Castles in the Mirror Book 1 Twin Sister Series

Three: Surprise

The first part of June passed without mishap; the house was cleaned to perfection along with the dreaded out house. Ana said she was still going to have nightmares from it. As they explored the yard on morning they found a slanted building around the back of the house. After throughly searching it they found an underground cellar, a metal bathtub and another room which they assumed was the ice house.

They went shopping and gathered many guidebooks about living off grid, being your personal health care giver and many of gardening, and animal life. The living room had two tall bookshelves stacked with the numerous books, the pantry was loaded with shelves upon shelves of simple foods, ready to be cooked over the woodstove. And the ice room was loaded with bags of ice.

The kitchens cupboards were full of dry good foods, and the essential kitchen equipment, pots, pans, plates, bowls and silverware, etc. Each dish was new and placed in its perfect spot.

They had bought sheets, blankets and pillows for their single mattress beds. They also bought more clothing mainly going to thrift stores that Miriam, the friendly car driver who drove them regularly, took them to, they had little money to spend and it was better that they get cheap hand-me-downs then something that used up their money before they could do anything with it.

Today was Saturday and Ana was excited, Miriam had said that if they would let her have half of their harvest off their garden then she would hire people to prepare the land, so that was happening today.

The twins had asked why she would want half of their harvest but she shrugged and said, “I have a big family.”

Ana was sitting on the front porch where they had placed two of the dining table chairs so each could either sit outside or inside, when a few trucks drove up, along with the familiar sight of Miriam’s car.

Men climbed out of trucks and started to unload equipment. One man was talking to Miriam when the twins walked up to them, “Hello,” Miriam spoke, she gestured to them and said, “Trace This is Na-alya Grander and her sister Analya Grander, girls this in Trace Dodge, he is the Forman for this job and if you have anything to change or want particularly done then talk to him about it.”

Ana raised her hand, “Actually I have some plans that I want, wait here and I’ll go get them.”

She turned not waiting for an answer and rushed toward the cabin; she ran up the stairs and grabbed the papers from her bed. Just as she was about to head back down stairs she caught sight of something she had never seen before. A piece of paper stuck through a wood plank on the wall. She had cleaned this room from roof to floor and had never seen that there before.

“Naly must have put it there,” she said to herself but she was too curious to let it slide, she reach forward and pulled on the piece of paper, but it wasn’t a piece of paper at all it was hard almost like plastic, although that couldn’t be right, they had never seen plastic in the cabin.

As she pulled harder she felt the wall wiggle, thinking it was only her moving from trying to pull on the object she jerked and suddenly the wall swung toward her. She brought her hands up to protect her face, but when there was no immediate contact she looked between her fingers and found the wall had swung like a door to open into a small dark area.

Stepping forward cautiously she looked into the dark two foot by two foot area and noticed the top of a ladder stick up into the light, it was a chute of some sort. But whatever it was she was not checking it out without Naly, she hated small spaces and the dark and that place was both.