The Clocks

August 12 in The Year 722 After the Founding

Stavros and Consuela dashed around the corner then accelerated to their full speed. Immediately after passing the second fruit stand on the right, they grabbed the pole supporting the night-lamp, swung around it, then pelted down the narrow alley in front of them. The sounds of pursuit faded rapidly as they made another right turn, doubling back in the direction they'd come from, but two blocks west of where they'd begun. Three minutes later they burst through the front door of their home, turned, then swiftly but quietly pushed it closed.

As one they faced toward each other with grins of triumph on their faces. Before they could proceed with mutual congratulations, a hand grabbed each of them by the collar and lifted them into the air. The being responsible, Mimi the head maid, thereupon pivoted and began walking, completely ignoring the twins attempts to slither out of her grasp. Without slacking off on her pace, Mimi walked them upstairs then down the hall. Reaching a set of double doors, she caused them to open and continued inside. Two meters inside she set them down just as the person at the desk they were facing put down the pen she'd been using to write out a budget proposal for a certain project.

Miranda spoke calmly and completely tonelessly, "Well. This should be interesting. You might as well put them down. They aren't going anywhere...at least not until I'm finished with them."

She shifted her gaze to her children, who were trying to be as still as possible in the unreasonable hope that such an action would keep them from being noticed. "Explain yourselves."

The twins were only nine years old, but they had learned long ago that trying to play the blame game wouldn't work. No ploy or stratagem that they'd ever come up with had delayed or diverted their mother's quest for the truth whenever they got into trouble.

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Ptica interjected, "I supposed that I should mention that in addition to being rather, shall we say, 'energetic,' they were also extremely inventive. They'd tried out an almost unbelievable number of excuses in the previous four years, and all had failed. Not a single one had managed to even slow Miranda down, much less distract her attention from their latest misdeed.

"Ye gods! I'm repeating myself. You should stop me when I do that. No, really, I mean it. I haven't knocked a student unconscious for at least three decades, maybe even four, and that was an accident. Truly."

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About three months earlier, the twins had finally realized that, no matter what they came up with, it wasn't going to work. That realization totally ruined half their fun. They had truly enjoyed fabricating tall tales, but, since the telling of them usually worsened their punishment, they'd reluctantly given up and now always told the truth.

It wasn't nearly as much fun, but the consequences of their actions had, at the same time, become much less painful. Not that Miranda or their father Robert had ever hit them. Frankly, they'd have preferred a good spanking. They'd reasoned that once such punishment was over, it was over, and one could then go out and find other things to stick one's unwanted nose into.

Unfortunately, like most good parents, theirs had realized long ago that physical punishment was, besides being relatively useless in the long run, time consuming. It was much more efficient to manipulate the situation so that the children punished themselves by making them realize that it was their own choices that had led to their loss of privileges, confinement at home, or whatever else seemed appropriate at the time.

The children had a hurried conversation in "twin" and decided that this time it was Stavros' turn.

"Ah, yes mother, about that. You see we were down on Bleek street, near where it intersects with Hopewell, just north of the Ring Road. Well, anyway we were just walking along....

Miranda steepled her fingers. "You mean that you were practicing being sneaky, don't you?"

"Well, I suppose you could say that if you want to be picky about it."

Miranda's left eyebrow began twitching. Stravros swallowed hastily and hurriedly added, "Of course accuracy is important, isn't it? Anyway, we were practicing being sneaky, and we came up behind this group of older boys."

He turned to Consuela and asked, "They were about 12 or 13, wouldn't you say?"

Seeing her nod he turned back to his mother. "Yes, and, anyway we heard them talking about how they were thinking about maybe snatching some pastries from the food stall just around the corner. We didn't see a Guard or anyone from the Militia so we sorta just snuck up behind them. Then each of us kicked one of them in the back of the knee.

He raised his hands into a defensive posture. "But only hard enough to make them fall down. That's when we took off and ran home." A superior smirk appeared on Stavros' face. "Nobody knows all the alleys and back streets like we do. They never had a chance to catch us!"

Miranda dropped her face into her hands and sat, unmoving, for a good 20 seconds. When she finally spoke, she didn't lift her head. "If I understand you correctly, you assaulted two boys who you thought might be about to commit a minor crime. Then you ran home. If I recall correctly, and I do, the streets are very busy this time of day. Do you know how many people you made drop packages or who had to jump out of your way so as not to be hit? Did any of those people suffer any kind of injury when they avoided you? Were any packages broken? Will some people have to go without their dinners tonight because what you made them drop is no longer edible?"

She lifted her face. There was no expression on it at all. "Mimi, I think that the two of them will take their baths now, after which they will spend the rest of their time before school tomorrow in their room. I would appreciate it if you would assist them in remembering this change in their usual routine. Given what I've just heard, it is apparent that their judgement and memories are likely somewhat impaired.

