The Carsons

Zipline to Triple Fudge Brownie Heaven

"Dude, what the heck?!"

Cooper scoffed at his brother from his bent over position, rolling his eyes, "What?"

"What what?", Charlie began staring dumbfoundedly at his twin, "You're doing things completely wrong, that's what!"

"Nuh uh!", Cooper retorted, arguing instantly. He stood up and furrowed his brows irritatingly, waving around a wrench. Charlie frowned and pointed to the contraption in front of him.

"First of all, you're putting the counterweight in the wrong place. It needs to go in there", he directed, pointing to one of the lines and hinges, "Plus, you'll need two of them. If the weight distribution is off, then we won't be able to come back up the hill"

Cooper went to throw back his disagreement but stopped mid-thought. His gaping mouth closed to a tight, thoughtful purse. The boy pinched at his chin and considered his twin's points.

"I see what you're saying..."

"Told ya!", Charlie bragged, puffing out his chest.

"Ummm... what in the world are you two doing? Wait... do I really want to know..."

The twin blondes spun around to see a bewildering look thrown by their sister, Elizabeth. Her quirked eyebrow and curled lips of confusion didn't hold anything back from her puzzlement over their next course of actions.

Cooper cleared his throat and began his prepared presentation, pointing to the obvious mechanical marvel behind him.

"This, my dear Elizabeth, is a zipline"

Libby blinked, becoming a bit more confused, "A zipline?"

"That's what I said... a zipline", Cooper smiled. Charlie nodded and went over to the gear system to demonstrate.

"But it's not just any zipline!", he grinned wildly, picking up a monstrosity of a remote system full of buttons and knobs, "You see, with a typical zipline, you only go down. But with ours, you come back up!"

"Genius, huh?!", Cooper exclaimed, pumping his fists to his hips proudly.

Libby blinked again... "Suuuurrrre... whatever you say", she agreed warily, passing visible judgment between the contraption and her twin brother Cheshire grins, worried that something was bound to go awfully wrong. She choked out a short laugh and saluted to the boys, turning on her heels to go back into the house, "Well, it was nice knowing you two..."

"Oh, you worry too much", Cooper waved off her concern playfully. Charlie clapped and rubbed his hands together then set back to work, tightening some screws, and loosening the wires, oiling the levers and pulleys and other mechanical intricacies of the engineering marvel with his brother.

After a little more time and elbow grease, the two blonde boys stood by to admire their work. Surveying the success, they gave each other a nod of approval and a high five.

"Now... when you go down, make sure you don't hang on too tight. You'll end up—"

"Whoa whoa whoa", Cooper paused his brother's instructions with a quick hand break motion, "Me? What about you?"

Charlie declined the offer, rolling his eyes. He thumbed at his chest, "I'm staying up here to make sure all goes smoothly"

Cooper frowned, crossing his arms, "Well, you can easily do that by going down first"

Shaking his head, Charlie argued back, also crossing his arms in protest.

"Nope, better to watch from above so I can step in if necessary"