Wendy Underwood hated to fly.
It wasn’t because of her fear of heights, though the morning of her flight, she did decide to wear her lucky socks – or so she secretly believed them to be – just to be safe. It wasn’t even the threat of terrorists taking over the cockpit, even if flying from New York to London was considered a high profile flight. She could even manage to keep her sanity and not give in to claustrophobia, sitting in coach; despite the presence of screaming, germ-spreading little kids within a two-foot radius made her wish she was traveling with patients from the emergency room at the hospital.
She could endure all of this, if Wendy didn’t have to sit next to her sister.
Josie was actually her twin, but because they were fraternal, the similarities stopped at their birthdates. Four years of awkward bitterness prevented Wendy from enjoying a comfortable, intimate relationship with her that society would expect of twenty-one-year-old sisters. It was most likely assumed that the young women, having matured as a result of living in the real world for those four years, grew out of the ugly stages of sibling rivalry and began to understand the value of best friends – and who does one know better than their own twin? At least, this is what their mother prayed for each night.
“Ladies again gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have begun our descent of two thousand meters and should be arriving at Heathrow International Airport in roughly forty-five minutes. Thank you.”
Wendy searched the window at her right for any signs of land. Seven hours of staring clouds was more than she wanted to see of the sky, even if the sunset had been beautiful to see. As the plane dipped into the puffy canopy of the clouds, however, and rain drops crawled up the window, Wendy was relieved to see England below them.
“Do you see it?” She asked Josie, tapping her should to get her attention. But she only told Wendy to stop and went back to listening to her iPod.
Dejected, she looked back out the window at overcast, gloomy London. Eight hours on a plane with her twin was one thing – what was ten days vacation going to be like?
Josie’s favorite pastime was reminding Wendy how it was her fault they were estranged. Her second favorite was refusing her twin’s attempts at apologizing, but as the years went on, this happened less and less often, as Josie made herself scarce to hear it and Wendy because to lose hope of ever being forgiven.
Landing was rough, but welcomed, as the cabin felt the weight of being on the ground once again. The aisle filled with passengers groaning to stretch their legs and reaching for their things – everyone anxious to leave the small space they had to share with five dozen other travelers. It seemed Josie was the most eager out of all of them. Wendy had reached down to gather her large carry-on purse under her seat, and in sitting back up saw her twin pushing her way up the crowded aisle, hitching her backpack over her shoulder.
“Wait!” She called out to Josie, but really there was nothing she could do but clear the cabin without inconveniencing the other passengers any more. Wendy sighed as she watched the flight attendant welcome her twin to London, exiting the plane altogether without her.
It wasn’t until ten grueling minutes later did she finally caught sight of Josie again. It had taken her half the time to leave the cabin her self, the other half spent waiting in line at Customs. There she caught Josie ahead of her, in the next row, answering the usual questions. It had not been a worry-free ten minutes, and seeing her made Wendy breathe easily again. Baggage claim would be the next stop, and fortunately for her, she saw her twin still waiting around the conveyor belt. A chance space opened up beside Josie, and she took it, looking as well for her luggage, and refraining herself from yelling at her twin for separating them.
Moments passed before they took their suitcases, and stepping away from the belt they, like other passengers, were met by a group of drivers that lined the passage way towards the exit of the terminal. Among the crowd of dark-suited chauffeurs stood a young man who didn’t quite fit in with them. He was tall, black, in jeans and a t-shirt, and waving a sign that read “Underwood” in choppy handwriting high above the heads of the other drivers. He grinned as the two of them walked up to him and lowered the sign.
“Josie and Wendy?” He asked.
They nodded. He introduced himself Diego and began to lead them out of Heathrow.
“Good flight?” He asked them with a slight accent that Wendy couldn’t recognize.
“Long,” sighed Josie, seemingly relieved to have someone else to talk to than her twin.
Diego laughed sympathetically, sounding like he knew the two of them longer than the two minutes. “I know how that feels. When I came up from Rio it took me the whole day, with two planes! It was rough.”
They entered the parking lot of the airport and into the gloomy weather Wendy saw from the air. There was even a chill in a breeze that swept past their feet, and during late June, that was a bit shocking to her.
Their guide noticed her reaction to the low temperature. Diego nodded. “Yeah, I know. They call this summer! You get used to it.”