"I've heard that fasting is good for clearing one's mind. I expect that by lunch time tomorrow their minds will be functioning normally again."

"Yes Madame. I shall be pleased to aid them in such an endeavor."

Miranda nodded. "Thank you Mimi."

She turned to her twins. "You may leave."

After the twins left, Miranda wrote out a note and rang a small bell on her desk. She handed the note to the man who appeared. "Please deliver this to Sargeant Rivers at the Guard barracks. It appears that another gang may be in the early stages of forming. Perhaps she'll find other things for them to do with their time."

The man nodded and strode out of the room.

While Mimi was washing Stavros' hair, the twins had a, for them, serious conversation.

"Stav, what the heck are we going to do for fun now? Mom's caught on to everything we've been able to think of so far."

"Not sure yet 'Suela. I've been trying to figure out something for the past few weeks, but I'm not getting anywhere."

"Well that doesn't help. I was sure you'd have SOMETHING. You're sneakier than I am...at least most of the time."

Mimi rinsed Stavros' head and pointed at the bath.

Obediently he took himself to it and slid down until his chin was at the surface. Mimi nodded then started on Consuela. Her hair was longer, down to the middle of her shoulder blades, and also on the fine side. Unlike their mother's originally black-colored hair, her hair was a light brown with many chestnut highlights. From Mimi's perspective the combination of that with the light brown tone of her skin was striking, if not beautiful. She was, of course, biased, but she was certain that any objective viewer would find it most attractive. Mimi had noticed that 'Suela didn't have the silver streak that Miranda had begun to develop at her age, but, if she understood it correctly, it tended to be passed down only to some children.

Now Stavros' color was more plebian. His skin was darker than his sister's, though not nearly as dark as Miranda's. His hair was almost the same shade as his skin, with just a few threads of silver here and there. Mimi supposed that eventually his hair would be all silver just like Miranda's. The idea was quite disconcerting as that combination had never appeared among them before, but as she thought about it, she decided that it would definitely draw favorable attention. If you combined that with the the brilliant blue eyes he'd inherited from Robert.... Well let's just say that Mimi was looking forward to seeing how the females would react to him in a hundred years or so.

She finished removing the last of the twigs and leaves and...whatever it was...from Consuela's hair then rinsed her as well. She didn't need to point. Consuela rose and walked briskly to the bath. While it was still Summer, the usual afternoon breeze from the mountains had the room on the cool side.

Mimi tapped her foot to get their attention. When they'd turned toward her she made a vague motion with her left hand. They nodded. They'd soak for 20 minutes and then go straight to their room.

Later, as they approached their room, Stavros asked, "What're we gonna do about food? I don't have anything."

'Suela smiled. "Don't worry, I have some bread and cheese. It's not a lot, but it should get us by without feeling like we're starving."

As they reached the door, it opened and Mimi exited. She was licking her fingers. "Thanks for the snack. I still have a number of tasks before dinner. This will help."

After she'd passed, the twins ran into their room. 'Suela dove into a corner and reached behind a bookshelf into a cavity where there used to be a large brick. She'd known what she would find, but the reality was still excruciating.

She wailed, "It's all gone Stav! There's nothing left at all."

They turned as one and glared at the inoffensive door.

"Well darn. I guess we'll have to do that." Suela stamped her foot. "I really wanted to finish that fairy-tale book tonight too."

"I suppose you're right 'Suela. But we both know how awful we'll feel tomorrow if we don't."

"Yeah. OK. I guess we might as well do it now. Waiting isn't going to change anything."

So saying, they hung up the robes they'd worn back from the bathing room and pulled on their nightclothes. Then they curled up on Consuela's bed, making sure that their backs were touching, all the way from the base of the neck to their hips. Next, using their free hands, they pulled a light blanket up to completely cover them.

"We good?"

"Yep, should be."

"Right then. See you in the morning."

With that they each took three, very slow, deep breaths, each longer than the previous one. By the time they'd finished exhaling the third breath, they were deeply asleep. They'd awaken 12 minutes before they had to leave for school the next morning.

Hearing the slow, deep breathing as she walked past the room, Mimi nodded then walked down the hall to Miranda's office. "They're asleep."

Miranda frowned thoughtfully. "I've never figured out how they do that. I assume they'll be up in time to leave for school in the morning?"

"Yes Madame."

"Very good. Thank you Mimi."

"It was my pleasure Madame."

After Mimi had left and closed the door, Miranda stretched and yawned. How very interesting...and how infuriatingly frustrating. She had absolutely no idea how her twins managed to do whatever it was that they were doing. It had happened several times in the past as well, always when they were sent to bed without their dinner.

What really drove her crazy was the fact that Mimi obviously knew exactly what and how they did whatever it was. She could ask her of course, but that would be breaking the most important, unspoken rule of the game that they were playing. Miranda had to figure out these things by herself.

