FirstLineFiction beta

from Contest #6

     Almost everyone thought the man and the boy were father and son. The family resemblance between the two was undeniably striking – the same height, the same piercing blue eyes, the same smile and the same mannerisms.  They looked as if nature had made an exact replicate of the one man on a twenty-five year delay.  Philip had smooth dark curls and though he rarely smiled, his face was more serious than most boys his age, it still expressed youthful joy and hope.  Alex had close-cropped hair, stark white, and lines of pain etched deep into the furrows of his forehead and corners of his mouth.  His neighbors and coworkers whispered that they had never seen a smile touch his eyes.

     The truth is, everyone thought wrong.  The two men were not father and son – they were identical twins.  They had both always looked young for their age, until one fateful weekend in January which had aged Alex forever.

     Neither of the brothers talked about their lives before moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan, they mostly kept to themselves.  They didn’t talk about their past because it haunted them. That’s why they had left their hometown, in the hopes of escaping the ghosts of memory.  Yet no matter how hard the brothers tried to run, they never could escape the marks left on Alex.  His hair had grown coarser as it lightened and it wouldn’t hold dye no matter how much he spent on the treatment.  He had finally given up and accepted his prematurely whitened hair.

     It had happened on a Saturday night, the last weekend before classes started again.  The boys were running ski patrol on the mountain where they trained and it had already been a rough day with several amateurs going down courses beyond their skill level.  It was the end of the day, when the shadows lengthened and dusk crept over the hills that hid the sunset.  It was the time of day when even the best of skiers could make costly mistakes moving from the sun-lit snowblind into the depths of the long shadows.  It was the time of day that ski patrol had to be on highest alert.

     That evening, they had found a woman unconscious, tangled in a pine tree, unmoving.  Alex was the first to get to the site, and when he saw the skis, he knew something was amiss – he knew the woman, he knew the course and he knew she should have been able to handle it.  Glancing uphill, he saw that the tracks leading to the pine tree didn’t match the accident he saw before him. He called in on his radio to report what he had found and to request assistance.  She was in her late thirties, one of the coaches who had run this course thousands of times.  He had known Rachel all his life, she was Philip’s godmother and they had both taken lessons with her.  There was no reason for her to have run into the tree.  Despite the reduced visibility of the tricky lighting, he could read the tracks well enough to see where her skis had pulled up several feet from the tree.  Even on this hard pack, with other tracks crisscrossed over the sharp lines, a stop at the speeds she had been going left ruts that couldn’t be erased.

     He forced himself to wait until another patroller arrived before attempting to move Mrs. Hodges.  His brother Philip was the first to arrive on the scene -- he was the one to ask what should have been obvious, “Why is she only wearing one glove?”

     Alex looked closer and saw his brother was right, her left hand was numb and waxy, turning purple with frostbite – even if she survived the crash, she might lose the hand, never to ski a double black diamond again.  Philip pulled out a blanket and the two brothers began cracking handwarmers to wrap in the blanket to warm the affected tissue without heating it too rapidly. They worked quickly, before further nerve damage could set in, Alex asked suddenly, “Philip, where’s her ring?”

     Without looking up, Philip continued his work, “Bro, you’ve been spending way too much time with Lily if you’re asking about a ring when Hodges might be dying on us.  Do your job, and ask her about the ring once we get her back to the lodge or on a medflight.”

     Alex went back to work (though he made sure to check in the surrounding snow for the missing ring or the glove) and the two had her ready to be brought to the lodge by the time help arrived.  That was the nice thing about twins on the same shift – they could work together as if they were one mind in two bodies, at a speed others simply couldn’t achieve.  They had saved lives because of this ability, and it looked like Mrs. Hodges would soon be on that list.

 

     Alex and Philip sat in the warm room with the med team examining Hodges while they filled out the emergency reports.  Philip finished his paperwork first and went over to check on Rachel – like Alex he had known her since they were children and had trained with her when the brothers had skied competitively rather than just for fun.  She was his godmother, like an aunt to the boys, and one of the last people they would have expected to find unconscious in a pine tree.

     Alex came over and said quietly to Philip, “Did you look at the tracks, bro?”

     Philip nodded tersely, “There’s no way she ran into that tree on her own.  The tracks don’t match. And she’s too pro for that.”

