CHAPTER FOUR
As she climbed the stairs to their room, Penny rubbed her temples.
She had barely slept, and now she was so tired that she could barely walk straight.
What a horrible weekend she had had! All she wanted was to spend some time in the sun, maybe in the backyard, by the pool, and fill her lungs with the fresh morning air.
Before leaving her apartment, she had called at the house and asked the maid to take the kids out by the pool to wait for her, only to be told they refused to get out of their room without either Marcia, Carmine, or Opal.
Well, at least they seemed to like and accept the feminine part of the family…
However, since Marcia was out, and the girls were at college, Penny would have to deal with the problem herself.
She stopped in front of their door, took a deep breath, winced at the sharp pain in her left temple, and forced herself to smile. She knocked gently, and when no one answered, she knocked again.
“Juniper, Thorn! It’s me, Penny. We met two days ago, remember?”
Silence.
“I’m so confused right now,” she whispered to herself and knocked a third time. “That’s why I don’t know if I’ll ever have children. I’ve no bloody idea how to behave around these mysterious creatures.”
Finally, Juniper opened the door. Timidly, she stared up at Penny, a questioning look in her big, brown eyes.
“Da?”
It was the first time Penny heard her speak.
She supposed that meant “yes” in English, but she was too shocked to reply for a few seconds.
Juniper’s voice was low and shy. The huge dark circles under her beautiful eyes told Penny she wasn’t the only one who had had a stressful weekend and an agitated sleep.
“Will you let me in, honey? I’m here to spend the day with you and your brother. We’re going to talk and play, what do you say?”
Juniper blinked at her, then shrugged and moved away from the door.
Penny went inside, closed the door behind her, and scanned the room for Thorn.
“Oh, there you are! You can come out now.”
The boy was staring at her from behind the curtain.
Apparently, that was his favorite place to hide.
For the life of her, Penny couldn’t understand why the twins seemed so terrified.
On Sunday, she had seen Richard and Marcia interacting with them, and she knew for a fact that they were treating them well and giving them all they needed.
They had been living with the Goldmans for three months and they were still hiding behind the heavy curtain when someone knocked on the door? Strange.
Penny cleared her throat. Juniper was just standing there, watching her closely, and Thorn still hadn’t left his hiding spot.
What was she supposed to do? There were two boxes of toys in one corner of the room, and it looked like the kids had played with them, although they were currently neatly stacked and arranged.
Their desk, however, was covered in coloring books, drawings, and colored pencils.
To her surprise, Penny realized she was relieved to see at least a bit of mess in their room.
They were kids, they were supposed to be messy.
She walked to the desk and looked through what they had been working on.
“Oh, I love this! Did you draw this, Juniper?”
The drawing was of a princess in a pink dress, with a golden crown on a rather big head. Juniper looked at it for a second, then looked back up at Penny and nodded slowly.
“It’s beautiful. You’re very talented, did you know that?”
The girl shrugged, then went to drag her brother out of his spot. Together, they sat on the edge of the bed and waited.
Penny bit the inside of her cheek. This was more awkward than she had expected, but she had to deal with it.
It was her job, after all. So, she placed the files she’d been carrying on the desk, then went to draw the curtains back and let some light flood the room.
So far, Juniper’s reactions had convinced her she understood English. It was time to evaluate the boy.
“So, Thorn… what’s your favorite toy?” She went to the boxes and started rummaging through them.
She pulled out a Spider-Man action figure and giggled.
“My favorite superhero. Silly, right? You thought I would prefer Wonder Woman, or something. But, nooo… Instead, I’m all for the cute teenage boy who can shoot spider webs from his wrists. ”
Thorn was silent for a long minute, but when Penny went back to the box and pulled out Batman, he jumped off the bed, ran to her, and grabbed the toy.
“Batman,” he said in a strong accent. “I like Batman.”
Penny cocked an eyebrow. So, the children could speak English. Fascinating.
“Good. I like him, too. I see you also have Iron Man, Superman, and the Hulk. Do you guys want to play?”
Thorn shook his head and went to sit back on the bed, Batman in hand.
Juniper bit her lower lip, then said slowly: “We like toys, but play is boring.”
Penny’s smile grew. It was genuine, this time.
“Makes sense, honey. You’re nine years old, right?”
Juniper nodded. “Devet.”
“Nine? That means nine?” When the girl nodded again, Penny continued: “Well, I don’t mind learning some Bulgarian.
” She went to sit next to them. “You know, I believe we’re never too old to play.
But if you think toys are boring, we can do something else.
What do you say we go outside and play… hide-and-seek? ”
“Hide-and-seek?” asked Thorn. He seemed interested, especially since the name sounded weird to him.
“I bet you know it. It’s like…” She looked at the action figures in her hands and decided to use them to explain the rules. “While you two hide, I count to ten, and then I come look for you.”
“Krienitsa!” said Juniper, her whole face brightening up.
“Err… da? Let’s go outside and see if we’re talking about the same thing.”
This time, they both shook their blond heads.
Penny did her best to convince them how nice it would be to play by the pool.
They could hide behind the bushes and trees in the backyard, and later, after lunch, when the water would be warmer, they could even swim.
In truth, she didn’t quite know why she was insisting so much.
Yes, she was dying to spend a few hours in the sun, but she might as well play with them in their room and spare herself the headache.
Looking at their pale skin and even paler faces, she knew they were in dire need of some Vitamin D.
Oh, right. She cared about them. That was it.
“Tell you what. If I teach you a song, will you come with me in the backyard? It’s a fun one, and it goes super well with the game. It’s about a little girl who lost her sheep and now can’t find them.”
Thorn was unimpressed, but Juniper seemed to like the idea.
“It sounds like this.” She cleared her throat and started singing in a low, sweet voice:
“Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
and doesn’t know where to find them;
leave them alone, and they’ll come home,
wagging their tails behind them.”
Juniper chuckled, but Penny could see she was even more confused than before.
“Okay, so…” She stood up. “I’m Little Bo-Peep, and you two are the sheep. I pretend I’m distracted and I can’t see you, I count to ten, and you hide. Then, I’ll sing the song while I’m looking for you.”
She sang the nursery rhyme again and exemplified with the action figures. The girl seemed to get it little by little, but Thorn still looked unconvinced. Penny went to the toy boxes and looked for a sheep, but for some reason, she couldn’t find any. Eventually, she pulled out her smartphone.
“YouTube to the rescue!”
Why hadn’t she thought about it sooner? Ten minutes and about six different videos later, the children got the full meaning of the song.
She was surprised when Thorn himself grabbed his sister’s hand, and then hers, and pulled them both toward the door.
Penny hadn’t expected her little trick to work so well.
The twins had instantly become fascinated with it to the point where they started singing in their strong accent as they walked outside, into the warm, blazing sun.
They played for an hour. A whole hour in which Penny was never allowed to hide.
Her sole purpose was to count to ten, then go look for them as she sang the nursery rhyme over and over.
For some mysterious reason, every time she found them, they squealed with joy and hopped around as if they were little sheep, indeed.
They had said toys were too boring for them, but plain old hide-and-seek wasn’t.
As they finally took a lunch break and she could drink a huge mug of coffee in peace, Penelope figured out it wasn’t the fact that they were too old for action figures.
It was their personality. Why had they refused to leave their room if they liked playing outside so much?
At least, now she had a good understanding of the way they liked to learn, and she knew what type of teachers she was looking for.