Once, long ago Father took the family to Coney Island beach.  They had found their own private spot, a small patch without litter or tar balls. They threw down their blanket and claimed it as surely as Columbus claimed the New World.  And just as unchallenged for no one came to the beach anymore—almost no one. 

This one particular day someone was out there.  Squinting, Izzy scoured the seascape. She couldn't see where they were but she could smell hot dogs cooking and people laughing... and music playing.  The music was out of reach, like a secret whisper in a foreign language. She could hear it but not quite identify its tune. As soon as she thought she recognized the melody it faded away. It was like grasping smoke. The wind blew the whispers above their heads and swept them out to sea. 

Bell's haunting song reminded Izzy of this, for her soul was also fading away.  Izzy knew, if things didn't change, Bell too would fade away like the aroma of summer hot dogs and music floating on an ocean breeze.

---

Bell took no notice of Izzy. It was as if she had already left this world and only her frail body and enchanted voice remained.

"Bell, look at and me and stop singing this instant! I demand to be heard!" She shook her sister's shoulders. "You will not check out of this world and leave me in this horrible place all alone! Do you hear me?" She whispered desperately in her sister's ear, "Please don't leave me all alone—with her."

Her is mother, tall, dark and gruesome—oh not outwardly. Outwardly she is ultra thin and high fashion pretty wrapped up in a crisp white nurse's uniform. Although she's in her mid 30's she could resemble a woman of 25 if only... If only she smiled—ever. Ella kept her sleek jet black hair pulled back into the tightest of buns. Not a strand ever dared fall out of place.  She told the girls her pronounced widow's peak formed the night their father walked out on them. Izzy swears it's why mother always wears her hair tied back—to show her loneliness. 

Ella heckled, "Stupid girl, it's because I'm a nurse and hair is full of germs."

Germs, germs everywhere and not a drop to drink.

When Ella wasn't working her mother's uniform consisted of uptight buttoned down blouses and a black pencil skirt covering her knees.

Ella would dig, "Knees are for husbands and I have none." She knew the girls didn't believe their father walked out on them. They feared something happened to him at the docks. Ella scoffed and told them their fear was wasted on a-coward-like-their-father.

Although a tall woman she always wore heels, even inside the house. She had outside shoes and inside shoes and never the twain shall meet. She liked being tall. In her heels she towered over her husband and intimidated her daughters.

Ella chortled, "It's still a man's world girls. Height equals respect. It's a shame you get your stature and looks from your father."

Peter was 5 feet and 10 inches. Not a small man my any stretch of the imagination, (unless your imagination was full of hate.) In Ella's mind Peter was a hobbit or a nasty troll living under a bridge. "Just like his father... " If Peter was a troll, than her girls were pixies. Ella saw herself as a wizard and her daughters as easily controlled elves.

Upon entering their small, but ever so tidy, brownstone apartment, Ella placed her nursing shoes in the cubbies adjacent to the front door and changed into her black pumps. The girls joked she must wear heels to bed for they never saw her shoeless. After hanging her coat on an ancient coat rack she plucked a crisp white apron from one of its hooks and fastened it neatly behind her.

"When you have as little as we have," Ella advised, "it's best to keep everything tidy.     

Tidy? Ha! Anything the least bit out of place made Ella very anxious. Ella was always very anxious.

---

When Izzy's sister didn't come round she gently replaced her onto her pillow and stroked her honey colored hair three times. She secretly wondered if somehow she had caused her sister's illness. What if I didn't touch something right? What if I miscounted? Did I tap the doorknob two times or was it three? Nonchalantly she crossed to the bedroom door and with precision patted it three more times--just in case.  Her mother never even noticed.

Bell stared blandly towards the water stained ceiling and repeated the sad melody, "Revive me, revive me oh King, if not for me, then for your mercy and your name sake, revive me..."    

"Mother, what did you say to her? What happened to my Bell?"

"Your Bell, is she? Well, since you aren't the one who birthed her, I doubt you can claim her as your own."  Ella yanked Izzy off of the bed by her waist and smoothed out it's covers.

Izzy swooped between Ella and the bed. She put her hands on her boyish hips stood on her tip toes and attempted to look her mother straight in the eye. "Don't change the subject, Ma. What's happened to her? She seems as if she's in a trance or something."

Wiping up the spilled medicine on the nightstand, Ella matter-of-factly replied, "Look, why don't you run along and do your homework? There's nothing more to be done here."

Izzy threw up her hands in exasperation. "What're you saying? She'll remain a hypnotized hummingbird until she dies? Well I refuse to believe it! I'll never give up! What exactly did the doctor say?"

"Fine," Ella gave in and stopped her incessant tidying. "The doctor said her condition will more than likely worsen each day, and he gave her a month to live, give or take a day or two."

"A month? Impossible! I'll never spend the rest of my life on this sucky planet without of my other half!" She turned back to her sister, climbed onto the bed and shook her by the shoulders, "Do you hear me, Bell? You-will-not-die, not in a month---not ever! What is an Izzy without a Bell?"

---

Izzy and Bell are petite, hyper-identical twins, down to the beauty mark on their left upper lip. Before the scar incident even Ella had trouble telling them apart--if they were silent. Izzy had a hard time keeping her mouth shut, especially if Ella was in one of her moods. Ella was always in one of her moods.

