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Snow White and Rose Red
By Miffling

I tipped my head back and stared at the ceiling of the white waiting room my twin sister and I had been sitting in. Only one more appointment, and then mom was done for the night. Only one more pet to examine. Only that rather large man sitting in the corner left to reassure. I sighed, and started mindlessly counting the holes in the ceiling in my head. Before I could get very far my sister, Talia, elbowed me in the ribs.

“Ow!” I said out-loud, more startled than hurt. I looked at her, wondering why she had done that.

“Because hearing you counting was getting annoying, Scott.” I heard her voice in my head, “Also, that guy is staring at us.”

We were telepathic. I couldn't remember a time when her voice hadn't been in my head. I shrugged, thinking, “What else is he going to look at?” I tipped my head back again, ready to begin counting again. Another sharp elbow connected with my ribcage. “What now?” I said, my head snapping back down.

“He's kinda creeping me out.” Her voice in my head, again, “Should we go back behind the desk?”

“You know mom gets mad when we go back there.”

“What if we told her that he was...” She trailed off, mid-thought, as I noticed that the man had walked over to us, and was now standing in front of where we were sitting.

“You're Sunshine's kids, aren't you?” He said, in a large, booming voice. He brushed some of his dark brown hair out of his even darker eyes, “I can tell. You two look like her. I'm Carl. And this,” He gestured to his mutt of a dog, “Is Max.”

“Max, huh? Creative.” Talia thought.

I held out my hand, “I'm Scott. And this is my sister, Talia.”

Carl shook my hand, laughing, “Nice to meet you. You two are pretty quiet for kids your age. You can't be older than 12. Kids are usually a lot more talkative than you guys.”

Talia giggled as an image of Carl as a bear shot through my mind. I stifled my laughter, and smiled at him, “We're 10. We're just around each other all the time, is all. Don't have much to talk about this late in the day.”

He looked at us slightly suspiciously, then laughed a loud, hearty laugh. “I get it. Not the closest of siblings?” He beamed at us.

“He has NO idea.” Talia thought, as she rolled her eyes at me. I snickered, then looked back to Carl.

“Something like that.”

Just then, our mother, Sunshine, walked in from the hall leading to the examination rooms. “Carl. I'm ready to see Max, now.” She smiled at us as Carl led Max over to where she stood.

I looked back up to the ceiling, starting up my counting again as their voices faded down the hallway. I had just reached number 1524 when I heard them coming back to the waiting room. My mother's voice sounded concerned. “So, Carl, how have you been doing? We haven't spoken in a long time.”

“I've been better, that's for sure. My identity has been stolen, and the bastard who stole it has been robbing me of every penny.”

“Why haven't you gone to the police yet? How long has this been going on?”

“A few weeks, and you know I can't go to the police, Sunshine. My brother's job and all.”

I heard my mother sigh, and then her professional voice came back up. “Bring Max back if it doesn't get any better, okay? I'll see you later, Carl.”

My head snapped up as I heard the door close behind him. I looked up at my mother, waiting to see if it was time to go home yet.

“You two get your things together, it's time to get out of here.”

Talia and I stood up, grabbing our backpacks as we rose from our seats.

“Is that a midget up there?” Talia's voice was in my head, again.

I looked up ahead. A few yards away, there was, indeed, a little person. “Yeah. What's he doing?” I thought back at her, watching the small man struggle.

“He looks stuck. Is his coat in that car door?”

I squinted at him, trying to figure out exactly what I was seeing. “Yeah, I think you're right. Should we help him out?”

She shrugged at me. “Why not?”

I smiled at her logic, then jogged over to where the little man stood. As I neared him, I could hear him cursing under his breath. I looked over his tattooed, Asian face, as he struggled to free his jacket from the car door it was stuck in, his coffee-colored hair strewn around his face. “Do you need help? My sister and I can try to pull you out of there if you want.”

By that time, Talia had finally managed to walk over to me, and she smiled sweetly at the little man. “Yeah, we can help.”

He scowled at us, then nodded once. “Yeah. Help.”

“Sheesh. Can't he say please?”

“I know, Talia. We have to help him, though.”

We stood on either side of the man, and pulled on his jacket, as he flung himself forward, desperately trying to free himself from the car. After a few tries, I heard Talia's exasperation in my head. “It's no use, Scott. There is no way we're pulling him free. I've got some scissors in my bag.” She dropped her back pack to the ground, and started rummaging around in it. After a few seconds, she pulled a pair of scissors out of its depths, and told the man to hold still.

