Caihong sent a text message from her smartphone. She told them she sent it to both twins to come to meet them there. A text for each of their phones. Caihong said often the twins were together, too often, but sometimes not.
Then she grumbled that they were Siamese twins but not to each other, to their smartphones.
They waited a long time. Caihong sighed and shifted and thumped her cane at times. She mumbled Chinese words and a few times they heard her say in a hissed English, “Fucking twin bitches!”
A set of doors different than the ones Rylie and Aspen had come through opened and the twins walked in almost shoulder to shoulder.
They were a little shorter than Aspen and several inches shorter than Rylie but they were thicker than either young American woman. They had shoulder-length straight black hair. Their faces were quite round and their cheeks on the puffy side.
They were mostly the same, as one would expect of twins, but they had one major difference.
One of them had pale unblemished skin. The other had pale skin with a scattering of brown freckles.
They stared at Rylie and Aspen with open curiosity.
Caihong stood and leaned on her cane, “So kind of you to join us… at last.”
The non-freckled twin said, “We are busy. We are not dogs who come when called.”
The freckled twin pointed at Rylie and Aspen, “Who are these? New servants?”
Caihong told them, “Yes and no. These are your companions. The ones I told you about. Not that you seemed to listen to me. They are your new friends. Your playmates. Take this opportunity to spend time with them over the next six months to understand how Americans… tick. How to motivate Americans. How to command Americans. They are also such hard workers. They will fill all the servant roles while the staff is gone back to China for re-education yet again. You may have them complete any task. They will not refuse.”
Caihong stuck up a finger sharply, “With limit! Neither of these Americans is an electrician. Do not have them complete electrical work. They will fry selves and create a smoky stink. Also, no plumbing. We will call a plumber if needed.”
Rylie quipped, “I’m no good with cement work.”
Aspen, starting to bounce back from Caihong’s nipple-tugging, chimed in, “I don’t do windows.”
Caihong made a chopping motion, “You will do windows if twins so say you do! You are not some high-class maid! You are a simple American six-month companion. Think of yourself as a do-anything girl.”
Rylie thought that sounded a little sexual.
The freckled twin grinned wolfishly, “Do anything? I could enjoy testing this idea, grandmother.”
Rylie and Aspen both noticed the same thing and both barely kept from gasping. The freckled twin’s grin looked so wolfish because she had sharpened teeth! Her canine teeth were extra sharp and the teeth between them on the top row were all sharpened to points!
Rylie thought, “Oh my gosh! I hope that one isn’t my twin!”
Aspen thought, “Holy pope shit on a shingle, I hope that isn’t my twin!”
Caihong noticed that they noticed the teeth, “Do not fear the teeth. She will not eat you. Is not a cannibal! She simply wants to portray her name.”
Was her name… Sharp Teeth?
Caihong explained, “Her name is Fang. That mean one thing in America and is good name in China meaning fragrance. Other twin has different name, of course, but her name also means fragrance. Other twin’s name is Xiang.”
Those names….
Rylie felt like her fear was coming true.
She reminded herself it was still fifty/fifty. But she knew. That was the technical odds but it now felt like one hundred percent. Her bad feeling was now so strong it felt like a certain feeling!
The pale-faced one said, “Anything? I will be most certain to put that to the test. I have several ideas already but I’m sure I’ll soon have hundreds. There are so many things I would never do. I am so curious if they will do those things.”
Rylie thought, “Crap, I don’t want that twin either!”
Aspen thought, “I don’t want either twin! Where’s the exit?”
Caihong waved one hand in a calming down motion, “Slow your plans, Xiang, Fang. Do not break them on first day. They must last six months.”
Don’t break them… on the first day? How about ‘don’t break them at all?’
Xiang turned to Fang, “I bet I will break mine before you break yours.”
Fang smirked, “You will lose that bet.”
Caihong admonished them, “I said to no break the companions! Not so soon as right away.”
Caihong looked almost apologetically at Aspen and Rylie and spoke as if the twins were not right there listening, “Do not fear the twins. They are bark and no bite. Mostly not bite. Well, less bite than bark. I tell them not to break you right away so they have hope they can break you later. That way they will not try to break you right away. See, Caihong is cleverer than twins! Make good friends with your twin and then they will not want to break you.”
Oh, is that all? Make themselves too chummy to break?
They both thought that sarcastically but that thought in both of them was immediately followed by another thought, that they for sure would try to make themselves too chummy to break.
Xiang said to Fang, “We must listen to old grandma a little longer. No break the companions. Instead, a new bet! Which one of us can make companion flee the estate first?”
Fang grinned wolfishly. Rylie saw sparkles in Fang’s mouth. Did she have diamond settings in her sharpened teeth?
Caihong thumped her cane hard, though the severity of the thump was partially foiled by the thickness of the plush carpeting.