The trunk of a black Bentley was opened and loaded with their luggage. Josie asked how long the drive would be as they got in.
“Uh, let’s see,” said Diego from the driver’s seat. “I guess it all depends on the traffic.” He turned around to answer Josie with a reassured grin, but then it disappeared when he saw Wendy sitting beside her. “Hey, what are you doing?”
She looked from him to Josie, confused. “I –”
“I am no personal driver!” Diego told them, sounding insulted. “Thomas asked me to pick you two up; this is a favor for him. You – Marshmallow – get shotgun.”
Wendy could only assume he meant her when he pointed at her. She quickly scrambled out of the back and sat in the front passenger seat of the car, embarrassed that they assumed he was just a chauffeur. “Sorry about that,” She couldn’t help but mutter.
“No harm done,” grinned Diego and starting the engine. “We’re cool.”
They pulled out of the airport and onto a street aptly called London Road, though it was, as Diego predicted, full of traffic. He turned on the radio. “D’you guys listen to raggaeton?” He asked as the car was filled with pulsing bass.
“Sure,” Wendy replied, feeling he was expecting her to answer for the two of them. She could see people looking in their direction as they passed on the road.
“Diego,” Josie said, sitting forward in her seat. “Do you know what this Maddox guy wants with us?”
He didn’t respond at first, which surprised Wendy somehow. “I might have an idea,” He eventually answered.
“What?”
“Well,” He sighed. “I guess there’s no harm in giving you a hint. My hunch is that it has something to do with the IGMS.”
Wendy looked at him. “The Series? What could that mean?”
Diego shifted uncomfortably in the driver’s seat, obviously wrestling with his thoughts. “Thomas doesn’t tell me anything, you know. It’s just a guess.”
Josie snorted in disbelief, just as Wendy would have expected her to. Her twin had an uncanny ability to detect when people were lying to her. Diego must have picked up that he was in danger of being interrogated. He asked as they turned onto a more residential street, “How do you know Thomas?”
Wendy glanced out her window at the question, hearing Josie lean back in her seat behind her. Her twin answered, “He was a friend of our Dad’s.”
Diego only nodded, sensing the dip in their moods. He turned onto another street from Belgrave Square, Chapel Street. Eventually he said, “Everyone’s real excited to meet you guys.”
“Everyone?” repeated Wendy. “Like, his family?”
“You could say that,” He grinned, turning left onto one last street, Headfort Place, and rolling up to a four-story townhouse. “Here we are. Maddox Manor.”
“Not bad,” Josie said, stepping out of the Bentley and sizing up the house. Wendy did the same, noting that it looked squished between the two other buildings, but assumed that it would be like the townhouses in Manhattan – long rooms and surprisingly spacious
Diego was already unloading the trunk from the curb. “Yeah, well, the old man likes to be comfortable.” He took hold of both their luggage before the twins could take it for themselves. “It’s alright, I got ‘em.” He grinned again.
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah I’m sure!” He laughed, walking toward the house. “You girls go on ahead, I think there’s someone in the kitchen who is waiting to meet you.”
They entered the lavish vestibule of the townhouse and were hit with a spice aroma coming within it. It was distinctively Asian, if Wendy had to decide on it. She was surprised to smell it in such a posh, British home.
“That someone wouldn’t happen to be Maddox, would it?” Josie asked Diego as he began to climb a main staircase right in front of them.
He laughed as he went up, continuing to astound Wendy with is ability to carry all their luggage at once. “Not unless he was a line cook in Tokyo for ten years.”
Josie didn’t need anymore incentive to venture into the house. Just down a hallway and past a swinging door, Wendy followed her into the warm atmosphere of a kitchen in use. There was no one, however, as the twins looked around. A lone wok sat cooking on a lit stovetop, steam rising up from it to a ceiling vent. Water was also boiling, as well as freshly cut cucumber on a cutting board.
“Hello?” Josie asked the kitchen.
Startling them, a young man suddenly popped up from the behind a counter, holding draining bowl. “Hello!” He replied, just as surprised to see them as they were. He was about thirty, clearly Asian, and wearing a floral apron over his clothes. “Josephine and Gwendolyn Underwood?”
Josie nodded, crossing her arms. “And you are?”
