thinking, but I don’t get any new ideas.
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Questions for Discussion:
Do you have a little brother like Seth? Do you think it would be nice to have one?
Can you tell when someone is keeping secrets from you, like Lexie can? How do you feel?
Can you tell when someone is keeping secrets from you, like Lexie can? How do you feel?
Lexie,we have the same superpowers! But yes it's really hard when we know something is happening but we don't know what.
ReplyDeleteYay! She's excited! (And yes, so disconcerting...) :/
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