6.07 The Look

Jess picked her phone up from the kitchen bench, the irritation that she felt from being interrupted in her developing routine with the babies soon faded when she realized Coral had sent her a multi media message.

HI GUYS. JUST ARRIVED @ BLACK ROCKS.

HOPE U HAVE GOOD WEATHER NOW.

HAVE BROUGHT HOLLOWS RAIN WITH ME.

WILL SEND BETTER PIX L8RZ.

MUCH LOVE. CORAL.

Cindy had practically evicted Jess from the house one evening, "You need some you time, and Melissa and Nerissa need some 'Hanging with Aunties' time, so shoo!", Cindy repeated. Evie and Delilah stood between Cindy and Jess, arms crossed, feet planted firmly, like bouncers at a night club. "You haven't been more than twenty feet from them since they were born, go treat yourself for a few hours.", Evie added. Evie had more siblings than fingers and toes to count them on, she knew how children could wear you down if you never stopped for rest.

Jess' housemates had repeatedly suggested that she go to the day spa, although Jess had decided that there was somewhere else that she would rather be than an overpriced day spa. She changed into her 'The Amazing Jess' outfit, and gently placed her hat on the passenger seat. 'Monsignor Flufflybutt Flufflestiltskin', her recently acquired, allegedly magician trained, and pre-named big white fluffy rabbit took the opportunity to exit the top hat and vanish under the passengers seat. Jess considered changing it to 'Attila the Bun', or maybe just a nice pair of gloves.While Jess was becoming a master of prestidigitation, 'Fluffy' was mastering the art of escapology.

Jess drove around town until she found a park that actually had people in it and wasted five minutes trying to coax 'Fluffy' from his hiding spot. Eventually she gave up and headed into the park with her bag of tricks and her charity tip jar, and without Fluffy.

Jess had gone through most of her routine without any sign of interest from the park visitors. The small family group had left without any of them approaching, and now only three other people remained. A very old man that she knew to be Lucius Hyde, former school teacher, who was very slowly chasing after a playful kitten that he called Magic. Jess knew the name of the woman in the leather jacket and baseball cap, who had been watching her perform from a distance, although the watcher's name escaped her at present.

The third person was a complete mystery to Jess, until that mystery introduced herself, "Hello, I am Shannan Riddick, local entertainment events coordinator for the Midnight Hollows town council."Hi, I'm Jessica Jettstar, or 'The Amazing Jess' when the hat is on."

"Yes I recognized you from a newspaper article about your fathers business in last weeks paper, I know you are a bit of a celebrity doing charity work for children, but I didn't know you were also a practicing prestidigitator.", Shannan explained. "I have need for someone like yourself, I had Emerson the Elusive Escapologist booked for seven until ten tomorrow night, but he seems to have been arrested with a large quantity of buzzweed, and hasn't been able to escape police custody. You can have his slot in the show if you want the gig." Shannan  stated.

Jess negotiated a deal that revolved around any fee payable to her would instead be donated to St. James children's ward and headed home elated that her housemates making her take some 'me time' had lead to a gig that would generate more income for the children's ward at the hospital.

When Jess arrived home, her identical twin daughters greeted her with this look.

If Melissa and Nerissa had a fully established vocabulary, rather then being limited to 'muh-mah' and variations, there is a chance that the following conversations might have gone something like this.

Jess: "Hello sweethearts, oh my you look all worn out and ready for bed!"

Nerissa: "Of course we are worn out, you see how long you can last against the attack of hundreds of 'Here comes the claw!"

Melissa: "Not to mention the not stop tickling, I mean it was great at first, but after the third time I wet myself, jeez, enough already."

Nerissa: "Not that we aren't grateful for these cool Doctor Suess T-shirts that Aunt Delilah got for us."

Melissa: "Or the fact that she made Cindy and Evie read some Doctor Suess books to us."

Nerissa: "By the way, The Cat in the Hat is my favorite, and The Lorax is Mel's, you should read them both to us every night."

Melissa: "And please don't leave us alone again with these crazy ladies, who all talk in incomprehensible baby speak, at least not until we have had a full night's sleep."

Nerissa: "Agreed, it was so much hard work looking after them, I definitely need a nap." 

However, as I have already pointed out, the twins have an extremely limited vocabulary, and the conversation actually went like this.

Jess: "Hello sweethearts, oh my you look all worn out and ready for bed!"   

Melissa: "Muh-mah!"

Nerissa: "Mamma!"

Jess: "Wow, those t-shirts are so cute, okay babies, time for bed."

Jess scooped up Nerissa and Melissa, one under each arm and kissing each on the forehead, held them out so that each of the 'Aunties' could kiss the girls goodnight.

Jess handed Nerissa over to Cindy temporarily and put Melissa gently into her crib and tucked her in for the night. Cindy handed Nerissa over and by the time Jess had tucked the second daughter in, the first was already closing her eyes. The housemates gathered in the kitchen over coffee while Jess told them about her first official gig.