“No! Naughty twins! I tell you, if you make one companion flee estate, you will share the remaining one. Most humiliating! Only half a companion! Caihong will spread the tale! And, if you make both flee – or break them beyond repair – then I have other companions set up. They are big ugly. Caihong will take many photos of the big uglies with the twins. Most humiliating!”
Xiang sniffed, “Whatever.”
Fang grumped, “Why does grandma continue living? Just to see her one-hundredth birthday?”
Caihong raised her voice, “I live to see you twins one day mature into adults. Maybe when you are forty!”
Xiang said, “I choose—”
Fang darted forward and grabbed Rylie’s right wrist in her hand, “This one is mine. You get the ugly freckled one.”
Rylie was suddenly in a tug-of-war with herself as one team and her arm as the rope. She did not want to go with Fang! She was scary!
Aspen was pissed, “’Ugly freckled one?’ You’ve got freckles, too!”
“So what? I am Chinese.” Fang’s argument made sense to no one. Rylie remembered hearing something about Chinese not liking freckles. She was pretty sure Chinese women used skin whiteners to reduce or eliminate them, and doctored photos to hide them.
Caihong arbitrated, “Fang, you have Flame Hair Freckle Face companion. Freckles stick together! Xiang, you have this other one. Go now. Take them. Get to know them. Understand the American ways. Make new American friends. As I explained to you days ago, no more twin echo chamber!
“Xiang to western half of estate, no cross middle. Fang to eastern half of estate, no cross middle. All five of us will meet each day for dinner at seven in the dining room. Any issues, any problems, any companion breakage to report, you twins know Caihong’s cell number.”
Rylie noted with a mental gulp, “Any companion breakage to report!?!”
She exchanged a look with Aspen, who still looked pissed off about the freckles insult. From a young woman who also had freckles and was not as good-looking as Aspen.
This was not what they’d thought they were signing up for. Yes, to be paid companions to adult twins. And that one of them had to get piercings and the other one had to get two tattoos.
But then Caihong ambushed them by having Aspen get those special high-sensitivity nipple piercings and by having Aspen get troubling (at best!) tattoos. And then they found out they had to do all sorts of menial labor in the next six months. They had to be companions and servants.
And now this. Caihong had said the twins were bitches. But Caihong was a bitch so, they’d thought, who knew, maybe the twins were nice.
Nope. They were bitches!
Maybe they should back out of this. Maybe they should run away from this!
Xiang stepped forward and grabbed Rylie’s hand saying, “You come with me now. We will find ways for you to amuse me.”
Rylie hoped not! That also sounded like a threat!
Fang patted a hand on her somewhat chubby thigh, addressing Aspen, “Flame Freckle, come to me. Obey! Heel!”
Aspen gasped at the treatment but stepped forward reluctantly. She looked to Rylie for help, for some kind of option for escape. Rylie looked back at Aspen, also for help.
They could leave. They could. This was America and they were Americans.
But, damn. They’d only just gotten here. And they had skin in the game. As in, Rylie’s tattooed skin! And Aspen’s pierced skin! And Aspen’s tattooed skin as well!
Rylie set her jaw at another idea. If they quit immediately, these twin bitches would think American women were quitters! And not tough!
Fuck them!
Rylie shrugged at Aspen.
Caihong told Xiang, “That one has surprise for you. You will see your grandmother Caihong is so very considerate. She is marked in your honor. You will show her, correct, tattoo girl?”
Rylie blew air upward at her now too short to ruffle bangs. She’d gone from college grad to “tattoo girl.”
She had to give an answer, “Yes. I’ll show her. In private.”
Rylie knew for certain now why Caihong had the Chinese letter X tattooed on her ass. It was because she was the intended companion for Xiang whose name started with the letter X.
Maybe Caihong did it to deter Xiang from sending Rylie away. That was probably the reason. But it felt like a mark of ownership. As if Rylie was owned by Xiang instead of a companion for her.
And Aspen had the Chinese letter F tattooed on her perfect little ass. Poor Aspen! She’d done it of her own free will! An F, as it turned out, because Aspen was the intended companion for Fang. F for Fang.
Aspen and Rylie were in the same boat of circumstance.
Xiang pulled insistently on Rylie’s hand, “Come with me now to the western half of the estate. I am eager to start.”
That made one of them!
Fang was not pulling on Aspen’s hand, instead relying on giving her commands like Aspen was a dog.
“Come, freckle pet, to the east.”
Aspen darted away from Fang and over to Rylie.
Aspen whispered urgently, “Rylie, save us! Save me! My fucking twin’s full name is Fang Chiu. Chiu like chew! Think about that! This is a big mistake!”
Rylie had to agree. This was a mistake. But that didn’t mean they could stop now, like this. They could but they couldn’t.
“Just… give it a try. Don’t put up with anything crazy but let’s try to make the best of it.”
Then Xiang pulled Rylie away from Aspen and through a set of double doors. The last thing Rylie saw behind her was Aspen reluctantly “heel” by returning to Fang.
Could they “make the best of it?” What would that even look like?