“Takajin Huang,” He replied, a little out of breath. “But everyone calls me Tawk.” Tawk took the cucumber pieces and dropped them into the boiling water. “So, you hungry?”
“Where’s Thomas Maddox?” Josie asked him without answering. “It was an eight hour flight over here, so it’d be nice to meet our host sometime today.”
Wendy could feel herself blush out of embarrassment for how rude her twin was being to him. She wished she could somehow magically make it known that Josie did not speak for both of them. But unfortunately for Wendy, and Tawk’s feelings, she wasn’t used to answering before Josie could.
“Errands,” Tawk replied as if he hadn’t heard Josie’s attitude. He continued to work, smiling as he did. “He’s been pretty busy getting ready for the IGMS –”
“Yeah, about that,” interrupted Josie. “What could he want us for?”
Grinning, Tawk checked on the steaming wok. “You’ll have to talk to him about that.”
Diego’s voice could be suddenly heard from somewhere up in the townhouse. “Something smells good!” He called, descending in the staircase. Entering the kitchen, he saw Tawk and pointed in confusion at him. “Nice apron.”
“It’s the only one I could find,” laughed Tawk.
“Well, whatever it takes for you to cook,” the young man laughed back, heading over to the refrigerator.
Wendy’s conscience overcame her shyness as she was suddenly struck with a reminder of what Diego was just doing. She abruptly said, “Thank you for doing that, Diego.”
It surprised them to hear her so unexpectedly. He opened a beer and took a sip before replying. “No problem, Marshmallow. Either of you want anything to drink?”
The phone on the kitchen wall went off, various rings being heard throughout the house. But before anyone could answer it, the ringing stopped, and Josie quickly answered Diego’s question.
“No thanks,” She said, her tone quickly, her tone suggesting that she spoke for herself and Wendy. “We’d like to see Dr. Maddox.”
“Oh,” Diego frowned at Tawk. “Where is the old man?”
“Out with Miss Nira,” the cook replied, draining the cucumber pieces and mixing them into the rice, which he spooned from the wok and into a large bowl. He handed the bowl to his friend with a pair of chopsticks. “Getting the extra paperwork, I think.”
Diego nodded and thanked him for the food, sitting himself on a stool at the counter and eating it quickly. While he ate, Tawk began cleaning up his workplace. He said to the twins, “He should be coming back any time now. He’s been gone all afternoon, so we should expect him any second now.”
Another set of footsteps could suddenly be heard, this time coming up a staircase somewhere beneath the floor, as if from a basement. A door somewhere in the hallway opened and a few moments later, another young man stood in the doorway of the kitchen. He looked to be about the twins’ ages, maybe a year or so older, with blond hair and square jaw. He was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, which had sweat stains under the armpits and down the middle of his chest. A matching sheen of perspiration covered his face. He brought with him a pungent odor that quickly hilled the kitchen.
“Jack!” Diego greeted him, his mouth full rice and cucumber. “What’f uff, mah?”
The blond young man walked in, bumping past Josie to get to the sink. “Watch where you’re standing,” He told her in an aggravated tone.
Josie stared at him in shock. “Excuse me?” She replied, “You bumped into me.”
“Whatever,” Jack mumbled, running the water and washing his face with it.
Tawk quickly intercepted, much to Wendy’s relief. “Jack, these are Thomas’s guests, Miss Josie and Wendy Underwood.” He looked at the twins. “This is Jack, Dr. Maddox’s nephew.”
Wendy was the only one to say hello, the word escaping her mouth before she could stop it. Josie and Jack just frowned at each other – her twin no doubt because she was still offended by him. The way he looked back at her however, was different. Jack observed her as if she was a clone of someone he knew, angry at his confusion of mistaking the two.
Finishing his bowl of rice, Diego belched loudly and said, “Did you pick up the phone before, Jack?”
He looked away from Josie and splashed his face some more. “Yeah. It was Uncle – he wants all of us to meet him downtown in an hour. Dinner.”
“Finally,” Wendy heard her twin mumble.
“Great,” Tawk said, putting away the clean wok. “Then he got the paperwork, right?”
Jack shut off the faucet. “He didn’t say.”
“He probably did,” Diego said between drinks of his beer. “No offense man, but you are smelling funky.”
“Thanks,” answered Jack insincerely. “I was just heading to a shower, calm down.”
