Head to Head

Mother stayed home after the twins were born. Father worked outside the home. The Normans lived in a tow story house with a full basement in a nice neighborhood of average means, not an affluent or gated community. The Normans were comfortable financially and didn't need a flashy lifestyle to Garner attention. The twins provided more attention than desired as it was.

Candy and Winifred just turned six years of age, conjoined twins who were currently allowed a few weeks off from their regular schooling and lessons in celebration of the winter holidays. As this allowed them to sleep in, that is what they are doing. Winifred's slow, steady, and quiet breathing allowing the now awakened Candy to listen to her mother's radio as it played in the next room. Mrs. Norman listened to talk radio, her favorite. Today's guest was a physician whose team of surgeons had recently performed a very complex and successful separation surgery upon conjoined dicephalic parapagus twins, by definition, those having two heads joined to one torso. Each has a heart, stomach, spine, pair of lungs, and spinal cord. Each twin controls one arm and one leg. Such was the condition of Candy and Winfred.

Candy was transfixed by the doctor's voice, the topic a very personal one. The program continued, "the separated twins were three years old, one survived and the other succumbed to a previously undiagnosed heart condition."

Candy and Winifred visited their doctor regularly, she knows what a stethoscope is., and a cardiogram. Her and Winnie have strong healthy hearts. Her avid imagination was already taking her and Winnie through a successful separation surgery, they waved to each other from separate beds post surgery. Candy smiled and her heart was fluttering at these happy dreams, she glanced at her sleeping sister to see if she stirred. A listener called the show with a question, "What if one of the conjoined twins were to die?" The physician guest responded, "The death of one conjoined twin is cause requiring emergency surgical separation to save the remaining twin. The dead twin threatens the life of the living twin from overwhelming sepsis in the shared blood vessels and the failure of shared organs."

Candy observed Winnie peacefully asleep and imagined life without her. People disappear all the time. The girls hadn't seen their maternal grandmother for two years since she'd commented upon their father's tattoo and gambling habits. What would become of Winifred's arm and leg if doctors were to carve her from Candy's side? Listening to the radio show for more answers she learned that the nerves of the deceased twin could be refastened to the spinal cord of the remaining twin but it was very new science. They also mentioned robotic prosthetics. Candy held up her arm visualizing a robotic counterpart and perhaps a robotic leg to match.

Winnie began to stir and Candy was getting hungry for breakfast. They arose from bed in coordinated unison completing synchronized morning tasks; using the bathroom, brushing their teeth, washing their hands and faces, combing their hair, and getting dressed. Today it was Winnie's turn to choose their outfits.

Mother sensed a difference in Candy's demeanor before she'd even spoken a word. the usually talkative and somewhat commanding twin was silent and reserved.

"Is something on your mind today Candy? You seem very introspective this morning." said Mrs. Norman as she filled the girls glasses with orange juice. Today they were having waffles with whipped cream and strawberries.

"I'm fine mom, just a little sleepy", Candy lied. She needed more time to explore how to introduce the topic of separation surgery to her family. A topic that must wait until another day. Currently, there were delicious waffles that needed attending.

That evening, Mr. Norman returned home from work with a seven foot bushy pine tree tied to the roof of the family car. The twins loved to help their mother hang the ornaments from the branches when father was finished stringing the colored lights throughout the tiered tree. A fresh pine smell filled the living room, the lights adding cheer to the dark chilly days of winter.

At night, alone in her thoughts, Candy pondered subjects not common to six year old children at Christmastime. Tonight she questioned the morality of science, and of religion. Were they a team? The fact of her and Winnie's survival was attestation to advanced Western medicine, yet their divine creation was God's.

If God's creations were perfect, was it therefore sinful to tamper with conjoined twins with separation surgery? Candy was a good girl so she chose to believe that perhaps surgeons could be angels of God, performing his work on Earth.

In the morning, they put on their festive holiday garments, piled into the car, and headed off towards the Mall for their traditional visit with Santa Claus to share their wishes and get their photos taken. When at last the twins were upon Santa's lap and it was Candy's turn, she said "Santa, I wish to have surgery to successfully separate myself and Winnie."

"Ho Ho Ho! Be careful what you wish for!" replied Santa Claus in his cheery booming voice. Candy and Winnie stared at each other not certain of what to make regarding Santa's mysterious declaration. Candy made Winnie promise not to tell their parents about her wish and to say she wanted a baby doll instead, to which Winnie willingly agreed.

Candy loved Winnie as much as she hated their shared fate. Her keen understanding of science and religion ate at her as if she were Eve and had eaten the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. She was insulted by idioms and platitudes that solved nothing and helped no one. Anyone believing that two heads is better than one, was not born conjoined. Candy understood that cohesion was the core of Charles Darwin's survival theory, thus making her and Winnie the height and pinnacle of evolution, yet why did she feel instead like the mutant force that opposes such grace and insists instead upon the survival of the fittest? On these dark nights of the soul Candy would sacrifice her sister to the Devil himself to have a body like a princess in a fairy tale. Her soul was as torn in two as any separation surgery could hope to achieve, even more so.