     Alex let the air out of his lungs in a rush, “Burn.”

     Rachel Hodges groaned and opened her green eyes, squinting in pain.  The brothers stopped talking and looked at each other, then at the medic.  He smiled at the worried boys, “Oh, she’ll be fine except for a few bruises and the blisters of skin peeling off that hand of hers.  She’s lucky you found her and acted so quickly or she’d have lost at least a couple fingers to frostbite.  I don’t want her driving though – she hit her head hard and she should be monitored by friends or family for the next 24 hours.”

     Philip nodded, “We’ll call her husband and if he can’t come, we’ll take her home.” With a look at his brother, Alex nodded and pulled out his cell phone to call her husband Neal.  Philip smiled down and gently brushed the blond hair out of her confused eyes, “Hey Mama Rae, what happened to you on the slopes today?  That was quite the wipe out…”

     She shook her head, lips pressed together, then winced.  The medic told her, “Gently. You probably have the mother of all headaches and tomorrow you’ll have the goose egg to prove it. You took a real hard hit to the back of your head.  I’m not sure how you managed it with your helmet on…”

     Philip looked at him closely, “The back of her head?  We found her face first in a pine tree.”

     The medic narrowed his eyes, “Interesting.  There are no contusions or abrasions on the front anywhere.  From what I can see, the main hit is to the back of her head and then some bruising on her legs.”

     Philip picked up her helmet speculatively, studying it for scratches, “Her tracks showed a clear hockey stop further up the hill – she had been going fast enough to leave ruts in the hard pack but had the control for it.  The stop was clean.  If she fell, or if anyone was walking about on foot after that, it wouldn’t show -- it’s as hard as concrete. But the tracks show a clean stop…”

     The medic looked down at her again and shook his head, “Sounds like we’ll need to hear her story when she remembers a bit more.  I’m going to go fill out my report.”

     Alex came back and stopped to ask the medic a few questions as they passed each other before hunkering down beside his brother and Rachel, “No answer.  House or cell. I’ll try again later.  I wonder where Neal—”

     At the sound of her husband’s name, Rachel Hodgson leaned forward suddenly, eyes cleared, gleaming with fear and a hostile light.  She grabbed Alex’s arm in a death grip, mumbled something the two boys later agreed sounded like, “Nealulee” before passing out in Philip’s arms.

     The medic came rushing over as he saw her fall.  With a look at each other, the boys agreed to put her first, as they knew she would have done for them.  Once Rachel was conscious again, she seemed responsive enough not to call an emergency vehicle up to the slope, but the medic thought it best not to leave her alone. With the help of the medic, they got her on her feet and helped her to the car.  While Philip was getting Rachel comfortable, Alex called his girlfriend of two years.  He went to voicemail: frustrating and he knew it would make for drama tomorrow.  Gnashing his teeth and running his hands through his dark hair in anger, he said into the phone, “Hey Lily.  There’s been an accident on the hill.  It’s Rae. Philip and I are taking her home. Neal isn’t answering.  Hopefully we can still do something tonight, but I can’t make the movie.  I’m sorry love.  Call me when you get this.”

     He hung up the phone and got in the backseat next to Rachel.  Philip drove as fast as he safely could on the icy switchbacks while Alex kept Rachel entertained and conscious whenever she tried to fall asleep.

 

     They were pulling in the driveway of the Hodgson’s house when Alex felt his phone vibrate, it was Lily and it had automatically gone to voicemail. He told the other two he was going to listen to a quick message.  Rachel nodded sharply, followed by a swift tightening around the eyes at the pain but she made no verbal response. 

     Alex put the phone to his ear and heard loud music, the swift rush of traffic and a well known giggle, “Turn that DOWN.  I’m trying to leave a message for A-lex.” There was some more giggling as the music got softer, “Hey honey.  It’s alright.  I’m out right now for a joy ride.  Don’t worry about it. You just take care of Mrs. Hodgson. Sounds like her head was hit really hard. Love you.”

     Alex ran his hands through his hair while Philip put the car into park, “Hey Phil—never mind, I must be going crazy.  Lil said it’s fine.  Let’s get Mama Rae inside.  Looks like Neal isn’t here.”

