A Recipe for Butterflies

The Bailey Twins kept to themselves. The life of a nomad is one of solitude; an isolation that can invite the most wondrous adventures, while also entertaining the trickiest of tightropes - all of which can lead its explorer astray, and lonely. It's an obstacle and a challenge that is either undertaken by the most daring adventurers who seek lives not yet lived, or it is a state of circumstance whose imposition is the adventure. For the Bailey Twins, it was one of circumstance.

Gia and Owen Bailey were their names, and three years of separation laid between them. At the time of our story, Gia is 12 and Owen is 9, but due to their shared experiences of the idiosyncratic they were commonly mistaken for twins, a slipup they embraced and therefore I shall too.

Many who met them were quick to label their life as odd and abnormal, and for a while the twins themselves believed these slurs to be true. It was in later years they discovered that another person's idea of normal was quite simply their abnormal, and vice versa. There was nothing they could do about it but accept their childhoods for their childhood and move on. But perspective is hard to find when you're a child, especially when your life is packed up in the backseat next to you and highways look more familiar than hallways.

"I don't get it, why do we have to move?" was the routine question that Gia would ask every time it was announced that another move was in motion. "I just don't get it. You get stressed, and you get fed up. What's the point of doing it again?"

Mr and Mrs Bailey worked different jobs, had different hobbies and different temperaments, but I wouldn't exactly describe them as different people. In fact, like their children they were pretty synced about almost anything, and what they saw eye to eye on above all was their children and their childhood. They wanted it to be filled with mystery and wonder and discovery. Which, to their children, translated to embarrassment, uncertainty and disillusionment.

"Don't ask questions, just go with it!" their parents would say. "Go with the flow. If you don't put yourselves out there, you'll never know what could happen."

"I'm tired of being out there, I've seen it and it's not that great. I want to be in! Put me in a hole!" These were the thoughts of Owen, and I say thoughts because unlike his sister who persisted with her routine, he had given up hope long ago of being able to change his parent's minds.

So yes, The Bailey Twins kept to themselves; spending most days tuning out to the radio in the car and staring out of the windows. Typically, they would stare out at the cars around them and wonder if any of the people inside had lives that were at all similar to their own. Yes, they were 12 and 9 in our story, but at these ages had the attitudes of 30 somethings fearing they hadn't accomplished enough by the time they turned 40. In today's story, however, it was keeping to themselves that led them down a little adventure that for a few fleeting moments made them feel their age.

The twins hadn't yet heard of the term 'Pathetic Fallacy' but trust me when I say the meaning was felt by both on this particular day. The sky was overcast, rain was on the horizon and thunder was brewing. They were in their second week of living in their new town, and they were struggling to keep themselves entertained. They couldn't unpack their bags because the house they were meant to be moving into was still occupied and would remain so for the rest of the month. And so, for now at least, the family were staying at a motel close by to Mr and Mrs Bailey's new jobs.

There were children running up and down the street outside, but after long arduous attempts of trying to make friends in previous towns, the twins relied on each other for company until the school year started up again.

"Talked to anyone besides yourselves today?" Mr Bailey would ask.

"No, stranger danger" would be the response.

For now, their schedule consumed of flipping through TV channels until something good started playing on Nickelodeon. But today, their boredom was brewing like the thunderous clouds outside.

"Screw it. Let's make Grandma's cookies" said Gia.

"Do we have her recipe book? Or would it be with the movers?" Owen asked, muting SpongeBob.

"I think Mum packed it in her suitcase... c'mon, let's check."

Their grandmother had recently passed away, another addition to the 'Pathetic Fallacy' term I guess. Besides their parents she was the most important person in the twins lives. She knew how to remove the discomfort they had about their lives like a magician and replaced it with a warmth that both of them craved today.

After finding her little black notebook of recipes that their Mother had placed in a groove in her suitcase for safe keeping, the Bailey Twins got to it and started making their Grandmothers world famous chocolate chip cookies. Or at least they tried.

"Do we have flour?" Gia asked, reading out the ingredients.

"No," Owen replied.

"Eggs?"

"No."

"Butter?"

"No."

"Sugar?"

"No."

"Chocolate chips?"

"No."

"Milk?"

"No."

"Well Jesus what do we have?"

"Ooh we have milk!" Owen held up the carton to his sister's face, unimpressed. "I didn't see it, sorry. Is there anything else we can make?"

"I'll check. And you can put the milk back in the fridge now."

"Got it."