Diego thanked him as he left the kitchen, his stench lingering in his wake.
“Well,” said Tawk, removing the flower apron and producing a book from on top of the refrigerator. “I’ll be outside reading if anyone needs me. Why don’t you show them their rooms, Diego?”
“Good idea,” Diego got up. “C’mon you guys. I mean, girls.”
The twins followed him up the staircase he climbed earlier with their luggage. Down a hall near another set of stairs, he stopped in front of two opened rooms adjacent to each other. Wendy saw her suitcase on the bed of one of the rooms and went to it.
Diego switched the lights on for her. “We’re all in this hallway. Nira, Tawk, Jack, and me.” Disappearing to do the same for Josie, Wendy could hear him say, “There’s a toilet all the way down, but Jack’s in there right now.”
“What’s upstairs?” Josie asked.
“Thomas’s office. And his bedroom.”
Wendy began shifting through her suitcase, the unusual chill from outside reminding her that she was still wearing short sleeves. As she pulled on a light sweatshirt – that also came with a hood, just to be safe; it looked like rain – Wendy could hear Josie ask Diego why he and Tawk were staying at Maddox Manor.
“I think Thomas will want to explain everything to you and Marshmallow,” He answered her.
“Well I wish he was here to do that.”
Diego laughed and went out into the hall. “You should let him know that when we see him.”
Wendy was sure her twin would. Josie was notorious for being blunt, which Diego and Tawk must have been away of by now. She did not discriminate who she was tactless with – no doubt old Dr. Maddox would not be an exception. Wendy only hoped her attitude wouldn’t get the both of them in trouble.
From her one window she could see directly below the small, private backyard of the house, hedges surrounding a neat lawn with a back corner occupied by a thriving garden. Tawk was lying in a hammock, reading just as he said, daring the rain clouds that hovered threateningly above the city. In the distance she could barely make out a sea of rooftops, urban London in the midst of it. Dr. Maddox was somewhere out there, planning something for her and Josie. What could it have to do with the IGMS?
Wendy thought back to all the conversations she had in the nurses’ break room about the Martial Series, listening to the older women put it, and everyone in it, down. The general opinion there was that the IGMS was barbaric, senseless violence because it promoted aggressiveness. Working at the hospital, it wasn’t exactly surprising that the woman discouraged the IGMS – especially working in Manhattan, they were not strangers to witnessing firsthand all the different ways in which humans find to hurt one another. Quite simply, the Series was only a glorified spectacle that made senseless fighting seemed justified. This, Wendy was told, was the only opinion a nurse should apply to herself, since how could she think otherwise? And somehow, she had a feeling, Denise and Linda and Barbara would not approve of whatever Dr. Maddox’s role was in the IGMS.
Almost an hour later, Wendy woke up to the sound of someone knocking on her door. Forgetting for a moment where she was, Wendy quickly scrambled to her feet, noticing briefly that the room was darker than before and opened the door.
“Hey, Marshmallow,” grinned Diego. “Sorry I had to wake you up, but we’re going to get going soon. Ten minutes, okay?”
She nodded, a little embarrassed about how she must have looked to him. “Okay,” She yawned.
The nap did her well; she was much more aware that she was in London now. After washing her face and applying suitable makeup, and a quick brush through her hair, Wendy went downstairs to meet everyone, noticing her twin had not been in her room. She went to the kitchen, unsure about anywhere else in the house. But before she could enter it, Wendy heard Diego’s voice calling her (or rather, “Marshmallow”) from another room. She found it, a semi-formal living room with a leather sectional in the middle fit for six people, and a high-definition plasma flat-screen mounted above an unlit fireplace. The television was on, displaying a soccer game with commentators whose accents were difficult for Wendy to understood – or maybe that was because Jack was shouting obscenities at the screen.
Also standing watching the game were Josie, Tawk, and Diego – the latter of which noticed her come into the room and turned toward her. “Alright. Marshmallow?”
She nodded, as the other saw that she had joined them. Taking this as some sort of cue, Jack groaned and turned off the television.
“They were sucking anyway,” Josie told him begrudgingly. “Let’s go.”
The group left the townhouse and stepped into an onslaught of rain, catching the twins by surprise and having understandably no effect on the guys as they headed toward the same Bentley that picked up Wendy and Josie from the airport. It was decided that Diego would drive again, as long as Jack could ride shotgun, leaving the twins and Tawk in the back.