     Rachel unlocked the door and a large labradoodle came running outside as if she had been left alone all day.  Alex walked inside while the other two tried to calm down the excited dog.  He flipped on the switch and stopped – there on the table in the entranceway was Rachel Hodgson’s missing glove with a note in Neal’s handwriting, “You dropped this. Be more careful.”

     Rachel came in, still smiling and playing with the dog.  The smile fled her face as she read the note and looked back at the boys shaking, “I can’t.  I can’t face him.  He’ll kill me. You don’t know how Neal--” Both boys ran forward to catch her as she fell, before her head could hit the tile.  As one, they got her to her feet to take her to the hospital where the doctors could run a CAT scan or an MRI, just in case.

 

     Alex and Philip didn’t leave the hospital until late.  As her godsons and present at the time of her rescue, they were allowed to stay since no relative could be reached. Neal still wasn’t answering his cell phone but from what Rachel had said, it sounded like she didn’t want him there.  When the doctors examined her, they had found bruising beyond a couple falls on the hill and several half-healed cracked ribs.  Rachel admitted Neal had hit her more than once.  She said that it was her own fault -- she was only ever hit for prying into things that were none of her business, like this afternoon.  At that point she had bit her lip, glancing over at the boys and refused to say anything more. The best they could gather from her was that it wasn’t anything that would hurt the ski hill, but she wasn’t going to spread rumors. 

     Awkwardly, the boys promised to take care of the dog the next day and asked who else she wanted them to call.  Alex offered to drive, knowing that as upset as he was, his brother was worse.  As he rounded another hairpin, he saw lights flashing ahead and slammed on the brakes.  Ahead, the normally empty mountain road was blocked, glass littering the single lane highway. The car, upside down on the side of the road, was a red corvette with two bodies ejected through the windshield. Both boys gaped, everyone knew that car – it was the pride and joy of Mr. Neal Hodgson, MD.

     Without thinking, Alex got out of the car and ran towards the site of the accident.  He didn’t hear the police shouting at him to stop.  All he saw was the fragile neck bent at an impossible angle, the face hidden beneath a fan of long blonde hair.  He recognized the cross that had spun around to lay unmoving against the back of her shirt.  The last thing he thought he saw before his brother tackled him was the glint of gold and diamonds lying beneath a hand he knew as well as his own.

 

     The autopsy showed high levels of coke and ecstasy in the systems of both Neal and Lily – though the papers couldn’t print her name because she was a minor.  The wedding ring was returned to Mrs. Hodgson as her rightful property.  The police report just listed it as found at the crime scene.  Philip swore he only remembered broken glass by Lily’s hand.  Mrs. Hodgson would never discuss anything that had happened on the hill or afterward – if pressed she would just say that was a chapter of her life that was closed and she never wished to re-open.  The only thing she ever said out loud was at his funeral where she said bitterly to the open casket, “You always did love blondes.” Lily’s parents said their daughter had gone up to the ski hill but called to say when she showed up at the lodge to surprise Alex, she learned he had left with Mrs. Hodgson who was injured -- so Mr. Hodgson had offered her a ride.  Neal Hodgson, Rachel Hodgson and Lily had all been skiing on the hill the day of the accidents.

     Philip, Alex and Rachel Hodgson were the only living people who knew that call had been a lie. Rachel refused to talk and Alex refused to leave his room. The only person Alex allowed to bear him company or to bring him food for the rest of the weekend was his brother.  He kept repeating the words, “I never told her…”

     His face aged so much in that one weekend that at the funeral, their closest friends barely recognized him.  He muttered the same words as he threw in the handful of dirt, “I never told her…” As his hair grew out, the new growth was white, only the ends having any pigment.  He became more and more reclusive as the lines dug deeper in his face.  When the boys were accepted to the university of Ann Arbor, they both took it a a chance to start a new life far from the memories that would always linger on that mountain.

     Whenever Alex was stressed studying for an exam, he began muttering the same phrase – sometimes he’d even cry it out in his sleep.  One night his brother turned to him from a paper he was writing, “Alright I’ll bite -- never told her what?”

     With unseeing eyes Alex looked over at his brother and finally whispered the secret that haunted him and had aged him so prematurely, “That Rae was hit on the head. I never told her. She knew, when she called. She told me she loved me. But she already knew what had happened to Rae.”

back to Contest #6