Sometimes

Nurse Genna Washington adjusted Effie’s skirt and pointed to a sheet cake on the game table.  Genna took two candles from the pocket of her uniform and placed them on top alongside the words Happy Birthday Enid and Effie.

“Ah, now, ain’t that something, dear?  How thoughtful,” said Enid, rolling her chair up to the table for a closer look.  “Don’t you let old Effie throw you, child.  You know she went ’round the bend, and she ain’t coming back.  And you, Effigenia, ought to be ashamed of yourself.  No one wants to see a ninety-year-old hoo-ha anyway.  You know better than that.  What’s a matter with you?  Ain’t Harvey Jamison paying you no never mind?”

Harvey, the only male in the room, had been scrutinizing the same jigsaw puzzle piece for the last twenty years, studying its shape and admiring its texture, unaware anything else existed.

Effie smiled warmly at Genna and giggled, flipping Enid the bird.

Genna snickered.  “Which one of you is older?” she asked, dishing out the cake.

“I am, by about ten minutes,” answered Enid.

“What was it like growing up back when you were children?”

“Oh, the things we seen, child.  So many things!  Some big, some small.  And there was some things that was big to other people but didn’t mean nothin’ to us.  The crash of ’29?  Well, honey, we was poor before that and we was poor after. ?nbsp;But lots of folks went from havin’ to havin’ not.  It was harder for them.”  She picked at the cake with her fork, taking hummingbird-sized bites, staring at the icing, as if she were watching a distant memory unfold.

“Then there was the big one, WW II, when all the younguns had to go off to war.  Lots of them fine boys never made it back home.  Thurmond Whittaker didn’t.  I was kind of partial to him.”  Her voice dropped to a whisper, and her eyes began to mist.  She paused, caught up in a world gone by.

About that time, Effie flung a fork full of icing at Enid’s face and began belting out the words to “Heartbreaker,” by the Andrews Sisters.  Enid rallied, wiped her face, and chuckled.  “Yeah, you right, Effie; he sure was a heartbreaker.  You know who else was a heartbreaker, Genna?  Effie here.  She was always the pretty one, you know.”

“You’re identical twins, Miss Enid.  How could she be the pretty one?”

“Effie had a way about her.  It was the shine in her eye, the smile perched at the corner of her mouth, ready to jump out and grab a body.  She was a sight to behold – a force to be reckoned with.  Filled with life.  Not a man wouldn’t hanker after her back in the day.”

Effie, uncharacteristically quiet, stared out the window, as if held captive by her own memories.  Genna reached for her hand.  “I’ll bet your big sister took good care of you when you were little, didn’t she?”

Effie’s eyes widened, filled with a long forgotten fear come back to haunt.  “It’s coming, Enid!  We gotta hide!”

“Effie, that was a long time ago.”  Enid patted Effie’s other hand.  “That was in the spring of ’36.  A powerful twister raged all the way from Gainesville to Tupelo.  A mess of people met their Maker that day.  Me and Effie hid in the storm cellar, listening to the cellar doors bounce and groan, watching the lantern flail around and then blow completely out.  We fell asleep in the dark, curled up together, hanging on to each other for life itself.  To this day, Effie won’t fall asleep with the lights out.”  Effie, still tangled in the horror of that long ago spring day, clung to Enid’s hand.

“There now, I think it’s time for your rest, Miss Effie.  I’ll take you back to your room and wrap up the rest of this cake for later.”

Genna did just that, wished them happy birthday, and kissed them both, giving Enid’s hand an extra squeeze.  “You take care of your baby sister.  She needs you.”