Another Redhead

The Mac Alastair Children

   By all accounts, the Mac Alastair children were nearly identical twins. They shared a birthday, music taste, senses of humor, and athletic abilities. The pair were practically inseparable, they were always seen together outside of classes on the football field or in the library studying. When their parents brought them to public events they were always within arms reach of one another. Their rooms were even right next to each other. The pair were so close that they claim that one could often tell when the other needed them. They did, however close they were, have their differences, though.

Graham Wallace Mac Alastair was born June 15th, 1973, at noon in London England. He was 3.73 kilograms with blue eyes and no hair, though by his second month of life he had begun to grow dirty blond hair. By the time he was three he caused all sorts of trouble and had no respect for anything or anyone besides himself. Now, at sixteen he still causes trouble and disrespects many people, but he is nowhere near the bully he was just before he turned five.

What happened when he turned five? Freya happened.

Freya Anne Mac Alastair was born at eleven thirty in the evening June 15th, 1978, in Glasgow, Scotland. Within minutes of her birth, her brother had ceased the temper tantrum he had been throwing over not receiving attention and sat staring at her. Nothing could have made him look away from the tiny pink baby his mother's midwife cradled in her arms. Freya already had the freckles Graham had begun to develop when he was three along with dark blue eyes and short, curly dark red hair that by the time she turned seven will have lightened up to a deep red-ginger. Within weeks of her birth, her blue eyes had begun to turn green like her father's. Of course, Freya had none of her brother's temper (that anyone knew of) and was always offering to help other people - a complete polar opposite from her brother.

Then came the accident. It wasn't a horrible thing, no one was hurt or traumatized, but it changed Freya's and Graham's relationship. Up until the afternoon of their birthday, Freya was turning five and Graham ten, the sibling's relationship was a loose one. Graham would be close to Freya, read to her before bed, look out for her at school and such. It was what big brothers usually do for their little sisters. But that afternoon, Freya was in the living room plucking the keys at the grand piano she loved so much, when she heard the unmistakable high pitched crash of shattering glass. Freya was the first to arrive at the scene, her heart racing at the sight of her brother standing in the midst of crystal and glass shards from a vase given to their mother by their grandfather. Both children could hear the footsteps of one of the adults coming and before either could register what had happened the broken shards flew into the air and reattached themselves before the completely in damaged vase landed back on its shelf. Seconds later their couple arrived together1.

Mr. and Mrs. Clemens had spent the past ten years of their lives hearing the various noises that plagued the Mac Alastair house from wind to creaking floors, to the pounding of feet and screaming, to the unmistakable crash of something breaking. Both, on instinct, knew whenever the later happened the culprit - meaning Graham - was almost always near or very close by to the source of destruction. However, this time, despite having heard the smashing of some household decoration, there was no mess for Mrs. Clemens to clean or for Mr. Clemens to attempt to repair. Instead, they found Freya and Graham stood together staring at each other in an odd way. Upon realizing nothing must have happened the couple went back to what they had been doing.

The twins continued to stare at each other even after the couple left. Freya was too young to fully comprehend what had just happened, or that she had done it. She simply thought that perhaps it was a magic vase. However, Graham understood. Graham knew what had just happened and he was scared, not for himself but for Freya. He had looked out for her since she was born, but with what he had just seen, with what he now was certain he knew, he decided watching from a comfortable distance was no longer acceptable. What if one of the children at school found out? What if they were at a dinner and Freya did something like she had just done? No, Graham had to protect her now. He had to keep his twin safe.

~*~

Such accidents as the initial self-repairing vase occurred more frequently the older Freya became. As Freya began to realize it was her who would make objects repair or move, who could make flowers bloom or food multiply, she started trying to channel whatever was causing this - she agreed with Graham when he told her what she was doing was magic - and make things happen at her command. She was not successful at first and was greatly disheartened, but Graham encouraged her to keep attempting to control her 'magic'. Of corse, they never practiced where people could see them. Neither twin dared say anything to their parents or their couple about Freya's abilities, Freya because Graham said not to and Graham because he was scared. Scared that they would make her leave and that he would lose the only person he truly loved and cared for. However, by the time Freya was eight she could successfully control her magic and manipulate it to do whatever she wanted. She only would ever do magic for or with her twin, though.

It didn't take too long once Freya had control of her magic to learn what she couldn't make it do. For one, Freya could not make things come back to life - she tried when Graham's parrot died while he was at a football game with their father. Freya also learned she could not just make things appear, only multiply or summon what already existed. Finally - and it was an act that only a little sister could have wanted to perform - Freya learned she could not make someone fall in love. It had been mid-December, Freya was nine and Graham fourteen, when the older of the two developed a crush on a girl in school. Such was the amount of pining he did that Freya decided to take matters into her own hands and force the girl to return her brother's affection, but nothing came of her attempts.

Perhaps these kinds of efforts - though unknown to everyone but Graham - was why everyone who met Freya found her to be irresistible. There was no teacher or business partner of her parents that was not impressed by her quiet and gentle nature, very few kids in school could look at her and not see someone sweet and innocent. Of corse there were those who hated her, bullied her, got under her pale, freckled skin. Some were apprehended by Graham, their heads shoved down toilets or they were forced into trash bins or lockers. Freya let it happen, but more often than not the people bullying her were left unpunished and free to make Freya's life away from Graham hell. That is why two days into their summer vacation Freya was sound asleep outside curled up next to her twin on one of the several canopy swings as Graham flipped through a book on magic tricks. Ever since he realized Freya could do real magic he decided he would learn slight of hand- and of course Freya learned along with him. The pair loved confusing everyone with disappearing tricks and ever complicated illusions.

It was yet another late night for the twins the previous evening. Freya couldn't sleep, she hasn't been able to her whole life, and Graham...well when Freya didn't sleep neither did Graham. It wasn't always because Freya would sneak into his room at absurd hours in the morning, sometimes it was just that natural sibling bond that told him Freya was awake and therefore he should be too. School months were always the worst for the twins, late night homework coupled with Freya's insomnia and ever present desire to be in the kitchen or in the backyard all clashed together leading to tired and rushed mornings. The summer months were how both siblings caught up on much-needed sleep, usually during the day while they could be doing something more productive.

For nearly eleven years the twins have been inseparable. For nearly eleven years Freya has depended on Graham.

In one week their world flips upside down.

In seven days the siblings will have to learn to be themselves.

In one hundred sixty-eight hours the dynamic duo will either be torn apart or welded together tighter than ever.


1. For those who do not know what a couple are in domestic housework they are a pair -usually married - who take on traditional gender role chores around the house, they usually live with the family.

1. For those who do not know what a couple are in domestic housework they are a pair -usually married - who take on traditional gender role chores around the house, they usually live with the family.