Mirror Image

Twelve

Lacey stood in the reception area, waiting for Zena and her dad to show up. Everything was the same as it always was. The deep comfortable leather couches and armchairs invited her to relax. Navy blue, they were accented by banker's lamps on the end tables. Wooden insets in armrests matched the rich cherry of the coffee table. A scattering of magazines were spread out for clients to entertain themselves with, and the monitor above the reception desk was tuned to the latest business news report.

Why did it feel so foreign then?

"Mom, do you have any filing for me?" She had to have something to do. No homework yet, the only thing they had gone over was class outline and syllabus.

"Sure, there's a stack of files on my desk. Put them in the Estate Planning section, please."

Her mother was sitting in the reception desk instead of their jack of all trades, Mrs. Hall. With her faintly lilac tinted white hair, and her bright blue eyes, she ruled the office. The law firm was expanding. Almost two hundred more clients now, according to what her mother told her. Lacey walked down the hallway and ran up the stairs.

Grabbing an armful of manilla folders, she went back down more carefully. Spilling files meant a huge headache, and sorting everything back into place took too much precious time.

"Are you going to hire a couple of articling students?" Zena asked as she spun the handles on the filing stack.

"We've let Harvard and Yale know we're looking for two. We're taking the big office up front and turning it into a two desk room for them. Your Dad is moving in across from me. We're going to have to figure out something new for storage."

"Okay, that will work. Maybe we can develop the basement for storage and the data servers." Even though she wasn't happy with her parents, making sure the office ran smoothly was still one of her favorite things. She'd learned so much from Mrs. Hall.

"Moving the computers down would be a plan, but we'll have to hire someone for that too. We've grown too fast, Lacey. It's almost too much. We're bringing on a junior partner along with everything else." Deanne Pemberton pushed her reading glasses up as she scanned the file in front of her.

"Is that the file on me?" Lacey asked.

"Yes, and I suspect Matt Henderson went home to get a similar one. We signed the paperwork together."

"You knew! This whole thing isn't fair." Lacey slammed a file drawer shut. She watched her mother wince as the door opened, tiny bells jingling. Zena and her father walked in.

"Matt, good to see you again. I hoped we had longer before this happened." Deanne Pemberton walked over to shake his hand.

Lacey crooked her finger at Zena, from behind her mother's back and her twin eased past the two adults.

"They knew, they were together when they signed the paperwork," Lacey hissed the words.

"I figured as much. Where's your dad?" Zena sounded as disgusted as she felt. "And how much more is there to this. My dad told me there was a good reason to keep us apart. He said something about safety."

"The story better be good." Lacey grumbled.

"No kidding." Sarcasm sharpened Zena's words. "You might as well call me Zee. I don't think we need confirmation we're twins, it's a formality."

"Lace, only Terry and Percy call me that. It's because I trust them with my life, every time they boost me into the air. What's with you and Percy anyway? I mean he was holding your hand everywhere we went after lunch." She had to know if it was going to be trouble.

What if Percy got distracted and missed a catch?

She knew she was being silly, but life wasn't the same anymore. If her life was upside down, then it could happen to anyone.

"He kissed my hand, in drama class this morning. God, was that only this morning?" Zena confessed. "And he says he can tell which one of us is which already. Says I'm skinnier than you, and my legs aren't as muscular."

"Perry always notices the details. He's right, tumbling gives me thigh muscles like a tree trunk." Lacey explained. "Where did you get the flowers?" They looked like something Papa Juan would put together for his wife. In fact, with the house open, they would be cutting quite a few flowers now. She knew there were still life paintings in the hallways by the kitchen with all sorts of blooming plants in them.

"I really like Percy, he just accepted me exactly like I am. What about you and Terry? He watches you all the time. I noticed in home room and he always looks away whenever you look at him. And the flowers? Mr. Chiccaro gave them to me. It sort of creeped me out, but they made me feel a lot better. I love flowering plants."

"I'm not sure about Terry. We've been friends forever. His mom and dad are best friends with mine. He lives on a farm about half an hour out of town. I've always loved him like a brother, but lately, something's different. And Papa Juan has always been good about sharing his flowers. I'll bet there are flowers everywhere in the mansion now."

"Okay, then that goes with all the paintings of flowers. I have fresh flowers in my room every other day. Does his wife bring them in when she's cleaning? But when it comes to Terry, he's gorgeous you know, with those big brown eyes and all those muscles."

"Hey, you've got Percy. Who knew he'd sprout another almost eight inches over the summer?" Lacey shook her head. "Mama Rosa would do it; she loves that house." She grabbed Zena's arm. "God those scratches look awful! What happened?"

"Here comes your dad." Zena said pointing into the hallway leading to the back of the office. She pulled her arm out of Lacey's grasp and whispered the rest of her answer. "Anya. She's in trouble though. Principal Dalton is having her charged."

"I'm locking the door, James," Deanne's voice caught their attention. They watched as she flipped the switch on the neon open sign to the off position.

"Let's go face this. Are we together on it?" Lacey wanted an ally. "We'll figure out what to do about Anya later."

"Yeah, we need to know what went down. Why do they all look like it's the end of the world?" Zena's eyebrows drew down.

"I don't know Zee. It's scary and it creeps me out." Her mother was pale, and her father wore a worried frown.

Lacey led the way out from between the filing stacks. Turning left she went down the hall past the stairs and into the neat modern galley kitchen at the back of the brownstone office. Her Dad sat beside Matt and Deanne faced them. The bench in the bay window overlooking the tiny backyard was empty. Zena slipped in first, and Lacey shook her mother's hand off before she joined her twin. Tension simmered around the table.

Deanne opened the first file like it was a bomb about to go off and sighed.

"Get it over with," Matt said, his face somber.

Dad nodded and reached across to weave his fingers through his wife's. "Things can only get better if they know. Spill the story."

"First let me say how sorry I am about your mother's death. She was one of my best friends. I've been in contact with the NTSB, to let them know what we have in these files. It might have an impact on their investigation into the crash."

Lacey's skin crawled with goosebumps as she tried to get a look at Zee's face. What was going on? Zee turned to look at her with wide eyes. Then their eyes snapped forward as a chair scraped backward across the floor.

"Are you saying the crash might not have been an accident?" Matt jumped up to pace back and forth in the narrow space. "Deanne, is he still in prison, and why wasn't I told if he was out." His fist slammed down on the table.

"Wait a minute, who is he? And what the hell is going on?" Zee's voice was scared. "Dad, what do you mean?"