It took them no longer than five minutes to get into the heart of urban London however longer it felt when Jack arguing with Diego about the radio. That ended as the car entered Trafalgar Square, and Josie demanded them to shut up and keep it off.
The hostile reply Wendy expected to her twin’s rude outburst came from Jack in front of her.
“Excuse me,” He said twisting around in his seat toward her. “But just because you’re American, it doesn’t mean you’re allowed to blow off your mouth whenever you want like a bloody five-year-old.”
Wendy could see that Diego had opened his mouth to say something to Jack, but her twin beat him to it.
“I think it’s obvious that I’m looking at the only child in this car,” She told him without hesitation, not afraid to look him in the eye.
“Alright, alright,” Tawk broke the silence that followed with an unexpectedly calming voice. “We are practically here, settle down.”
He was right. Diego parked expertly on the street near an up-scale restaurant called Apollonia. It wasn’t clear how up-scale it was until the group entered the place. Its white-schemed décor intimidated Wendy, in her jeans and tennis shoes. Being underdressed seemed to not be much of an issue, however, as the four of them were instantly greeted by the front of the house, who grinned widely at them.
“Here for Dr. Maddox, are we?” The neatly dressed man asked with a heavy accent.
“Yes,” replied Tawk. “Are we early?”
“No, as a matter of fact, the gentleman and a girl just sat down in our private room. This way, please.”
The group was led through the main dining room and into a smaller one in the back, where a long table with seven place settings laid out. Two people were already seated and deep in conversation when the group entered the room.
One was a young woman in her mid-twenties. She was pretty – beautiful, when she looked up at them and smiled. She was Indian, with dark eyes and brown hair that pulled into a single braid that ran down her back for about ten inches. She stood up to shake the twins’ hands.
“Well,” said Dr. Maddox, who stood up to do the same. “You’ve finally arrived.” The man was borderline middle-aged and old – Wendy guessed in his late fifties – with an pronounced nose and grey eyes. His hair was neatly cut, having no signs of balding, the color a mix of blond and grey. He was tall when he stood, the tallest out of all of them besides his nephew who had an inch or two on him. He wore a tweed three-piece suit, a matching Trilby on the table in front of him. “Please, have a seat,” He added, after shaking their hands.
“Nice to finally meet you,” Josie impatiently said, more in a scolding than polite way.
A waiter came in to get their drink orders. “Oh, but this isn’t our first meeting,” Maddox replied simply before ordering a glass of red wine. “We met four years ago. But I don’t suppose you remember.”
Josie frowned and grew quiet. “No…I don’t.” And neither did Wendy. Four years ago their lives changed permanently – it was hard to remember anything before it.
“I assume you met the boys,” Maddox continued without explanation, nodding toward Tawk, Jack, and Diego, who sat in the remaining three seats. He motioned to the pretty young girl who sat next to him. “But this is Niranjani Rai. She is also staying at Maddox Manor.”
“Please, call me Nira,” She said. “A nickname, like Tawk’s.”
They nodded, and this time Wendy was the one to say, “Nice to meet you,” having since felt more comfortable to do so.
Nira asked the twins the usual polite questions – how their flight was, if they managed to get any sleep on the plane, how do they like London so far? She was young, but this showed Wendy an uncommon level of maturity that would have been expected of a woman ten years her superior.
“It’s very nice,” Wendy answered for herself as well as Josie. “Still hard to believe we’re here, but it’s pretty exciting all the same.”
Her twin, she couldn’t help but notice, sat impatiently silent, leaving Wendy to be forced to speak for the both of them while she tried to guess what Maddox was thinking about. When it was clear that he wouldn’t be offering any information right away, it seemed that his guests took the cue to make small talk until then.
“Miss Wendy,” said Tawk as they were served salads. “What do you do?”
“I’m a nurse.” She then corrected herself. “Well, actually, I will be, once I finish my clinic hours.”
“What about you, Miss Josie?”
She looked up briefly from her food. “Oh, well – I…I work at this photographer’s studio – taking calls, organizing her appointments, nothing special.”
“You’re a receptionist?” Jack from her right, almost mocking disbelief.
“No,” She replied defensibly, as if he said that she was a sanitation worker.