Candy and Winnie were startled awake by an ungodly noisome commotion emanating from the neighbors yard. The neighbors house was the scourge of the block. Dilapidated, neglected, an eyesore that threatened property values. The twins glided over to stare from their bedroom window. It appeared that the neighbors purchased a sort of pig or wild bore, but there was a horrible barking.

At breakfast, today was pancakes, maple syrup, and sausages, they asked their mother about their neighbor's new pig. Mom looked distraught.

"That' no pig! Unfortunately! It's a genetically modified fighting dog, cryogenically frozen sperm artificially inseminated. Intentionally created bad genetics, 235 lbs of pressure per sq. inch in its bite, locking jaw, poor eyesight and hearing to enhance its startle reflex, for a more hair trigger quick violent response to stimuli." Mom continued as the girls sat wide eyed and still, "I've seen these muscle bound mutants jump several feet from the standing position and survive several gunshots before slowing down. If that's not repulsive and dangerous enough, it's an abused shelter dog they've adopted making it even more neurotic and unpredictable. Merry Christmas to us! They've bought a ticking time bomb into the neighborhood for the holidays. They're delusional and fancy themselves as dog rescue saviors. How many human lives must we sacrifice to these four legged demons before we send them back to the laboratory from whence they came?" Mom was on a rant, she paused and took a deep breath and the twins began chewing and swallowing their pancakes and sausages again.

"You girls stay clear of the crazy neighbor's yard and that abomination of all that is holy in God's Kingdom!" Mom warned.

"Yes mom," they replied in unison.

After breakfast the girls went upstairs to peer at the pig creature with their field glasses. "Its head is too big for its body", said Winnie.

"Its mouth is too big for its head", said Candy.

"Its tongue is too large for its mouth", Winnie replied.

"It has the tail of a large rat", added Candy.

"Its tiny eyes are really far apart and red rimmed", noticed Winnie. "It has pigs ears", quipped Candy.

On the morning of December 24th the girls awoke and began their morning routine. After putting on their satin dress they affixed some wings upon their back. The trendy cloth wings that are so popular with children and adults these days making people into fairy's, angels, and butterflies. The little winged angels stood fixated at their window observing the hellscape below that is the neighbors yard. "The pig demon is wearing a Santa hat and vest", noticed Winnie.

"It has bells on its collar too", replied Candy.

"It is frightful!", said Winnie.

"It's grotesque!", added Candy.

Soon it was evening and just past nine o'clock. Time for the girls to go upstairs to try to sleep so they could open their presents underneath the tree in the morning. Snowflakes began to fall outside the windows. Seeing this the girls asked, "Daddy, will you take us outside to see the snow?"

"Okay, but only for a moment. I don't want you girls catching a cold."

Dad lifted the twins upon his shoulders as they were in their slippers and nighties with their angel wings on of course. "We're flying", said Winnie as they were being swooped up upon dad's shoulders. Through the back door they glided into the quiet stillness of evening, the snowflakes falling silently around them, their breath making tufts of condensation in the cool air.

A tinkling of bells and the rattling of a chain broke the silence. Faster than Santa's sled travels the world on Christmas Eve, a blood curdling vision unfolded. Before dad could fully turn around to address the source of the sounds, the gate flung open, releasing flying shadowy form whose forceful impact instantly knocked over the three into an unholy Trinity of legs and arms, wings, blood, shrieks, barks, growls, bells, turning tranquility to terror.

Sirens soon added their own touches to the lights and sounds of the holiday as cheer turned to fear. The neighborhood eruption of chaos ending at midnight after all the neighbors had given their reports of what they heard and witnessed to the authorities and exchanged all the proper required information. All ambulances and patrol cars had reached their destinations and the four legged Santa from Hell was kenneled with the animal control waiting his appointment with euthanasia.

Winnie awoke days later surrounded by flowers and balloons in a sunlit room where she had undergone successful separation surgery. Candy's arm and leg nerves had been grafted onto her spinal cord allowing her full mobility of both arms and legs. She knew her sister had not survived.

Mother had a surprise to tell Winnie that she was saving for Christmas. Mom was going to give birth to a new baby girl in the coming months. Winnie asked, "Mom, can her middle name be Candy?" of course it can Winnie.

When Winnie was alone that evening recovering in her hospital bed, she looked up to the heavens outside her hospital window and told her sister Candy that Santa Claus has bought Candy the baby doll that she told her to tell mother and father she asked him for at the Mall when they sat on his lap together, and not only that, but it was a real live baby too.