Okay, so a friend gave me an idea for a short story back in September and just now I sat down to write it. Actually, I typed it up on my iPod while I was in my mom's car, so that's kind of why it might seem like it's full of grammatical errors. Anyhoo, here it is. I've mentioned the story before. It's not done. But this is what I have thus far:
Outside, the rain steadily fell upon the earth, immersing the parched soil with sweet pure water. Each drop fell to the ground with a light tap contributing to the overwhelming roar of the rain. Right on the edge of their property was a forest and in this forest there were two evergreen trees. Two strong firs that had taken root in the soil below them. Underground, their roots were intertwined. Conjoined.
on the property there was also a small cottage carefully assembled with the bricks and mortar bought on credit at the local general store. It was not a small shack nor was it a large palace. It was average and so were the people who occupied it.
A modest sized garden held several thriving vegetable plants and was separated from the nature around it only by a thin strip of rocks that had been found by the river one day whilst they were collecting water and washing their clothes. The nearest paved road was more than a mile away on foot. Their car had broken down more than a month ago. There was simply no money to pay for the extensive repairs necessary.
Inside a woman, the homeowners wife, had just given birth. Her fair hair and skin glistened in the light. She lay asleep by the fire. Her brow was laden with sweat and dried tears remained on her face. What should have been a joyous occasion of pride and celebration had instead become melancholy. The woman had given birth to a set of twin boys.
Her sister was on her hands and knees wiping up the rest of the amniotic fluid with an old rag. The father was leaning against the untreated wood walls his hand on his face in a sign of defeat and resignation. All of the other family members had been sent away , sworn to secrecy. Next to their father, the boys were bundled up in warm cloth sleeping and peacefully unaware that both of them, since conception, we're fugitives. The rain continued to pound on the roof refusing to leave them alone.
"this cant be. How can this be? What are we going to do?" the father begged in utter defeat. He was a hardworking man who carved out an honest existence as a carpenter in town. He'd never broken a law in his entire life, always tried to do the right thing. Now he had broken the law one that was inexusable. If they were discovered the entire family would be in jeopardy.
"Gertude," he said sternly refusing to look up at either his sons or the young girl, "please-please take Gabriel town to the river and drown him." Gertrude went pale with terror but knew she had no choice but to follow her brother in laws orders.
With trembling hands she took the sleeping baby in her arms. His cheeks were rosy and his sweet eyes were still closed. She rushed out the door, shaking, and into the cool spring rain. Inside, the father wept and wept. He was absolutely disgusted with himself. He was a monster.
Outside the girl was rushing through the forest to get to the river. Once she reached its banks she got on her knees and prepared to submerge the screaming infant beneath its murky waters. She tried but her arms would not move. She just couldn't do it. Gabriel looked into her eyes and she just held him close to her.
Looking around she found a hollow piece of wood that was shaped like a shallow bowl. It would have to do. Gertrude knew four things. First she knew that she wasn't able to kill gabriel. He hadn't done anything wrong. But at the same time she knew that she couldn't bring Gabriel back. Michael would kill him then and chastise her for being weak. Gertrude knew that she had to give Gabriel a chance at life. There was another town fifty miles downstream and the river moved swiftly. It was his only hope.
After kissing the baby on the forehead she placed him carefully in the wooden bowl and sent him into the river. She could not stop the tears that rushed to her eyes. The rain had stopped and the two pine trees seemed to droop with a certain sadness.
When she got back to the cottage, she simply told Michael that it had been done. Two years later, she would hang herself from the branch of an oak tree outside. The guilt had destroyed her from the inside out. She was given a simple burial.
Gabriel, although unlikely, would make it to the town down the river. Gertrude had indeed saved his life. He was found by the daughter of a poor watchmaker. Although she and her husband were both very young, they felt that they had no choice but to bring the helpless infant into their family.
His new mother, Eleanor, was a lovely girl. She and her husband, a printer, named the child Jacob, unaware that he'd already been named by his birth parents. Like the child, eleanor had bright red hair. No one knew the child was not theirs nor did anyone question it. Jacob seamlessly became a member of the family. The couple never had any children of their own.
Jacob was a sweet and caring child, eager to please his parents. He was never told anything of his past. The little cherub simply enjoyed a carefree existence throughout his childhood never giving a thought about why he had brown eyes when both of his parents were blue.
Meanwhile, Lucas, the other twin, grew up with his parents. His father hated the child blaming it for all of the problems that the family had. He taunted the child mercilessly and despite his wife's pleas he beat the child with a belt at every error. If he ran through the garden he would be beaten. If he got a bad mark on a school paper he was beaten. When he spilled water on the new rug he was beaten. On his worse days Michael couldn't help but wonder if he had decided to kill the wrong twin.
The mother had always wondered what had become of her other son but on fear of being beaten by her brutal husband never felt that it was a good idea to bring the matter up. Somewhere deep within her she knew that her other son was alive. She had no way of knowing how happy he was but she truly believed thats somewhere out there he was alive. She loved Lucas dearly and tried to make sure that he was happy. He had her big brown eyes.
Lucas went to his first public execution when he was just sixteen. He was a tall lanky boy with a shock of red spiky hair on his head. He was wearing knickers and a button down shirt, clothes that he'd bought with his own money working at a clerk at the local general store. He didn't want his friends to know how poor his family was nor did he want them to know the sad truth that his father never bought him anything.
His mother bought all of his toys with the spare change she earned cleaning the neighbors houses. She never had any more children. Michael forbade that.
Lucas watched on as the gallows were set up for the criminals. Today two murderers and a set of twins would be hanged for all to watch. Lucas turned to his best friend Samantha and put a protective arm around her shoulder. She smiled and leaned her head carefully against Lucas's shoulder. She was wearing gray trousers and a black sweater that clung to her petite figure. Her and Lucas had been especially close in the past couple of months. She was the daughter of the towns book store owner.
" don't you find this just a little gruesome, Lucas" Katie asked nervously "I mean I can understand killing the murderers. That's an eye for an eye. What about the twins though? What did they ever do?"
"shh," Lucas said "didnt you learn anything in history class? It's 2200 and things are different than they used to be a hundred years ago. Technology was rid of and we brought back the old ways."
"but we still have phones and the hospitals are all advanced. I have a portable music player and a digital typewriter. I don't see how things were much different." Samantha's face fell.
Lucas smirked, "there used to be this thing called the Internet. It was horrible. It was a dangerous place and people were in able of properly using its immense power. It wasted peoples time and...oh there were just too many problems with it. People werent living their lives because the Internet became their lives. It was a terrible terrible thing so the government got rid of it and everyone just began reverting to a simpler existence."
"but what about the whole twin thing? And the executions?"
Having an answer for everything, Michael smiled and said, " that my dear is just as simple. Overpopulation was. Ad enough. Why would we need two copies of the same person ?" Samantha shrugged and Lucas smiled proudly.
What Lucas didn't know was that he wasn't with samantha at all. Samantha was an home in the attic. Instead, lucas was with Samantha's twin sister, Bethany. He had always found it a little odd that samantha sometimes didn't always remember dates they'd been on. He simply passed it off as her just being a little air-headed. He thought that it was cute.
What Lucas also didn't know was that his own twin lived a mere fifty miles away. Jacob was finishing school and serving as an apprentice to his father. He was proud to follow his fathers trade. He wanted to make his father proud.
It was lunch time and Jacob was sitting on a bench in the park, writing in his journal. Whilst he was writing Ophelia came up to him and sat down on the bench next to him. Her dark brown hair flowed over her shoulders. Jacob had just dyed his hair blonde.
"Why did you dye your hair, jake?"
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