Staccato

Prophetic Skies

Note: There may be discrepancies in the exact year in which certain real-life things have happened and the year in which they happen in this story; for example, the Paris climate accord that was mentioned in the last chp happened in 2015 but here, it happened in 2014. It's bc I may need to refer to these real life events for the story, but I'll refer them as it fits the story, without regarding the exact year in which they may have happened in real life.

~*~

My twin brothers - I hear from mom's phone that she has on speaker, as we sit together in our family room - are working part time at a fucking local restaurant near Juilliard. They say they want to earn their own money, at least for their expenses if not the fee.

Security worries aside (which is so major that my mom is weeping at the moment, and I think, hoping that the sound of it would dissuade my super cool but super reckless brothers from doing it) we love them for what they are and what they do. My dad is overjoyed that they're working; in fact, it is his ideals of self-sustenance and appreciation of the hard knock life that has, I am pretty sure, been the motivation for my brothers to do this.

But my brothers don't sound overjoyed when dad says (sitting back coolly with a smile on his face and kicking his feet up on the coffee table) that he is going to assign bodyguards outside the restaurant - don't worry, my dad assures them with a toothy grin, when they begin to protest loudly and yell through the phone; he'll make sure they aren't humiliated, because those bodyguard guys will be sitting in their cars at inconspicuous nooks around the place, with their little field-glasses and their micro earpieces. If my brothers don't already know that there are guards around the Juilliard too watching over them 24/7.

Lilly, who is currently not working, but is working hard preparing for the special agent test to get into the FBI (while she studies in Cornell; I wonder why. Can't she just complete her law course? After all, she did struggle hard to get there. It's almost as if it's just for kicks that she got into a top school, maybe it's just to add to her credibility, while she does what she really wants); her childhood dream is still alive in her with more vigour than ever. And had she been here, she would have called my brothers out for being stupid fucks, and pointed out that they'll only be earning in negative, because the money my dad spends on security guards will be more than what they'll be earning by working.

Les isn't here either, because her highness is going through a full blown rebel-teen phase these days; she has zero fucks to give whenever she gets reprimanded for coming home drunk or high. Mostly, she stays at her friends', hopping around from one place to another. Mom worries about her; dad says she'll come around, though (much to mom's vexation), that this phase will pass. And to make sure she doesn't go way off the line, of course, my dad's solution is sending after her, too, more sneaky guards.

Laurie sits beside me on the sofa, cheering dad to go ahead with his plan, and Leon and Louie curse her viciously from the phone.

Me and Laurie are twins too, like Leon and Louie. We aren't really twins, of course. Sure, we are around the same age. But that's because my dad knocked up this mystery white woman while the woman whom I consider my mom for all intents and purposes was pregnant with Laurie. And I sometimes wonder what was my dad thinking sleeping with another woman days after he did with my mom, for I am only thirteen days younger than Laurie. She was born on January 25th, 1999, while me, on February 7th.

Laurie is actually a superb gymnast who has been training since she was around six. She has a gym for herself, and an indoor arena that looks like an actual Olympics arena, and there's every workout equipment imaginable in her gym, and in the arena, everything from bars to balance beams.