“What are you doing? Why do I have to hold still?” He asked quickly, trying to look behind his back to see what Talia was doing. Before he could figure out what was going on, she snipped his jacket as close to the car as she could get.

Her smile faded as his face turned bright red. He turned to her and started screaming. “You miserable child! How could you do such a thing? Do you even know how much this jacket cost me? Do you understand how much money this was worth? Now it's ruined. Nothing will fix it.” He turned and stomped to the ATM right in front of him, cursing under his breath the entire time. We walked away as he withdrew his money, still cursing.

“Do you see what I see?” One of Talia's favorite games.

“Of course I see what you see. I'm in your head, remember? What do you think we should do?” I gestured to the little Asian man we had freed from a car door a few days before. His pant leg was stuck in gate a few yards ahead of us, and he was trying his hardest to free himself.

“We should help him.” Talia looked at me, obviously exasperated. “Even if he doesn't like the way we help, we should give it a shot anyway.”

I nodded and walked over to him, waving when I got close enough for him to notice me. His face fell as he saw us coming, and he started to pull on his pant leg harder. Without asking, Talia and I started pulling with him, to see if we could help him get out without cutting up his clothing again. Finally, Talia shrugged at me. “I have to cut it, Scott. He's not coming loose.” Without saying anything to him, she pulled the scissors out of her bag, and cut him free.

“Twice you've come and ruined my clothing! Twice!” He shook himself in irritation, and walked towards a bank a few buildings down. “I can't believe children today! Think they can just go around, chopping up expensive clothing!” He continued berating them as he walked into the bank, positively shaking with rage.

“I'm going to go look at the books, mom.” Talia said out loud, as we wandered through the department store. “Come on, Scott.”

I walked off with her, smiling at our mother as we left her to contemplate the towels. We wandered down aisle after aisle, aimlessly. “Uh oh. Not again.”

Talia looked at me, confused. I pointed to a rack of clothes off to the side of us. It looked like it was shaking like a leaf on a twig in the middle of autumn as a loud voice came out of the center of it, belittling and cursing it for its existence. She grabbed me by the hand and pulled me over to investigate. We came close enough to look, and saw the small Asian man we had freed twice before, fighting hard to free himself from a tangle of metal hangers on the rack.

“What do you think, should we?”

“I don't know, Talia.”

“Let's just do it. If we ever see him like this again, we'll just walk away. Deal?”

“Deal.”

We reached into the mess, slowly pulling hangers away from him until he was ruffled, but free. His coat looked a bit worse for wear, but he had been released. He shuddered with anger and picked up a pile of clothes on the floor. “You! Again! No more!” Unable to get out any more words, he stomped off in the direction of the registers.

“Hey mom, when do they get in again?” I beamed up at my mother, excited to see my Aunt Rose and Uncle Rayne.

“Any minute now, Scott.” She smiled down at me, and squeezed my hand once before releasing it.

“Hey look, it's that guy, and he's not all caught up in something this time.” Talia pointed off to the side, looking intently at the little Asian man we had freed three times in the past week. He was quickly emptying his pockets into a cauldron sized suitcase in front of him, looking around suspiciously.

“Let's go say hi.” I smiled and gestured to my sister to follow me. We were a few yards away from him when he noticed us. I waved at him, and he started picking up all of his stuff, rushing to get everything.

Suddenly, Carl came up behind him, grabbing him by the arm and whispering something in his ear. I looked around, confused, and noticed a man and an older woman watching Carl from a short distance away. As we watched, Carl hauled the little man over to the two people watching, then came back to retrieve all of his things.

“I don't know about this Scott. Let's go back to mom.” Talia grabbed my hand, pulling me in the direction of our mother.

A booming voice rang out behind us. “Scott! Talia! Come back, it's me! Carl!”

I turned around slowly, not sure of what I should do. Carl jogged over to us, smiling.

“Don't worry about that guy. I know you just saw that. He's been stealing money from me for weeks, and I finally caught him.” He looked down on us, beaming. “Don't worry about a thing. He'll be taken care of.” Carl winked at us and then walked back to the two people watching him. Talia and I snickered, sharing an image of a large, brown bear walking away from us.