And, speaking of rules, she'd just finished writing out the rules of a "game" that she hoped would constrain the twins' reckless behavior without stifling their creativity. In the process of playing, Miranda would likely gain a great deal of useful information. As always when playing a game, she intended to come out on top.

As she left her office to head to the dining room she heard faintly, "Always? What about your game with Mimi?"

She pretended that she hadn't heard that particular, gloating voice. She'd deal with that one later, assuming she ever figured out how.

Lady Blue nodded to herself. That one needed taking down a peg now and then. She was much too full of herself most of the time. Well, that was one more item crossed off her daily to-do list, only a few hundred to go. She'd best be about it.

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When the twins arrived home the next afternoon, they were unexpectedly met at the door by Mimi who informed them, "Your mother wishes to see you in her office. I shall take your things to your room."

As they handed their books and such to, Mimi they exchanged worried glances. They hadn't done anything else that would get them in trouble. Had they?

Upon reaching their mother's office doors, they knocked and were immediately instructed to enter. When they saw the two chairs across from their mother's desk, they were, to say the least, shocked. They'd never been allowed to sit in her presence before, except at mealtimes, in their bedroom, and when they were in the family parlor.

The looked back and forth from the chairs to their mother several times, just to make sure that...well, they weren't exactly sure what they were making sure of.

"Sit. I'm not going to eat you."

Miranda's tone was somewhat harsh, but the twins were relieved to know for certain what they were supposed to do.

They did so gingerly, and sat with their spines rigid and their hands clasped in their laps. Once seated they focused their entire attention on their mother.

Miranda looked them up and down then spoke, "Acceptable. Now let me tell you what I've decided. Your behavior lately has been rather far from what would be appropriate even among the peasant farmers. Fortunately, for you as well as for myself, I've discovered a solution. Frankly I think that I'm being much too lenient with you, but I'm aware that one cannot expect perfection from nine-year-old children. Therefore we will begin where we must.

"Beginning tomorrow, when you are away from home, you will engage in activities that will earn you points. You may wish to ask for what purpose. Well, don't. I'm going to tell you.

"First of all I'll tell you what you will do. You will gather information for me. In the process, you will learn what kind of information is important, which is merely interesting, and which is worthless. To make things easier I shall give you some examples.

"If you discover that a street merchant has purchased his or her child a new toy worth six soldini, that's worthless. If it cost seven grossi, that's interesting. If it cost 30 ducats, that's important.

"Should you learn that a girl of 17 has accepted the marriage proposal of a 19 year old young man, that's usually, though not always, worthless. If she is 14 and he is 19, that's interesting. If she is 15 and he is 30, that's important.

"I expect you to figure out the general worth of other happenings in the city on your own. If you bring me worthless information, you will receive negative points.

"There is one other requirement. Nobody must notice you when you are acquiring your new knowledge. Should I learn that you have been seen or heard, especially should you run through the streets to escape, as you did yesterday, there will be a substantial deduction of points."

So far the children had been politely attentive, though they had obviously been disinterested until she mentioned the part where they were essentially told that they were allowed to be sneaky while obtaining the information.

Miranda smiled inwardly. Time to set the hook.

"Your next question should be this: 'What do we do with the points when we get them?'.

"Your answer is, when you have accumulated what I consider a sufficient number of points, but no more often than once a week, you will be allowed to visit the Fukui Patisserie and select one serving of any item you wish as a treat."

Upon hearing this last part the twins jumped into the air. As best Miranda could tell, it was nearly two and a half meters. They seemed to momentarily stretch and coil around each other before they parted and landed exactly where they'd started and were once again sitting primly on their chairs.

"I see that my proposal meets with your agreement."

She was answered by vigorous nodding and huge smiles.

"Very well. We shall begin tomorrow. You are excused."

The twins stood and bowed, then turned and quietly left the room. They didn't want to do anything to jeopardize the arrangement.

At dinner that night the twins were perfectly behaved, not disruptive at all, and that was the problem. They NEVER behaved like that. Sara, Paolo, and Eugenia were beside themselves with curiosity but there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. No matter how they worded any questions, they were sure to offend someone.

If they asked their younger sibs: "What's wrong with you? You're acting perfectly normal," their mother was sure to hit them with something like: "Really? Tell me. Is there something wrong with behaving properly? I'd be very interested to hear your explanation."

Once that happened, there'd be no way out of the quagmire.

If they praised the twins by saying: "It's nice to see you behaving so well tonight," the implied insult, that they usually didn't, was sure to get them anything from a "die now" glare to multiple pranks over the ensuing days or even weeks.

Therefore all three of them clenched their teeth and did their best to act exactly as they usually did, knowing that their parents would notice what they were doing and would probably be privately laughing at them all evening.