Magpie Tales ~ Mag 47

Mag 47

Birthday

Whenever our birthdays came around, we carried out the same ritual.  We had made a promise to each other.  Today it was mine and Amelia's - we were twins.  Edmund's birthday is in June.  The year we'd bought those little sculptures, one for each of us, was very traumatic, for me anyway.  Amelia was leaving for Africa.  She's a nurse and she was joining a missionary hospital.  Edmund, a computer programmer, had secured a top notch job in America.  Everything happened at once.  They were leaving me all alone in the U.K.  It was bad enough to be parted from my older brother, but an absolute wrench to be separated from my twin sister.  So when we saw the sculptures in the store, we made a pact then that we'd each get one and, on our birthdays, we would put them in a prominent place, knowing that each of us was thinking deeply of the others.

The last time we'd all been together was six years ago.  Edmund and Amelia had managed to get time off and they flew over that June to spend Edmund's birthday with me in England.  It had been wonderful!

I brought the cardboard box down from upstairs and unwrapped my sculpture.  Just as I was placing it on the mantelpiece, the telephone rang.  It could either be Edmund or Amelia, but it was too early - they always telephoned late in the evening, however I was mistaken and delighted to hear Edmund's voice.

"Hi little sis.  I hope you're not busy," he said, "because if you open your door, there are two visitors on your front porch."

I flew to the door just as he was putting his mobile 'phone back in his pocket, and standing next to him was Amelia. The three of us began whooping and jumping up and down like children from the nursery...... and soon there were three identical sculptures on the mantelpiece.   

This little piece was written for Magpie Tales, which you will find here.