“A secretary, then?”
“No, I – I just help her out around the studio,” She snapped.
Maddox laughed, but it sounded more like a snort. “Don’t let my nephew get to you,” He said. “He’s only masking the fact that he doesn’t have a job and in reality is looking for ideas to apply.”
“Oh yeah,” scowled Jack while the table murmured with laughter. “And you’re just piss-myself-funny.”
“Well I was a line-cook,” Tawk spoke up, kindly taking the attention off of Jack. “In Tokyo.”
While Wendy was being impressed with the fact that he came from Tokyo, her twin had caught something different from what he said.
“What do you mean you were a line-cook. You’re not anymore?”
He tried not to seem flustered by the question. “I quit, recently. I don’t think I will be returning.”
Wendy knew her twin’s next answer. Why not? But somehow she was struck by the urge to suddenly turn the attention away from Tawk before Josie could open her mouth.
“Did you say you were from Rio?” Wendy asked Diego, who was in the middle of stealing some of Jack’s eaten salad. He pulled back sharply and grinned with guilt at Jack, who saw him and scowled again, handing him his bowl in defeat.
“Yeah,” Diego finally answered as he took the food.
“Rio de Janeiro? Brazil?” She pressed.
He grinned before stuffing his mouth with Romaine. “That’s the one.”
Wendy smiled, thinking of where to go with this. “I went there on vacation once, with my friends. Really beautiful.”
He swallowed and was about to respond, when Josie jumped in. “And what do you do, Diego?”
“Me? Well…” He trailed off – still grinning, but with less of a reason to. “It’s hard for me to talk about it. Before I came here, I was laid off from my job.”
Wendy grimaced at the pity she felt for him, and embarrassed that her twin brought it up. The only thing she could think of to say was, “Sorry to hear that.”
“It’s alright, Marshmallow,” He replied with his usual peppy attitude. “It was good that I left. Trust me, I am better off.”
Josie wouldn’t continue with him, as her attention then turned toward across the table where Nira sat. “What about you?”
“What would you like to know, Josie?”
“Where you’re from.”
“Guarav, India,” She answered easily.
Before Josie could add another question, however, several waiters came into the room with their entrées. Joining them was the maitre’d from the front of the house who beamed at Dr. Maddox until he told him the food so far had been excellent.
“Thank you, sir!” The balding man exclaimed, as if the compliment was toward his taste in neckties. “I was asked by extension of Mr. Bates, the owner, to wish you and your team good luck in July.”
Their plates full of food – except for Diego’s, who had already devoured half of his – the waiters began to exit the room. The rest of the table, Josie especially, stared at Maddox to watch for his answer to the man.
“Thank you, that’s very kind,” He said, satisfying the Maitre’d’s expectations and adding to it a sincere smile of gratitude.
“Well. Please, enjoy the rest of your meal – everyone,” He said, practically walking backwards in order to ogle at all of them, as if attempting to mesmerize their faces in the two seconds he had.
He left them in silence, except for the clinking of silverware as they began to eat. Awkwardly, Wendy caught the rest exchanging glances with each other and then looking at the twins. She could tell that Josie was barely able to control herself – her thoughts were practically loud enough for her to hear, all about the confusing thing said by the Maitre’d.
“Come now, this is fine conversation to have at dinner,” Maddox suddenly spoke up. “You’ve asked about everyone at this table except for me, and I do believe I am paying the bill.”
Josie blinked, looking briefly at her twin. “You, Dr. Maddox?”
“Why yes. Go ahead, ask me what it is that I do.”
“Well, alright,” She replied, obviously thrown off by the directness of him. “What?”
“Nothing,” he answered, just as forward, and earning a snort of a laugh from Diego. “I’m retired, you see. I don’t do anything.”
“Dr. Maddox – “ Josie started with a sigh.
“I don’t have to do anything. However,” He looked down the table at his other house guests. “I have been out of commission for only two years and already I find myself involved in a project. Quite ambitious of me, wouldn’t you say?”
Tawk put down his fork and glanced toward the twins. The others resisted doing the same, an odd sense of anticipation settling above all their heads as they waited for Maddox to elaborate. He did so, putting his knife and fork down after swallowing two bites of his smoked salmon.
“Seeing as how we are at the main course, I suppose it is an appropriate time to explain my intentions.”