It was nearly midnight and everybody was heading for bed when Delilah's phone buzzed. "For reals? 11.58 on a Friday night, your boss does understand you get weekends off right?", Evie complained. Delilah glanced at the message. "Yeah, she just got home and realized she had locked her house and office keys in the office. I'll rescue her and maybe take another step up the promotion ladder. Won't be too long.", Delilah told her lover as she grabbed her own keys and dashed out if the house.  

Cindy woke up early to maximize her time in the garden for the day. Evie and Delilah had a dinner date, and Cindy would have the twins all to her self while Jess was performing her first gig, until then Cindy had hundreds of her own sprouts to deal with. "Oh my, look at you, haven't you grown up to be big and handsome.", she complimented the first plant in the row. "And how are we today? Oh dear, you seem to be attracting bad company, let me just set that weed on it's way shall I?", Cindy continued. And continued continuing until she had spoken to every plant and tree in the garden in a cheerful positive tone, including the lemon trees, who always had a sour attitude.

Jess, Cindy, Melissa and Nerissa played peek-a-boo until it was time for Jess to leave.

Jess arrived thirty minutes early, she had never performed on stage before. The stage props were very simple, her prop that she used for the trick known as 'The Swords Of Destiny', or if you had a really good microphone and sound system, 'THE SWOOORDS OF DESTIIIINYYYyyy..', and the two wobbly pre-programable spotlights bolted to the front of the stage. Jess had no idea how to program them, so she just pressed the button marked 'Default Show'. Her audience of two lingered by the stage, while Shannon sat at the back of the park, using the street lighting to read some trashy romance novel.

"Greetings and Salutations, I am The Amazing Jess!"

The sound of one fan clapping enthusiastically was nearly loud enough to drowned out the sound of dozens of male crickets attempting to attract hot amorous female crickets for special cricket cuddle time.

But only nearly.

"I would like to start the show by using the old magician's standard, pulling a rabbit out of my hat.", Jess paused for effect, "But seeing as I couldn't even pull him out of the lettuce patch this afternoon, let me start with this!", she paused again.

The sound of horny frustrated crickets seemed to be even louder as one of the two spectators walked away. The other spectator took a moment for the joke to sink in before applauding if not furiously, at least in a manner suggesting that even if she didn't understand the joke, that the effort was appreciated. For the remaining two hours and fifty six minutes Jess performed to a captive and enthusiastic audience of one.  

Jess even asked for her audience member to be a volunteer in her 'The swords of destinyyy' trick, an opportunity that her one present fan jumped at. If Shannan had of looked up from her book, she may have seen Jess perform the trick flawlessly. Rowena and Julio were naked under silk sheets after a secret rendezvous at her fathers mansion by the sea, there was no way Shannan was peeling her eyes from the current page.

After the show Jess got changed and went to meet her audience, without the flashy light show constantly blinding her, Jess finally recognized her fan as Lacey McRoberts, a former high school companion who had wanted to grow up to be a fashion model, but instead became a truck driver and later a transport company CEO. 

"I remember seeing you do the chocolate coin thing in high school, and now here you are, live on stage, that's so cool, living the dream!", gushed Lacey. Jess knew that she had one chocolate coin left that hadn't melted under the mad wobbling of the stage lights and did the trick, handing the coin over to Lacey. Lacey clapped and cheered like it was the greatest thing ever.

Jess as keen to get home to her babies, but she still had a pocket full of butterflies, she hadn't released them during her act for two reasons, firstly they would be hard to see in this light at any distance other than on stage, and secondly that she was worried that they would fly straight into one of the the spotlights and get sizzled.

Jess astounded and amazed Lacey with the butterflies trick, and even some of the crickets halted their incessant cry for love temporarily, albeit the reasons for their silence was called Magic, it was cat related rather than Jess's butterflies.

The twins were learning to walk, and talk, and put odd shaped pegs in odd shaped places, as well as the peg box slots, and even how to make cool noises with a xylophone stick that the ball had long since been chewed off of. What they still hadn't learned was how to get more than twenty percent of their food in their mouths. 

Jess cleaned up each of the twins as she set them free before she wiped down the high chairs, this was a lesson she learned quickly, meaning there was no longer also a need to clean baby mush off of the dining chairs, television remote, stereo or other random objects. Nerissa led the jailbreak in search of playtime. 

Authors note:

As I (think I) mentioned in my last AN, Coral escaped her purge due to the game crashing before I saved those changes, so this time while I deleted most of her items and her car, and made her quit her lifeguard job, I have moved her to my secret dungeon location where I keep characters that I intend to use in upcoming chapters. Even though she won't be returning to the house, I have the urge to show off the Black Rock Islands (even if it doesn't in game yet), and have her at least send some more photos and messages back to Jess and Co..