Push

“Oh my God, what are the little beasts doing up there?” Meagan asked, rolling her eyes up toward the ceiling, where she was fairly certain a herd of elephants was staging a flash mob. “Are you sure you’re only watching three kids?”

            Her best friend Hailey sighed and slammed her chemistry book down on the coffee table. Studying was impossible with all the noise.

            “Think about college!” Meagan called as Hailey stormed off to deal with the demon spawn. “Murder will look really bad on your application!”

            It was a valid reminder. When she reached the bottom of the stairs and looked up to see Bradlee and Bentlee sitting on a mattress balancing precariously at the top, with their older sister Sophia poised to push, Hailey almost lost her mind.

            “Seriously?” she screamed. “Not even!”

            Meagan was at her side in an instant. “Oh, wow,” she grinned, surveying the scene. “Props, Soph. That’s a classic.”

            “Don’t encourage them!” Hailey growled.

            “Dad lets us...” Bradlee began, but Bentlee, the older of the seven-year-old twins by a solid two minutes, saw the fire in her babysitter’s eyes and slugged her brother.

“Get. Down. Here. Now.” Hailey ordered.

            “Teacher voice,” Meagan whispered. “Very nice.”

            At the top of the stairs, Sophia shrugged and flashed a smile, her white-blond ponytail bobbing. “Okay!”

            And she pushed.

            The mattress jostled down the stairs. Bradlee and Bentlee shrieked. 

Hailey and Meagan jumped out of the way as the end of the mattress crashed to a stop. The twins rolled off and into a pile on the floor, giggling like little lunatics.

Sophia darted off to her room and slammed the door.

“Medical school…medical school….” Hailey chanted.

The twins scampered into the kitchen, chattering about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. 

“What time does their dad get home?” Meagan asked.

Hailey just sighed and shook her head. It was gonna be a long night.

After she lectured them about safety and rules for so long that she started to hear her own father, Hailey softened and made some ants on logs out of celery, peanut butter, and raisins to go along with the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (sans crust for Bradlee and heart-shaped for Bentlee, of course). 

She fixed a plate for Sophia (just regular triangles, crust and all, grown-up style for the ten-going-on-sixteen-year-old) and carefully made her way over the mattress to climb the stairs to the world’s pinkest, most sparkly bedroom while Meagan debated with the twins over which Harry Potter movie was the best.

“Chamber of Secrets,” Bradlee said, giving his sister a glance.

Bentlee glared at him. “Ssh. Don’t tell.”

“Good one,” Meagan giggled as she launched a tickle attack on both twins at once. “You two are too much!”

Sophia was stretched out on her furry pink bean bag chair, pink cat-ear headphones on, staring intently at her – you guessed it, pink - ipad. 

Hailey reached for the tablet and held out the plate before the pre-teen rebellion could begin. Food usually won with Sophia. 

            “Does your dad really let you do things like that?” Hailey asked, sitting down beside her.

            Sophia shrugged. “He’s never here. He’s always with Katrina.” She spat out the name of her father’s girlfriend as if it were poison. 

            Hailey nodded, batting at the one stray strand that always escaped no matter how she tightly she braided her long, frizzy, beach-sand brown hair. Someday she’d work up the nerve to let Meagan hack it all off for her.

            “It must be hard on all of you, without your mom,” she said.

            Another shrug. 

            “I didn’t like it when my dad started dating again after my mom died, either,” Hailey confessed. “I was pretty mean to some of his girlfriends.”

            Sophia looked up, still chewing on her sandwich. “I thought Miss Shelley was your mom.”

            Hailey shook her head. “She’s my step mom. But she’s pretty awesome, right?”

            Sophia nodded. “She gave me these for Christmas,” she said, holding up the cat-ear headphones.

            “She likes pink a lot, too,” Hailey smiled. “Anyway, believe it or not, I didn’t like her at all at first.”

            Sophia thought about that for a minute, and then scrunched up her shoulders again. “If I show you something, can you keep a secret?”

            “Maybe. That depends.”

            “Why do grownups always say stuff like that?”

            Hailey laughed. “I’m not exactly a grown up.”

            “You get to yell at us and give us lectures. You’re basically a grownup.”

            “Okay, you win. I’m a grownup. Your secret doesn’t involve anything that could hurt anyone, right?”

            Hailey put her hands on Sophia’s shoulders before she could offer up her signature response.

            “You’re totally a grownup,” Sophia laughed. “Come on.”

            She hopped up and led the way to her walk-in closet. Hailey followed, amazed at just how many different shades of pink existed in kid-fashion.

            “We’re not playing dress-up, right?” she asked.

            “No,” Sophia giggled, eyeing Hailey’s olive drab cargo pants and nondescript faded navy blue Henley shirt. “But maybe we should!” 

            Hailey swatted at the young girl’s ponytail and suddenly realized the closet seemed to be extending far further than it should have. She looked back to the door they’d entered through. It was at least 50 yards back now. And though the rows of pink clothing had ended, the closet itself had expanded – longer, wider, taller…what the hell?

Sophia skipped ahead as Hailey blinked to try to make sense of it all. The pink walls of the closet faded, and they were outside, in the clearing of a forest? She could smell the pine and hear the crackling of the leaves and sticks beneath her shoes. The air was crisp and fresh, and a cool breeze blew that rebel curly strand into her eyes. She swatted it back ferociously.