When the twins were ten they stopped off near ancient monkey bars. This twisted rusty death trap had somehow survived behind a former crack house, taped off for demolition.

Izzy prodded, "Come on Bell. It'll be fun.

"Nooooo, it's forbidden--and dangerous." Bell stopped.

"Come on ya baby! Live a little." With that Izzy climbed to the very top. Then she hung by her knees and said, "You look funny upside down Bell. Come on up here the air is fine."

Of course the air wasn't fine anymore. It was stale and had an acrid, metal taste.

"No thank you Izzy. I'm fine safely on the ground. And I can see your panties."

Izzy climbed to the tippy top of the structure, standing erect with her arms in the air, she claimed, "I'M QUEEN OF THE WORLD!"

From behind the former crackhouse their classmate, tagalong Tommy Thomson, appeared. "Heck no you ain't and he ran over and rattled the bars. Izzy tried to steady herself, but they don't make monkey bars like they used to... and Izzy Quest came tumbling down. She caught herself on a lower rung, however...

Cheek meet rusty bar, rusty bar meet cheek.

Bell shouted, "Izzy! You're face!"

Izzy dropped down to the ground and felt the blood on her cheek. Showing off she licked the blood from her finger. "What this? It's only a flesh wound." Then she punched Tommy Thomson really hard in the chest. He ran home crying.

Bell gasped. "Mother is going to kill you Izzy."

As soon as the twins returned home Ella pounced. "Are you a monkey?" Ella grabbed the terrified 10 year old Izzy by her upper arm.

"No ma'am."

Digging her claws into Izzy's forearm Ella gritted her teeth. "If you're not a monkey then why were you acting like one?"

Bell chimed in with a lie. She only ever lied to protect Izzy. So she had to lie--a lot.

Ella's disdain for Izzy was palpable and Bell knew it. "Izzy you're disorderly. Izzy sit up straight. Izzy act more ladylike. Izzy why can't you be more like Bell?  Izzy you're so much like your father."

Bell couldn't stand it--especially the last dig, for the girls adored their father. She decided then and there they would fool her mother until the scar on Izzy's face faded. They actually got away with it for months. Since they wore school uniforms all week it wasn't that hard.

Bell pretended to be Izzy. "It's my fault ma, I teased Bell. I said she'd be too sissy to climb the monkey bars.

Izzy pretended to be Bell, "Yes mother-dearest... She's always showing off and this time I wanted to put her in her place."

Ella was eating this up. She loved when the twins had even a mild disagreement. She was super jealous of their bond.

Bell pretending to be Izzy continued, "Yeah but she's such a girly girl; she couldn't even make to the top before she came tumbling down like humpty dumpty."

Izzy pretending to be Bell. "Humpty dumpty huh? You've probably never even read that nursery rhyme or anything else for that matter."

Ella put bitter herbs under both their tongues and sent them to bed without supper. The girls spat out the lingering bitters until morning. But they had gotten away with it. They had fooled the beast.

On the weekends Bell hated wearing Izzy's Tom-boy clothes, her stinky running shoes and wretched tube socks. Izzy thought she had it much worse. She couldn't run or climb in Bell's pristine dresses and slippery Mary Jane shoes. And those frilly headbands—the worst!

Izzy protested for the umpteenth time, "Ugh, I can't do it--not another day!

Bell pleaded, "But the scar, it's still there. You'll...get...punished." Then to make certain Izzy obeyed Bell added, "We'll get punished. Just wait 2 more weeks Izz. Mrs. Kessinger in 3G is making us another batch of her healing balm."

In frustration Izzy pulled the powder blue dress over her head. It got stuck. "I don't care." Her muffled voice continued while yanking off the frock. "Wearing this is worse than any punishment Ella could dole out.

Bell gulped. "Maybe father can protect us?"

"Ha!" Izzy threw the dress on the tattered braided rug between their two tiny beds. "Father protect us? He'll cave. He always caves. I think he's more afraid of her then we are."

Bell grabbed the dress from the floor and got a wooden hanger from their small closet. She hung it up neatly with all the hangers facing the same direction.

Bell mothered. "You need to be more careful with our clothes Izzy!"

With that the door flung open, "I knew it!"  Ella had been eavesdropping outside their door for sometime. The hospital sent her home early. Split shifts now. No money. Blah, blah blah.

Izzy and Bell froze. They tried to communicate telepathically.

Keep it up Izzy. Keep pretending to be me.

Bell I have to tell her. It's my fault.

No Izzy it was my idea.

Ella broke the silence. "There's one thing I cannot abide by and that is lying. I believe all liars should have their tongues iron branded so we can tell them apart from decent citizens."

Izzy and Bell glanced at one another nervously.

Both thought, "Would Ella do it? Would our own mother seriously brand our tongues? Of course not. She wouldn't want to damage her perfect twins—her prized bookends. Her source of pride. It's the real reason she's so angry. One of us won't be perfect anymore. The one she doesn't like. We are marred—scarred, defected. If something is broken Ella throws it away.

-end of chapter 2-

Author's note: I'm rearranging the first few chapters because a nice wattpadder WritersOfExia gave me some sound advice! My first chapter was over 6000 words. Who do I think I am? Stephen King LOL. Vote, comment, blah blah blah I'll do the same! This is a very supportive community.