Chapter 4 - Life

Lucy Owen was up first and had breakfast ready for the imminent arrival of three of her children. It was nearing eight a.m., and the twins would be the first to come running in. It was the same every school day: both Rain and Summer would be up and ready for school, while Lucy or her wife, Nicole, would have to chase Storm, their eldest, out of bed. Come the weekend and roles reversed.

“Mama, Mama,” shouted Rain as she ran down the stairs and along the hall. They had moved into this cabin the previous year, and Lucy was still not used to the fact that they had an upstairs now.

“Yes, Rain? What’s wrong?” she replied, limping out into the hall to greet the loud 7-year-old. She skidded to a halt, her light brown hair flying around her face as she looked back at the sound of two more feet thumping down the stairs.

“Rain! Give it back,” Summer called out, jumping the last two steps and landing with a bang on the wooden floor. Rain ran behind Lucy’s legs, giggling.

“Okay, okay… Now, what is going on?” Lucy demanded to know as Summer made a grab for her sister.

“She stole my…” She made another grab. “Give it back.”

Lucy put her hand out between them and called a time out. “Okay, both of you go and sit at the table.” When Summer slapped at her sister’s arm, Lucy glared. “Hey, no fighting. We do not hit anyone in this house.”

Summer looked away and mumbled a quiet “Sorry.”

Both girls took a seat opposite each other at the table. Rain smirked and poked out her tongue when she thought Lucy wasn’t looking.

“Rain Catherine Owens, you had better not be antagonising your sister,” Nicole said as she swept into the kitchen just in time to catch her daughter in the act. She had heard the commotion while she checked in on Wynter. He was still asleep, despite the noise his sisters made.

“Sorry, Mommy.”

“It doesn’t look as though it’s me you should be apologising to,” she said, raising an arched brow. Her dark brown eyes softened when she noted the contrite look on her daughter’s face. “What are you two fighting about now?”

This time it was Summer who piped up. “She took my Harry Potter figure.”

“Didn’t!” Rain shouted across the table.

“Yes, you did. Give it back.”

“Right, enough of this nonsense,” Lucy finally interjected. She walked around the table and knelt down next to Rain. “Did you take Summer’s toy?”

“It’s not a toy, it’s a figurine!” Summer snapped back, insulted.

Lucy turned her attention back to Rain. “Did you take it?”

The youngster pouted before finally nodding.

“Why?”

She shrugged.

“Okay, well I would like you to give it back and apologise, please,” Lucy said next. Rain reached behind her head and delved into the hood of her sweatshirt, pulling out the oversized bobble head figure of Harry Potter.

She handed it to Lucy and mumbled, “Sorry.”

Lucy put it on the table, between them. Neither one could reach out and grab it, though Summer tried. “Now, I want you both to remember something. You are sisters. Like it or not, that’s not ever going to change. Do you like it when the other does something that hurts you, upsets you?”

Rain shook her head and looked down at her lap. Summer rolled her eyes, a trait she had learnt too well from Storm.

“We are a family, and families do not hurt one another on purpose.” She spoke calmly to them both while Nicole took a seat next to Rain and sipped her coffee, content to let Lucy deal with them.

They’d come a long way since those first weeks when Nicole had arrived here with the girls, searching for a safe haven. Who would have thought that the odd woman in the next cabin, the woman who didn’t speak to anyone but Rita, would turn out to be their protector? She glanced across at Lucy, no longer seeing the jagged scar that zigged and zagged its way down her face. It was just part of who Lucy was, and she loved every bit of her. They hadn’t been married very long; it had taken a while to sort out the paperwork and legalities of her ex-husband’s demise. His torturous grip on her, literally, had finally been removed, because of Lucy. She still had nightmares now and then – his face hovering over her, holding her down. But she always woke to find herself wrapped in Lucy’s embrace. Home.

“We don’t lie to one another either,” Lucy was saying as she stood up and stretched out her leg. “And we absolutely never raise our hands to one another,” she said, turning to Summer now.

If there was one thing Lucy was determined with, it was that nobody in this family would ever feel frightened again, especially of each other.

“Who’s hitting who?” Storm asked as she wandered into the kitchen. Dark curls needing to be tamed as she pushed her new glasses back up her nose and plonked down into the only available chair. She looked from one twin to the other. “We don’t hit anyone in this house.” She reiterated Lucy’s words and poured milk over her cereal. Shoving a spoonful into her mouth, she chewed and continued. “If you remembered…” She shook her head at them and swallowed her mouthful. Memories of her father were still embedded in her mind. “Then you’d never raise a hand to one another.”

“Okay, fine!” Summer exclaimed in frustration. Nicole and Lucy shared a glance; she had a temper.

“I want you to spend some time today thinking about this,” Lucy said to them both. “Any more of it when you get home, or I hear from your teachers that you’ve been arguing at school, and there will be consequences. Now, eat your breakfast, please,” she said, standing and crossing the room to make more coffee.

“Mom?” Rain started, but Nicole cut her off.

“You heard what Lucy said. No more fighting with each other.” She stood, took her cup over to the sink, and then she turned and snaked her arms around Lucy’s waist. “Thank you.”