“Sophia!” she called. The girl was nowhere in sight.

Meagan had searched the entire house. Where the hell were Hailey and Sophia? She’d finally gotten the twins to chill out and watch a movie – they’d settled on Jurassic Park – and they were actually being quiet enough to allow for some studying, finally. There was no sign of anyone upstairs, just a half-eaten sandwich on a plate in Sophia’s room. So weird.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked her messages. Nothing. She sent Hailey a text. “Where r u?”

She waited. No little dots.

Then she called. No answer.

Now she was officially freaked out.

Meagan’s heart was racing as she headed back down the stairs, but it sunk completely as she turned the corner into the living room. 

The twins were gone. Their bowl of popcorn sat on the blanket, the dinosaurs were still roaming across the TV, but the kids were nowhere to be seen.

“Bentlee! Bradlee! This is not funny!” she yelled. “Come back here right this minute! I am not playing!”

She listened for the giggles, but all she could hear was her own panic and the thud of her blood pumping.

Hailey’s eyes blurred with tears as she raced through the field, calling for Sophia. She could see water in the distance – the ocean? 

Her mind was reeling. Had she taken drugs without knowing it? What was going on? This made absolutely no sense. 

Her lungs were about to explode. She had to stop, just for a second, to catch her breath. She should have listened to Meagan and tried harder in P.E. Running sucked. 

And this stupid hair was sticking to her face. She wanted to pull it all out. She didn’t even know why she was so afraid to cut it. 

As her breathing slowed to normal, Hailey heard laughter from the forest on her left. Bentlee was running toward her! And Bradlee was right behind!

Hailey scooped them up and twirled them around. “How did you find me? Where’s Sophia? Are you okay?”

“You weren’t supposed to tell!” Bentlee hissed at Bradlee.

“I didn’t!” 

“Then how did she get in here?”

“Hey, you guys,” Hailey interrupted. “Sophia said she wanted to show me a secret, and then we went into her closet, and now I’m out here. What’s going on?”

“It’s our chamber of secrets,” Bradlee explained in a hushed whisper.

“Mom made it for us,” Bentlee said, her big green eyes misting. “So we could remember. But we aren’t supposed to tell.”

“I didn’t!” Bradlee insisted.

“He really didn’t,” Hailey assured Bentlee, though she still wasn’t feeling very reassured herself. “I think it’s great that you have a special way to remember your mom. But we need to find your sister and get back to the house, okay?”

In an instant they were off, racing toward the shore at full speed, their laughter mixing with the sound of the seagulls in the distance.

Hailey shook her head and took off after them. “I am never, ever babysitting again,” she vowed. There had to be a better way to pay for medical school. If she could even get in after they figured out she was certifiably crazy.

Meagan dug through every drawer in the house, trying to find anything with phone numbers or emails to help her reach Hailey’s dad, or the kids’ father. She wasn’t even sure of their last name. How long should she wait before calling the police? What would she even say? “Hi, everybody in the house just disappeared but me?” They’d totally think she was high. And was she even supposed to be in the house? She wasn’t the one babysitting – Hailey was. Would she get arrested for trespassing? 

Hailey reached the water’s edge and collapsed onto the soft white sand, completely exhausted. This must be some kind of punishment for all of her unhealthy eating habits. Maybe she’d start working out with Meagan if she ever got out of…wherever she was.

Gentle waves brought the tide in, and the crystal blue water worked its way all around her. As she laid on the sand, she could see herself reflected in it. But as the tiny waves rolled back and forth, the image changed. Hailey watched, captivated, as her mother’s face appeared before her. 

They had the same eyes – hazel, with specks of blue and green and brown, like the earth viewed from space. And that same rebel strand of sandy brown hair that did whatever it wanted. Her mom smiled as she brushed it away. Hailey jumped as she felt the touch on her own forehead.

Then the reflection morphed once more, and Hailey saw herself again, but the girl in the glassy water was someone stronger, more confident – someone she wanted to be. 

“Be who you are,” her mother’s voice whispered in her ear. “That’s all I ever wanted for you.”

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Hailey got up, brushed off the sand, and called out to the kids.

The three of them turned toward her immediately. Their mom smiled and waved. 

Hailey waved back.

She watched as Janice Mullins gave each one of her children a kiss and pulled them in close for a hug before sending them back to their babysitter. Sophia lingered in her mother’s arms just a little longer than the twins, then she, too, raced back across the beach.

“That was a pretty incredible secret,” Hailey told her. “Thank you for sharing it with me.”

Sophia smiled and shrugged.

            Meagan was on speakerphone with her sister, pacing the living room. “No, Michelle, I did not have any wine!”

            Suddenly the coat closet in the hallway opened, and one by one the kids charged out, followed by Hailey.

            Meagan tossed the phone onto the couch and threw her arms around her best friend. “Oh my God I thought I’d never see you again! I thought I was losing my freaking mind!” 

She peered into the tiny closet, filled with coats and shoes. There’s no way it could have fit one person for all that time, let alone four. “Where have you…what have…do I even want to ask?”

            Hailey just laughed and shook her head. “It’s a secret. I promise I’ll show you later. But first, let’s grab some scissors.”