Lawrence & Lenexa - Part 4

 Good morning, FFFs,

It's a beautiful February morning here in the midwest. The horizon is glowing with yellow and a little bit of peach, but right above it is a dark strip of clouds with a stripe of glowing pink. It is beautiful! Above those clouds the sky is growing lighter and the half moon was shining brightly in the window when I got up. It's supposed to be warmer today before the cold comes. And we're supposed to get sunshine. The sky is getting prettier. The yellow is changing to a golden peach and the pink has spread and there is now purple mixed with the darker clouds.

My week has gone by rather quickly. I'm not sure how it can be Friday already. I've already written over 5k words this week, which is quite exciting. I've been working on things for the widows' luncheon at church next Saturday, and trying to get some blog posts done. Oh, and I've been reading.

Here is the next part of Lawrence & Lenexa. Right now this story is at 32k words. I'm hoping it will end up at 60k, but I don't know when it will reach there. If I have a good writing month I can get around 20k words written. It will partly depend on if this story gets stuck or just keeps moving right along. If you want to be able to read the full story, you can be praying the ideas will keep coming.

 

 Lawrence & Lenexa

Part 4

    Home at last, Lenexa led the way upstairs at a sedate pace just in case their mom or Mrs. Hamstead were watching. But once up in the long, carpeted hall, she began to run, with Lawrence right behind her. Reaching her room, she dumped her backpack on her bed, set her violin case on the couch, and darted over to the hiding place.
    “It’s here! Shut the door.”
    Lawrence did so and then hurried over. All the information about Mountain View Christian Summer Camp was there–the activities, the packing list, the medical forms, information forms, consent forms–all neatly put together.
    “Oh,” Lenexa sighed, staring at the forms. “If we can’t go there, Larry, I don’t want to go to any summer camp.”
    “Yeah, me either. Hey, here’s a note from Saundra.” He unfolded the paper and read it aloud.
    “Larry and Lexi, Here’s all the information about the camp. It’s a wonderful camp, and I hope you two get to go. If it helps any, my sister, Mary, is going to be one of the counselors for the girls, and, of course, my brothers are going to be there too. If you end up needing a ride there, I’m sure you can ride with us when we take the boys there. Saundra.”
    “Larry!” Lenexa exclaimed softly. “We’ve just got to go!” She looked down at the papers again. “Can we start filling them out right now?”
    “We’d better change and get our homework done first. We’ve got tests tomorrow, remember? And if we don’t do well on them . . .” He let his sentence die in the air.
    Lenexa signed. “I guess you’re right. Where should we put these?”
    “Back where they were. They should be safe enough there while we work.”

    Neither of the twins remembered working so hard and so quickly on their homework before. “I’ll study for my test before I go to bed,” Lenexa decided. “Why don’t we both do that. We can study together. Mr. Langly has said that it’s what you do right before you go to bed that sticks in your brain, you know.”
    Lawrence looked skeptical. “What does he know? He’s our gardener, not a teacher.”
    “We can try it.” Lenexa turned beseeching eyes on her twin. “Come on, Larry. I just can’t study any more, and I want to start working on those papers!”
    A grin came over Lawrence’s face. “Okay. Let’s do it. Go get the papers. But make sure no one is in the hall!”
    Lenexa didn’t need any urging. She jumped from her chair and raced across the carpeted floor, thankful that no one downstairs would hear her footsteps. A quick check showed no one in the hall, and she darted to her room, snatched the papers, and ran back.
    In her absence, Lawrence had shoved the school books to the side and cleared a space on the study table.
    Carefully, systematically, the papers were sorted into piles.
    “I’ve never filled out an application for camp before,” Lawrence admitted, scratching his head.
    “First time for everything.” Lenexa picked up her pencil and started filling in her name and birthdate.
    “Should you be using pencil?”
    “I’ll go over it in pen after I make sure everything is right. I don’t want to mess it up.”
    Lawrence grunted. “Good idea.”
    For some time the twins worked on filling out the applications for summer camp. They filled out every line they could. It wasn’t as hard as they had first thought it would be.
    “Lawrence! Lenexa!” Their mother’s call from the stairway startled them both.
    “Yes!” They shouted back in unison.
    “Supper is waiting.”
    They looked at each other blankly. Supper? Already?
    “Coming!” Lawrence shouted back. “Quick, we’ve got to put these somewhere!”
    “Behind the pillows on my bed,” Lenexa suggested, sweeping up the papers they had so carefully sorted and running from the room.
    Meeting her brother in the hall half a minute later, she sighed and whispered, “That was too close.”
    “Tell me about it!”
    Without another word, the two ran down the hall, hurried down the stairs, down another hall, and into the dining room.
    “Stop right there,” Mrs. Johnson ordered, lifting her hand as the twins entered.
    Lenexa swallowed hard. She wasn’t wearing a dress. But they were almost all to short and too tight. Except for her school clothes. Beside her, she felt Lawrence straighten.
    Their mother sighed and shook her head. “See, Lancaster, it’s as I told you.”
    Lenexa wondered why her mom didn’t just call her dad by his first name, and her brother Larry, instead of having to use her dad’s middle name.
    “Lawrence, your pants are too short. Don’t you have another pair?”
    Lawrence glanced down. “Sure, but they’re all the same size. And my shirts are getting kind of tight.”
    With another sigh, Mrs. Johnson looked her daughter up and down. “Lenexa, you know I don’t like you coming to the table in shorts.”
    “I’m sorry, Mom, but my dresses are getting too small for me. Except my school clothes and one or two of my very nicest dresses.”
    Speaking for the first time, Mr. Johnson motioned the twins to come to the table. “If we must discuss clothes and such, we could at least do it while we eat. I need to prepare for court in the morning.”
    Once everyone had begun eating, Mrs. Johnson returned to the subject. “I really don’t see how I can take you both shopping for clothes on Saturday. The members of the Literary Society are meeting at Mrs. Pendergrass’s home, and I promised to help her since it is her first time hosting. If you two were more grown up, I would let you do some of the shopping yourselves.”
    Lenexa darted a questioning glance across the table to Lawrence and caught his answering look. “Mom, couldn’t we try it? I mean we are growing older, and we should be learning about purchasing things like clothes. I know you couldn’t take us, and Mrs. Hamstead will be busy, but maybe someone like–” She paused and chewed on her lower lip a moment in thought. “Well, someone like Saundra, could take us perhaps.”

Did you see the sunrise this morning?

Do you like this story?

Would you like it to be a full novel?