Marbles
Tom brought his hand on top of his squinted eyes that were looking at the burning sun in front of him, trying to see the beautiful sunset that was going to happen in no time. He then sat down next to Sheila; he turned his head towards her and grinned at her, trying to lift the mood around them. He then, with Sheila turned towards the Sun and watched the most beautiful sunset they could ever imagine, the clouds around the sun looked as if they were burning in an eternal fire.
“Isn’t it beautiful Sheila?” Tom asked.
“It’s the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen!” Sheila exclaimed.
After watching the sunset they laid down in their jackets looking their faces.
“Good night sister,” Tom whispered.
“Good night brother” Sheila whispered back.
He smiled at Sheila and waited for her to fall asleep; he then sat up slowly trying not to wake her up. Then, he looked at the sky; the shimmering stars filled the dark sky. He felt as he was at home, in the rooftop, with Sheila and him looking at the small amount of stars that we were able to see in a city.
He couldn’t believe it they left them. Their own family left him and his twin sister in the desert with only a bottle of water to share between each other and two bags full of marbles, of any color, texture and size you could imagine. Their so supposed family that left them wasn’t really related to them, only Aunt Angela and their cousins Jake and Eimear. The cousin’s father, who is called Bob, wasn’t related to them so he wasn’t family. But they were very lucky because they had one thing their family didn’t have, something that hadn’t been seen in centuries. And it was magic. Both of them had magic and they figured by themselves how to use it together. They found out they had magic when some bullies chased after them in their old school and he tried to protect his sister from them. He remembered when that happened perfectly, he had thought he lost his precious sister.
He and his sister ran through the crowded streets, they were full of people in their cars that were leaving their work and trying to reach home. There were also buses full of children who finished school wanting to go to the park and have fun or just go home and do their homework first and then play. He ran behind his sister, trying to make the bullies attack him first and let his sister have a head start so she could be safe and sound. Until they reached a dead end and they couldn’t go back because the bullies were already at the entrance of the alley. He turned his head around trying to find any exit, even if his sister could use it, he would save her. He couldn’t find any, he only saw bins, that were so smelly that you could faint if you went near it, and there was also rubbish thrown around as if a tornado had passed through. But, he didn’t notice two beautiful brown leather bags right behind them, but Sheila did.
His chest started to hurt from so much running and his breathing was starting to be laborious. When he saw the bullies walking slowly like a predator preparing to attack its prey, he put his body in front of his sister in an attempt to protect her. He was starting to get desperate when he saw the leader of the bullies, Josh, in front of the group with a big sneer on his face. Josh was the typical bully, he was taller that most of the children of his age so he had an advantage. His arms were mostly muscle from all of the punches he did on the weaker children in the school. He always wore the sneer in his face when he was bullying children, but when there were adults around, he would have an angelic smile that seemed to radiate kindness. That is why the adults didn’t punish him, because he was like an angel to them, and the bullied children were the attention seekers to them. Josh was the one that started it, he was the one that started their horrible life, and he made their life impossible. He would push them in the halls when changing classes or he would chase them after school, just like in that afternoon.
When Josh was a few paces away from them, Tom started to get very scared, sweat poured out his forehead, and he started to get shivers up his spine as if electricity was going through it. Why? Well, because Josh had the biggest sneer Tom had ever seen in his face. Without warning, Josh punched Tom’s face repeatedly times until Tom fell in the ground in a fetal position, trying to block out the horrible pain coming from his face. Unaware of what was happening to his sister or Josh he fainted from all of the pain that he had never experienced.
When Tom fainted, Sheila had already grabbed the two leather bags and looked inside, and she saw one of the most beautiful marbles in the bag, it was transparent, but it had a swirl that was a mix of dark blue, purple, magenta and sky blue. She grabbed it without hesitation and pulled it out of the leather bag. With no warning the marble shined as bright as a star and formed a sort of protection over Sheila and Tom. When Josh wanted to break the sort of barrier he was thrown back and crashed into the smelly bins. When the other bullies noticed that their leader was defeated, they grabbed Josh by the arms and ran away from the twins as if the twins could hurt them.
Later that week, Josh and Sheila with the marbles trying to figure out what they did and they found out a lot from them. One marble that had blue lines that looked like waves, if they pressed it with one of their hands water would pour out of it. Another marble that looked as if it was the roots of a tree, if they pressed it a small plant would appear right under it. Any plant could grow if Tom or Sheila imagined it, even if it was an imaginary plant, it would grow very fast.
Tom lay down on his side and looked at the angelic face of his sister. He and his sister were identical twins and they looked the same. They had the same hair and eye color; the shape of their face was the same. They were identical in everything. She had bright red hair that looked like fire and her eyes were green as emeralds. She also had a heart shaped face and red lips. He had the same red hair that looked like fire and green eyes that looked like emeralds. The both of them were 11 years old and were pretty tall for their age; they were 1 meter and 65cm tall.
When they woke up, the sun was rising from their left, so that meant that they had the north to their back. They drank some water from the water bottle and refilled it with the marble that had blue ripples in it. Then, they turned north and started walking slowly. They walked for 5 days non-stop with the water and no food; they noticed that their bones started to be visible, from not eating a healthy diet, because there was not much food in the desert. Also they had gotten a light tan from the walking in the sun.
One afternoon, when the sun was almost down, they saw black dots in the horizon. They didn’t know who they were these people but Sheila and Tom continued their journey in the desert. Two hours later they reached a Berber Camp. There were children running around the camp laughing freely, Sheila smiled at the view. A man came to them with a sword and Tom put his body in front of Sheila’s protectively and put his hands in a sign that they wanted peace. The man understood them and let them in a tent that was 3 meters in area, full of carpets and cushions. Tom and Sheila sat in two very comfortable cushions in front of the leader of the Berbers. They stayed in that tent with the leader of the Berbers for hours and they tried to show him that they were not a danger to his people. In the end he understood that they weren’t a threat and he let them in the clan in exchange of resources, which were the marbles.
Tom and Sheila lived with the Berbers having a free childhood for the first time of their lives. They married other Berber and had children, which had the typical Irish hair. The red hair was passed from generation to generation and never ended.