This stopped Josie from eating altogether, probably forgetting her food was there until she heard all she could. Wendy did the same, though more out of polite manners than pure enrapture, despite the fact that it was obvious that what Maddox was about to tell them had increased in importance within the past five seconds. Unlike her twin, however, Wendy couldn’t ignore the growling of her stomach.
“But. First,” He said – the two words that Josie did not want to hear. “Allow me to introduce them to you. Everyone, this is Josie and Wendy Underwood. Fraternal twins, twenty-one years of age from New York City. Their mother Gloria lives in White Plains, New York and sometimes they visit her separately, when they remember to.” For a moment Josie caught Wendy’s eye and looked at her suspiciously, as if she had sneaked this information to him. “Their father, Mikhol, came from Korobushko Romania, and was, as you would know them by, a gypsy. Rom, is the local term – of which I do not doubt the girls would call themselves, it you were to ask them. Am I correct?” He raised his eyebrows at them, to which they nodded hesitantly, and continued. “Mikhol worked as a translator in the United Nations up until four years ago when he was murdered in Prague. Is that not also correct?”
They did not need to see them confirm this. Wendy instinctively looked into her lap, forgetting about her hunger, not looking to see how Josie was reaction, not caring. It was all she could do to keep her thoughts from retreating back into the recesses of her mind that we labeled “Papa” – thoughts and memories that were not allowed to be dug up under any circumstance, unless she was prepared to feel considerably depressed and even worse, alone.
“You were at the funeral,” She heard Josie say quietly. “I remember you.”
So did Wendy, now that she thought about it. She remembered a graying man with a British accent, limping around with a cane – the same cane, she saw with a pang of grief, resting on the arm of Maddox’s chair now. She couldn’t help but feel somewhat betrayed to the fact that she and Josie came six-hundred miles just to have dinner with a man that was forcing her to relive the worst day of her life.
“I was there,” sighed Maddox, sounding relieved that the twins had figured it out. “To say goodbye to a very good man, and even better friend.”
Wendy finally looked up, to see Dr. Maddox finishing off his glass of wine. “How did you know him?” She asked, her focused mind forgetting to acknowledge the rest of the table full of strangers.
“Well, I guess you could say I was the first of us to meet him,” He replied. “Back in Korobushko, I was in the middle of a difficult on-site expedition and Mikhol, a young man at the time, mind you, came around and asked it he could help. He found the whole procedure extraordinarily interesting, and since he was a native who spoke English, I let him aid us as much as possible. I got to speaking with him, and found him to be extremely clever, very adventurous – perhaps far too adventurous for the Roma. Not soon after he began working with us, your father was expelled from his clan, so to speak. Now, at the time I felt bad for the boy and to be honest, a bit accountable for it had to do with myself and my team’s presence there. He was forbidden from returning to his people, his own family, and had done a splendid job helping me out. So, I asked him to pick a number and I would give him that amount of money to start over. He named it – though after a fair bit of persuasion – your father was a stubbornly humble man – and the next thing I know, he’s on the first flight to New York City. I’m sure your parents told you the rest, but I’m certain you never knew that Mikhol kept in touch with me since we parted in Romania. I was at his wedding, I was told the night you two were born, and he was so kind as to tell me when he landed the job at the U.N. The last time I saw him was when he visited me five years ago – he had business in town anyway, and it was the week I retired so he looked me up. Bought me a splendid Red, really very nice of him.” Dr. Maddox paused, blinking briefly as though to remove an image from his mind. “The last time I spoke to him was the May before he went to Prague. All he could talk about were you two, graduating high school.”
Wendy glanced at her twin and knew their thoughts were the same. This man knew their Papa longer than anyone, and yet this is the first time, they have truly met. The only question left in her mind was, why now? Why bring them to London?
“However,” Dr. Maddox cleared his throat and looked down the table at the rest of the dinner guests. “This had nothing to do with your father. Though, hopefully now you know how we are connected, and I may ask you my favor without letting you think I was just some random, mad old man.”
Josie frowned anxiously. “Does it have to with the IGMS?”
He looked at them, then at his wristwatch. “It does. The people sitting with us at the moment, including my nephew, are all on one team for the International Grand Martial Series. And I am their sponsor.”
