The Anns
August 27, 2012 1:57 PM
An amazing discovery by The Anns
The twin girls were identical in almost every respect. They stood the same height. They weighed the same. Their faces were the same. Their voices were the same. Everyday, they styled their hair the same. Everyday, their clothing was exactly the same cut with the same decorative flourishes. The only difference that a casual observer could easily identify was that the clothes, though tailored identically, were different colors.On this first Saturday at Sonora, one twin wore a green skirt over a black swimsuit. The other had a white skirt over a blue swimsuit. They both carried brown towels that had been borrowed from the Pecari bathroom.
Derry had told them on the wagon ride over that there was swimming available in one of the MARS rooms, and today they had every intention of finding it. Fall didn't begin until the twenty-third of September so there were still a few weeks of summer left, even if most people considered it over at the wtart of school.
The Anns would not be cheated out of those weeks of swimming opportunities. They had suited up, found towels, then headed out to seek the legendary MARS. It had taken a few wrong turns and asking for directions from more than one older student, but they had eventually reached their goal.
The door labeled "Water Room" was nearly enough to make them giddy, and they almost couldn't get the knob to turn in their excitement. Soon enough, though, it swung open, they burst inside, and just stopped.
Derry had told them of a giant lake. He had spoken of a fantastic watering hole with branches qbd vines to use to swing into the pooled water below. He regaled them with the majesty of a beautiful waterfall and the vastness of a great blue tropical ocean.
The water before them was impossibly blue, yes, but that was where its similarity to Derry's stories ended.
There was no sand, no dirt, no trees. There was no lake, no river, no sea. There was instead a tiled floor, framing a vast bright blue rectangle filled with perectly clear water. At one end of the strange body of water stood an even odder structure, with two flimsy looking boards that protruded out over the water.
Confused but intrigued, the twins dropped their towels and shed their skirts and approached the curious tower. Finding paired ladders, the girls looked at one another, nodded, and climbed up them. The ladders led right up to the two boards. Annabelle stepped out onto it first. It wobbled a bit under her, but held her weight. Annette stepped onto her board, bouncing a little to test its give.
They exchanged glances again and, with no further discussion than that, they both shouted gleefully, ran to the end of the board and jumped into the crystal clear water below with two tremendous splashes.
Laughing, they came up for air, swam over to the side of the rectangle, and pulled themselves back up onto the tiled floor. With no discussion needed, they both ran for their ladder to do it again.
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An amazing discovery
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