Gia started flicking through her Grandmothers book, remembering a recipe for Mars Bar slice that always made her stomach happy. But with every flick she realised that if her and her brother didn't have the ingredients for Chocolate Chip Cookies then everything else was pretty much off the table.

Plonk!

The envelope was thick but made a delicate sound as it dropped out of the cookbook and onto the floor, but to the twins it sounded like a brick had just been swung through the window.

They gave each other a stare, and then inched slowly towards the envelope; Gia picking it up and opening it.

To their absolute amazement, money was inside. A great deal of money, 20 thousand dollars they counted. They counted but neither child could speak. Eventually Owen zoomed in on a little white note that was hiding behind of the bills, and he read it with his sister.

For my family,

Money cannot buy happiness, so make sure to spend this on something that gets you on the road to getting there.

Much love always, Grandma

"You know what this means?" asked Gia, looking up at her brother with a grin.

"I think I do!" said Owen. "We can buy eggs now!"

"Forget the eggs, dream bigger!"

The twins started laughing like madmen and jumping so high it was as if the floor had turned into a trampoline. Neither one of them could remember the last time they had been this overcome with joy, nor did they think that moments like this could ever happen to them. After all, their nickname for their family was 'The Poor Thornberries'.

"What should we do?" Owen asked, suddenly the impossible not seeming so far-fetched anymore.

"Vegas! I vote Vegas!"

"Can we do that?"

"Yeah probably not. We gotta think big but doable" Gia said, pacing back and forth through the room. "Big but doable big but doable... Big! But doable... Big but doable big but doable OH MY GOD I'VE GOT IT!"

"What is it?" Owen asked.

"Let's go to Hawaii! I'VE always wanted to go, YOU'VE always wanted to go, GRANDMA always wanted to go. It's her money, let's make her happy too!"

Her brother's eyes widened with more joy. "Oh my god that's a brilliant idea!"

It was a horrible idea, points for creativity but in practicality it was not at all doable. But the twin's feet weren't exactly planted back on the floor yet, and the time it would take for them to get there would a while.

"Quickly!" Owen said, "Pack your bag I'll pack mine, too! We can catch the first plane out tonight!"

"Yes! Grab EVERYTHING! I'll get our shoes!"

Mr and Mrs Bailey would regularly scold the twins for being too slow at getting their things together, but if only they could have been here now to witness their children becoming the Wild Coyote and Road Runner as they packed their things together. It would indeed confirm their hunch that the slow pace their children took was in fact a choice.

Just like the cartoon characters they had transformed into, the Bailey Twins called a cab, left the motel, and were on their way to the airport. They had spent the majority of their lives in cars, but this ride was one they'd never forget. Smiles were plastered across their faces like they had never been before. Each of them looked out of the cab window and said goodbye to the town they hadn't met yet, and thankfully would never have to. They started talking about Hawaii, about the movie Lilo and Stitch and how Gia would be Lilo and Owen would be Stitch and how they would have to do everything there that those two characters had done, and more.

Then suddenly, as the cab pulled into the airport, Gia and Owen proved the world's theory correct that they might as well be twins as both of them started feeling butterflies bounce up and down against the walls of their stomachs. No words had to be said, as both children could tell that the other could feel them. The wings were flapping so hard the Owen clutched his stomach out fear the cab driver would be able to hear them.

Their stomachs now like circus tents hosting acrobatic creatures that took flight, the Bailey twins gave each other a look that said two words more eloquently than their mouths ever could.

"Do you kids need any help getting around?" asked the cab driver.

Mum and Dad.

Those were the two words, and those were it all it had to take.

"No, thank you. If it's okay could you please give us a ride back to the motel?" Gia asked.

"Sure, no worries at all," said the cab driver, and as quickly as they had arrived at the airport, the twins were back at the motel carrying their suitcases awkwardly into their motel room for one last time. In the years that followed they would often find themselves ruminating about that day, and how after their parents actually did discover the money that it did give them second doubts about running off to Hawaii. But they never did.

Instead, for the next two years at least, the Bailey Twins spent the money on more micro-sized purchases while getting cosier and cosier in a life they wouldn't want to move through without their parents.

"Is that pizza I smell?" asked Mrs Bailey as she and her husband got home from work that day.

"Yeah, we found some money in our bags and walked down to Dominos to get some," said Owen chewing on his slice of Hawaiian pizza.

"How much money?" asked Mr Bailey.

"10 dollars I think," said Gia, "Just enough."

Each taking another slice, the two twins gave each other another stare, this time their eyes saying, 'Zip it and keep eating.'

The butterflies were happy.