Wendy looked at Diego, Nira, Tawk, and Jack, surprised at why they were there. These people – they were fighters? She didn’t know why it shocked her so much. From the moment she met them there was nothing to suggest they would, in a month, be competing in a dangerous display of aggression. She looked back at Maddox, somewhat suspicious. Maybe they were playing one big joke on the two of them.
Once again, her twin caught something she hadn’t. “If you’re on a team, where’s your fifth member?”
Maddox squinted at his salmon before glancing up for a moment. “Well, Tawk is team captain. Perhaps he would like to explain that.”
Tawk looked at them from the other end of the table with a mixture of sympathy from what he just heard about their father, and solemnity because of what he was about to tell them. “A few weeks ago, we were a full team. Our last member was a young woman by the name of Magdalia, and was a very strong fighter for us. Unfortunately for us, however, she took advantage of our trust and was caught stealing from Thomas. So, we had to expel her from the team and as of this moment, cannot qualify for the Series.”
“I take the blame,” said Maddox. “It was a result of my poor judgment and impatience to finish the team. Had I not been preoccupied with meeting my own personal deadline, I do not doubt I would have seen Magdalia’s true character and never would have allowed her to waste our time.”
“And this has what to do with us?” asked Josie, after a short pause when Maddox confessed everything. “You’re not actually thinking of asking one of us to be on your team.”
Maddox used his napkin to wipe his mouth. “Suppose I were. What would you say?”
Josie scoffed in disbelief, glancing at Wendy and the rest of the table before looking back at the old man. “I would say that unless you could magically endow us with some way of knowing karate, you’ve got a problem.”
“Well,” Maddox caught Tawk’s attention. “I don’t know about karate – we already have two fighters in the combat division. I think what we had in mind was more of a combination weapon and specialty. Right?”
Tawk nodded, and Josie’s jaw dropped. “You…you aren’t seriously considering it.”
“I beg your pardon Josie, but there’s nothing us to consider. I will leave that up to Wendy and yourself.”
She stared at him. “But – we don’t know how to fight.”
“That would be relatively easy to solve,” He replied nonchalantly. “Of course if you would really rather know some sort of style, I’m sure one your teammates would be happy to help you. Oh, and that would go on top of what you’d officially register with.”
The twins must have looked confused, because Nira offered, “There are three categories you can register under per team – combat, weapon, and specialty. Thomas may have something that would qualify either you for both of the last two.”
“Which would be what, exactly?” asked Josie, a mixture of skepticism and curiosity easily read on her face.
“Josie!” Wendy almost gasped. “Don’t.”
“I take it you’re not interested in our offer, Wendy,” said Maddox as her twin glared at her.
“I’m sorry, sir,” She answered, hoping she wasn’t insulting the entire table. “But no, I couldn’t.”
“Because the IGMS would insult your career path?”
“No,” She replied quickly, blushing. “No. I just…your team needs someone committed, it sounds, and I – well, I don’t think I’d make a very good teammate.”
Maddox nodded understandably. “Fair enough. Well, you know my design in asking you to come here, and I hope that both of you will stay for the week regardless –”
“Hold on, she didn’t decide for me,” Josie suddenly interrupted. “I still want to know what this thing that you’re offering is.”
Maddox looked at the rest of the team. “I see. I apologize for assuming you were declining as well.”
“Josie,” pleaded Wendy, like before. “Stop it.”
She sent her another death glare. “You stop it and mind your own goddamn business.”
Wendy looked away, embarrassed that her twin scolded her in front of these strangers, and Maddox – their father’s oldest friend. What did they think of the twins when they saw this – she could only imagine. What would Papa think?
Clearing his voice loudly, Maddox said, “Well, the object is a bit difficult to describe, so I think we will have to wait until we return to the Manor for you to truly understand what it is and what it does.”
Not soon after, a waiter came in with the meal’s check, to which Maddox paid in full for all of them. They left the restaurant full of good, expensive food. But Wendy on the other hand, couldn’t help but also feel somewhat obliged to him.
On the drive back, she sat next to Diego while Tawk was behind the wheel.
“I’m sorry to hear about your team,” She said, feeling she should offer them something since rejecting to be on it.
“Eh, don’t worry about it, Marshmallow. If we’re meant to compete, we’ll find our fifth member,” He shrugged.
“I hope that you do,” She lied. | 
