The Two and Only Kelly Twins (4 page)

“It’s amazing about the triplets,” said Monty.

“Yeah,” Joey agreed.

“Listen,” said Ilene. “We’re playing a trick on Roberta and Claudia. I told them we have another sister and that we’re triplets, too. Don’t let on to them that I made that up.”

“You lied to them?” asked Monty.

“It’s not exactly a lie,” said Arlene, defending her sister. “It’s more like a joke. The only trouble is they want to come to our house on Saturday, and then they’ll find out the truth.”

Joey started laughing. “I know how you can trick them some more,” he said.

“How?” asked Arlene and Ilene together.

Even though there was no one around to overhear him, Joey leaned closer to the sisters and whispered his idea.

The children all laughed.

Ilene crossed her fingers. “I hope it works,” she said. After all, she was the one who had started this joke.

On Saturday morning, Roberta and Claudia showed up at the Kelly house. They were brought by their father, who had a long list of errands to take care of. That was good because it meant he just waved to Mrs. Kelly at the door and shouted, “I’ll be back for the girls in a couple of hours.” Arlene and Ilene knew that if one of their parents had dropped them off somewhere, they would have stopped to talk. Had Roberta and Claudia’s father said anything, it would quickly have come out that his daughters were visiting a pair of twins and not triplets at all.

By plan, Ilene walked over to the two girls. “Hi,” she said. “I’m Marlene.”

“Hi, I’m Roberta.”

“And I’m Claudia,” said her sister. “Where are Arlene and Ilene?”

“They’re inside,” said Ilene.

The three girls went into the house. Arlene was sitting on the sofa. “Hi,” she called to them.

“Which one are you?” asked Roberta.

“I’m Arlene. I’m in your class,” she reminded Roberta.

“Where’s Ilene?” asked Claudia.

“She’s upstairs. I’ll tell her you’re here,” said Ilene/Marlene.

She ran upstairs and a minute later came back downstairs. “Hi, everybody,” she called out.

“Where’s your sister?” asked Claudia.

Ilene pointed to Arlene.

“No, no. Not her. The other one,” said Claudia.

“I think she went to the bathroom.”

“Why don’t we play something?” suggested Arlene. “How about hide-and-seek?”

“Who’s going to be it?” asked Roberta.

“I’ll get Marlene and tell her she’s it,” said Ilene.

She ran upstairs and then came down again.

“Okay,” she said. “I like to be it.”

“But where’s Ilene?” asked Claudia.

“She went to the bathroom.”

“Are you girls sick or something?” asked Roberta.

“Why?”

“Well, you keep having to go to the bathroom,” she said.

“Don’t be silly,” said Arlene. “Everyone has to go to the bathroom sometime. Okay, Marlene. Cover your eyes and we’ll all hide.”

So Ilene/Marlene leaned against the wall and put her hands over her eyes. She began to count slowly to twenty-five. “Ready or not, here I come! Anyone around my base is it!” she shouted when she reached the last number.

None of the girls were around. Ilene was relieved to be able to just sit down on the sofa. She was exhausted from running up and down the stairs, pretending to be Marlene. In fact, she no longer remembered who she was at that moment. Was she Ilene or Marlene?

She got up and walked toward the stairs.

“Home free!” called a voice. It was Roberta.

Ilene started upstairs to look for the other girls. When she was midway up the stairs, she heard Arlene’s voice: “Home free!”

Only one more person to find. She walked into her bedroom. Sitting on the floor was Claudia. She seemed to have forgotten the game, because she was poking her fingers through the cage at Frankie and Fannie.

“What are these?” she asked.

“Ferrets,” explained Ilene. “We couldn’t agree on a puppy or a kitten. So in the end we got these. They’re lots of fun.”

Ilene opened the cage and put one of the ferrets into Claudia’s lap.

“Oh, I love it,” said Claudia. “I bet Roberta and Simon would, too. Maybe we can get some ferrets once we’re settled in at our house. Right now half our stuff is still in boxes. It’s taking longer to unpack than it took us to pack for our move here.”

“Ferrets love hiding in boxes,” said Ilene. “They climb in and out of everything. Once Fannie got inside the comforter cover, and it took us hours to find her. In the end, my mom discovered a suspicious lump. And there she was!”

“Hey, where are you?” called Arlene. She came into the room, followed by Roberta.

“Did you forget we were playing a game?”

“Ohhh. What are those?” asked Roberta.

“These are ferrets,” said Claudia. “Here.” She held Fannie out to Roberta. “See how soft she is.”

Soon all four girls were sitting on the floor, playing with the ferrets. It was lots of fun until Ilene remembered that there was supposed to be another sister. She wondered whether it would be Claudia or Roberta who noticed that someone was missing. Both guests seemed very busy studying the ferrets. Claudia was looking at a book Mr. Kelly had bought at the pet shop that told lots of facts about the animals. Roberta was looking over her shoulder.

Finally, Ilene could bear it no longer. “Listen up,” she said. “I have to tell you something.”

Roberta, Claudia, and Arlene turned to look at Ilene.

“It’s about Marlene,” she said.

“Who?” asked Roberta.

“Marlene. Our other sister. She isn’t here.”

“Where is she?” asked Claudia with a big grin. “Did she go away?”

“Yes,” said Arlene. “She’s not here now.”

“Or ever,” said Ilene sheepishly. “I made her up.”

“You mean she just lives in your imagination?” suggested Roberta.

Ilene nodded.

“I guessed it,” she said.

“How?”

“First of all, there aren’t enough beds in your house. I counted when I was hiding. There was no place for Marlene to sleep.”

“And besides, you couldn’t even agree on what was her name when you were talking about her at school,” added Claudia.

“It was just a joke,” said Arlene.

“Did we fool you at all?” asked Ilene.

“Maybe for about five seconds,” admitted Roberta.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Claudia. “There are enough of us to have a good time together. You don’t need another sister for us to play with.”

“Poor Simon,” Roberta commented. “We can do some things together at home. But he doesn’t like a lot of the stuff we do. He won’t play beauty parlor or dress-up. But we can play card games and Monopoly and things like that. It’s too bad we aren’t quadruplets: two girls and two boys. That would be most fair for him.”

“He’ll probably make friends at school,” said Arlene.

“If you bring him the next time you come here, he could play with Monty and Joey. They live on our street, and they’re both in second grade, just like us,” suggested Ilene. She was about to admit that fooling the girls had been Joey’s idea, but then she thought the better of it.

Just then Fannie Farmer jumped out of Roberta’s hands. She slipped under the bed, and the four girls focused their attention on finding her. Sometimes the ferrets were hard to catch. It was a good thing that there were only two and not three of them.

It was hard for Arlene and Ilene to decide what their favorite day of the year was.

When their birthday was approaching, both girls were sure that July 17 and July 18 were the best days. Those days were filled with gifts, a party, ice cream and cake, and the satisfaction of being a whole year older from one day to the next.

But what about Christmas? Their mom always baked loads of special holiday cookies, which she traded with a group of friends. Suddenly the house would be filled with different cookies shaped like trees and stars and other holiday items. They were frosted in holiday colors and topped with silver balls or multicolored sprinkles. Then there was the excitement of giving and receiving presents, TV specials, visits from family members, and vacation from school.

“I love Valentine’s Day,” Ilene remembered.

Arlene thought for a moment. “Me too,” she agreed. “I love those pink heart cookies that Mom makes.”

“I love getting valentines.”

“I got more than you last year,” Arlene claimed.