The Two and Only Kelly Twins (6 page)

“I love Thanksgiving!” shouted Ilene.

“I said it first,” said Arlene.

“I said it loudest!” said Ilene.

“I said it’s bedtime,” said Mrs. Kelly. She said it first
and
she said it loudest, so the two witches went to get ready for bed.

On November second, just two days after Halloween, Arlene woke in the middle of the night. She had a terrible pain in her stomach, and she felt like throwing up. She called out to her mother.

“I’m sick,” she moaned.

Ilene was sound asleep and didn’t hear anything at first. But as Arlene continued calling, Ilene gradually woke up.

“Keep quiet,” she mumbled to her sister. “I’m trying to sleep.”

Luckily, Arlene’s cries had awakened her mother as well as Ilene.

“What’s the matter, honey?” asked a groggy Mrs. Kelly.

“My stomach hurts,” Arlene said.

“I’m not surprised. It’s all that candy you’ve been eating. Anyone would be sick.”

“I’ll never eat a piece of candy again,” moaned Arlene. She jumped out of bed and went rushing to the bathroom. A moment later, she threw up.

Mrs. Kelly took a damp washcloth and cleaned Arlene’s face. “You feel a little warm, too. I bet you have a fever.” She gave Arlene a cup of water. “Rinse out your mouth. It will make you feel better.”

“I feel awful,” Arlene said.

“Do you need to throw up again?” asked her mother.

“I don’t know.”

“Here,” said Mrs. Kelly, taking the plastic wastebasket from the bathroom. “I’ll put this by your bed in case you need it. Just lie down. You’ll probably feel better in the morning.”

Arlene lay down in bed, but she felt too terrible to sleep. She felt like throwing up, but nothing came out. She couldn’t remember ever having felt so awful in her whole life. After a few minutes, she went to her parents’ bedroom. “Can you dial 911?” she begged her mother. “I think I’m dying.”

Both of Arlene’s parents sat up in bed. Mr. Kelly turned on the light.

“She looks awful,” he said to his wife.

“I feel awful,” said Arlene.

“It’s two in the morning,” said Mrs. Kelly. “Can we call the doctor at this hour?”

“Why not?” said Arlene’s father. “She won’t answer the phone. All the doctors have phone services, and they’ll advise us on what to do.”

After a call to the service and a call back from the doctor, Arlene was in her parents’ car wrapped in a blanket and on her way to the emergency room at the hospital. Ilene, who didn’t have a stomachache, was also wrapped in a blanket in the backseat of the car.

“We couldn’t leave you at home alone, honey,” Mrs. Kelly apologized. Ilene nodded. She was half asleep. She woke at the hospital and then curled up on a couch in the waiting area. It was lumpy, not comfortable like her bed. Still, she dozed off and on. When she woke, at six a.m., she didn’t even know where she was. The whole night had seemed like a dream to her.

The whole night had seemed like a nightmare to Arlene. She was examined and given a couple of tests by the hospital staff. Then she was assigned a bed in the children’s area and had to wait for her doctor to come. It seemed Arlene had appendicitis and would need surgery.

There was a discussion about whether one of her parents should take Ilene home for breakfast and to put on clothing. She couldn’t go to school in her pajamas.

Ilene yawned. “Where’s Arlene?” she asked.

“She’s waiting to see Dr. Clive,” said Mrs. Kelly.

Ilene yawned again.

“Why does Ilene have to go to school?” Mr. Kelly asked his wife. “She looks like she needs more sleep after the night we’ve just had.”

So that day both Arlene and Ilene stayed home from school. After Mrs. Kelly called the school to explain her daughters’ absence, a rumor quickly went around the second grade. Identical twins Arlene and Ilene Kelly both were having their appendixes removed. It seemed amazing. They always did everything alike.

But only Arlene had her appendix removed. And it was decided that she should remain at the hospital for at least a couple of days. That meant that Ilene slept in her room at home all alone that night. She had never slept in a room alone before in her entire life. Still, it was fun playing with both ferrets by herself. She wondered if Frankie missed Arlene. Maybe she was like all the humans they knew and couldn’t tell the twins apart, either.

In his bedroom, her father was alone, too. The hospital had a special folding bed that Mrs. Kelly could sleep on so that Arlene wouldn’t be alone and sad away from home.

The next morning, Ilene walked to school without having her sister by her side. She had never walked to school alone, or in fact done much of anything alone, in her entire seven years. The twins had never been separated before.

Ilene wasn’t exactly alone. Her friends Monty and Joey walked with her.

“Poor Arlene,” said Monty. “How is she feeling?”

“I guess she’s okay now that the operation is over,” said Ilene.

Even though Monty and Joey were friends of the twins, it felt strange to Ilene to be walking with them and not to have Arlene along, too.

At school, she thought about Arlene all morning long. Her father had told her that Arlene would still not be home when school let out. At lunchtime, the second-graders were always permitted to sit with the children from the other second-grade classes. Every day Ilene and Arlene rushed to sit together. Today Ilene was alone. But right away, two girls from Arlene’s class came and joined her.

“I guess you miss your sister,” said one.

“What do you have for lunch?” asked the other.

Ilene opened her lunch box. There was a tuna-fish sandwich and an apple cut into quarters. There was also a little box of raisins from her Halloween treats. Both of the other girls discovered they had boxes of raisins in their lunches, too. It made them laugh. They talked together, and Ilene stopped thinking about Arlene for a little while. The girls jumped rope together during recess.

Just before dismissal time, a girl from Arlene’s class came to Ilene’s classroom. She delivered an envelope filled with get-well cards made by her classmates. Ilene stuffed the envelope into her backpack. She walked home with Monty and Joey.

“Are you going to karate this afternoon?” Monty asked.

Ilene had never gone to karate class without Arlene.

“Maybe,” she said. “Maybe not.”

“We’ll miss you if you don’t come,” said Monty. “It’ll be bad enough that Arlene won’t be there. Please come,” he begged.

“Okay,” Ilene agreed. It was nice that Monty wanted her to go with him.

Karate was fun. Ilene learned a new movement that day. She would have to teach it to Arlene when she came home from the hospital. That way she wouldn’t fall behind.

All the next day, Ilene wondered what time Arlene would get home. Would she come in the morning while Ilene was doing math? Or maybe she’d come home in time to have lunch with their mother. Ilene imagined her sister eating and talking and laughing with their mother. She wished she was there with them. Maybe they’d watch something on TV together when lunch was over. Or maybe they’d play a game. Ilene sighed as she did her math problems.

When Ilene got home that afternoon, there was Arlene. She was sitting on the sofa in the living room and wearing new pajamas. They didn’t match any that Ilene had. Arlene also had several gifts: two new books, a puzzle, and a huge container of chocolate kisses. On the coffee table was a pile of get-well cards. How did so many people know that Arlene had been in the hospital? Ilene wondered.

It all reminded Ilene of a book their mother had read to them when they were little. Madeline had her appendix out, too, and she also got lots of presents. But unlike the children in that story, Ilene didn’t think she wanted to have her appendix out.

Monty came over with a plate of homemade chocolate-chip cookies. “My mom made these for Arlene, but you can have some, too,” he told Ilene. “When will Arlene go back to school?” Monty wanted to know.

“Mom says I can go back on Monday,” Arlene told him.

Monty looked at the new puzzle that Arlene had. “Can we do it together?” he asked.

It seemed like a good idea. So Arlene and Ilene and Monty began work on the puzzle. It was a hard one. It had two hundred pieces.

While they worked on the puzzle, the children ate some of the chocolate kisses. Even Arlene ate some, although just a couple of nights ago, she had said she’d never eat candy again.