Our English Prep: to write a piece entitled Out in the Dark. I don't think the story speaks for itself, but I actually had to do some research for my writing. Came as a shock!
Out in
the Dark
Rhyming
couplets are complete: they stand together yet apart from other words. If you
hear them you can spot them, distinct and obvious.
Eyebrows sit
above the eyes, meeting centrally then branching out. We always see them together;
we never think anything of it, until one of them is missing.
Twins start
to play with each other at fourteen weeks. Ultrasounds have proven that they
touch each other more then they do themselves. Wombs are dark places, and we
know we’re both there. I couldn’t imagine it any other way.
I was born at
12.47, Molly at 12.51 that makes me the oldest. Molly came out quickly to be
with me didn’t want me to experience a single thing without her; Georgie and
Charlie came out two hours apart from one another because they’re not like us.
When we were
born Granny almost fainted, as mummy hadn’t told her she was having twins, she
wanted it to be a surprise and mummy said she got one. We were dressed in baby
blue suits. We were meant to go home that night but mummy had to stay so the
nurses could look after her. Molly and I looked after each other until the
morning.
The average
weight for twin is 5lbs and 5oz, I weighed 5lbs and 8oz, Molly weighed 5lbs and
3oz; daddy always says I stole some of her sugar bags.
Derek the dog didn’t really like us: we would
always pull his ears.
Daddy’s
favorite book to read us was about Bears, all the different types of bears in
the world: the Asiatic Black Bear, the Brown Bear, and the Panda bear. Mummy is
like a Polar Bear as they always give birth to twins. I don’t think she could
have managed triplets.
Uncle Stan
sometimes came round, he would bring his little girl Rosie. Rosie couldn’t understand
why we dressed the same or what we would say to each other. I think I liked
Rosie, but Molly didn’t, I’m still not sure about her.
Once, during
one of Uncle Stan’s visits we were all on the trampoline. It sat in front of
our pine trees; we were all bouncing when Derek started running round us like
he usually does. Derek started barking loudly, growling and showing his teeth;
Molly and I were scared so Rosie bravely went to get Dad. You see Molly she’s
not too bad.
Molly and I are in the 40% of twins that create
their own language.
When we started school we refused to be in
different teaching groups. I think that upset some people, but school’s a scary
place for twins: lots of kids want to play with you and just you. And you
realise that you’re both good at different things, I’m good at science and
Molly at music and maths, she also drawers birds. Once she told me that she
wished she could fly.
Fly over our pines to the grey skies beyond.
There was this one boy who liked Molly he was
called Frank Turner. He tried to kiss Molly behind the gym so I hit him in the
nose. It only bled a little but mummy made me go to bed without supper; she
doesn’t know that Molly brought me some chocolate pudding.
Some people call a twins connection ESP.
At one party we gave the birthday girl, Sally, a
massive fluffy Polar Bear as her mum was pregnant with twins. Her tummy was so
big through her tight frilly pink dress. When we were eating cake I asked her
if she could eat three slices as she was feeding three people. Sally’s mum only
laughed, saying ‘she wouldn’t be eating any cake if she wanted to get rid of
the baby weight’. You have to run to get rid of baby weight.
If she gives
birth to fraternal twins she’s three times more likely to give birth to another
set.
Being a twin girl I have twice the chance of
giving birth to twins. I will never get a big tummy that shows through a frilly
pink dress: humans are fragile but twins are the most delicate of us all.
Twins share the same DNA but do not have the same
figure print, sometimes we share things but only once may carry it on. Like
drawing birds.
TTT’s, also
known as: Twin-to-Twin transfusion syndrome; fetal transfusion syndrome or
fetofetal transfusion syndrome is a rare disease in the placenta, where during
the development of identical twins they share the same blood vessels meaning the
blood can flow unevenly. One twin takes the others blood. It didn’t hurt my
heart.
In the other
twin, in Molly, it can cause severe anemia as they are giving all their blood
to their sibling. Anemia is easy to hide in a twin, when I can be Molly in gym,
or I can finish her chocolate pudding.
I only
noticed her heart beat quicken in the moon; everyone noticed it stop.
Uncle Stan
called us in for fish fingers, Derek ran off chasing a bird and daddy him,
trying to save the bird and mummy complained that our carrots were getting cold
whilst also trying to save the bird. Rosie jumped from the trampoline and ran
into the house. I told Molly she should hurry up and jumped from the ladder.
The bird got away, Uncle Stan had cooked the chips and Derek was inside.
Everyone was inside. I started running back to the trampoline.
“Molly!” Her
red coat fell and bounced.
Uncle Stan
was getting coffee; Derek was at the neighbors; mummy and daddy were trying to
save a different bird. Rosie was holding my hand whilst I hid in Molly’s coat.
All the
machines, all the doctors, all the drugs were trying to save her; but Molly had
already told me she was leaving.
You’d already
told me that birds and grey skies were closer then we thought.
Experts say
that genetics account for 60% of the occurrences of disease, whilst other
factors, such as infections or exposure to toxins are responsible for the
remaining 40%.
Molly, I
didn’t know I was stealing your moonshine, please come back, I’m lost. One star
can’t shine alone.
