Part Two
My next coherent thought, sluggish as my mind was after just waking up to a rainy morning in the colder part of March didn’t visit me until I had pulled on my jeans and a t-shirt for the day. I stared into the mirror, looking for something but I didn’t know what. A change maybe. An outward sign of some sort.
But all I saw was the same old Taylor. Much changed from the way he had been the year before but no new developments overnight. Nothing so ordinary passersby would be able to tell that overnight Taylor Hanson had stepped into the next stage of his teenage years. The stage with driver’s licenses and cars of his very own.
Overnight Taylor Hanson had turned sixteen.
After a few moments of pondering this fact, I merely shrugged, made a face at myself in the mirror and left the room, a small bounce in my step as I followed my nose to the kitchen.
Isaac was the first to see me and, as usual, the first one to break into song. After a pretty pathetic rendition of “Sixteen Candles,” half of which was mumbled due to the fact that he didn’t actually know the words, he went into his sports announcer’s voice instead.
“Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is Isaac Hanson and let me just tell you that I am proud to be standing here on this, the fourteenth day of March with my little brother Taylor on his sixteenth birthday. Tell us, Taylor, how do you feel this morning now that you’re finally sixteen years old?”
He held out his fist to me as though holding a microphone.
“Hungry,” I answered, eyeing the excessive amount of food laid out on the table in front of me.
“Well,” Isaac went on, “then rubba dub dub, thanks for the grub, let’s eat!”
Everyone laughed and gave him a round of applause as we all sat down to breakfast. My mouth nearly overflowed at the sight of food. It was really too much and I told everyone so, but it was a birthday tradition so they all smiled, hugged or kissed me and wished me a happy birthday.
“So how were you planning to spend your first of your three hundred sixty-five days as a sixteen year old?” my father asked.
“Three hundred sixty-six,” Zac corrected. When everyone looked at him questioningly, he shrugged. “2000’s a leap year.”
“Oh,” we all said.
“Actually, I don’t know,” I answered my father. “I was hoping behind the wheel of my brand new car?”
“Dream on, Tay,” he said.
“We could go to the movies,” Isaac said. “You’ve been wanting to see that new one with what’s-her-face in it, haven’t you?”
“Yeah,” I said. “That would be cool.”
“Just be sure to go to an early show,” my mother said. “We’re going out for dinner tonight, remember.”
“We are?” I said.
A suspicious silence fell over my family. They all exchanged glances.
“Sure, why not?” my father said.
There was another silence before the phone started ringing. My mother jumped up to go answer it while we all started to eat. My fork was halfway to my mouth when she came back into the room, holding out the phone to me.
“It’s for you,” she said, smiling.
I rolled my eyes, taking the phone from her. My grandmother made it a point to call each of us on the morning of our birthdays. It was something I didn’t usually mind but now was kind of an inconvenient time. I was really hungry.
“Grandma?” I said once I was in the next room.
“Excuse me?” a voice that was most definitely not my grandmother’s said back.
“Parker!” I said in surprise as I realized who I was actually talking to.
“Yeah,” he said, still sounding a little lost. “Did I miss something?”
“No, why?” I said.
“Well, unless your grandmother got a sex change and found the Fountain of Youth I really don’t see how you could mistake me for her. I mean, I know it’s early but it’s not that early,” he said.
“Sorry,” I said. “It’s just that she usually calls on birthdays and stuff. I expected it to be her.”
“I see,” he said. “Well, then I won’t keep you too long.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “So, what are you doing up before noon on a Sunday?”
“I was so excited about seeing my imaginary new car parked in the driveway that I couldn’t sleep,” he said dryly.
I laughed. “So Gina’s giving about as much ground about the new car thing as my parents are?” I said.
“Please. She won’t even let me get my learner’s permit until I can recite the New York State Driver’s Manual from memory,” he said.
“You know, you’d think they’d be a little easier to push over on these issues,” I said. “I mean it is our sixteenth birthday. It’s a milestone. It’s a rite of passage. It’s…”
“It’s a wonder we got this far without seriously injuring ourselves or others,” he supplied.
“Exactly,” I said.
He laughed. “I’ll be sure to tell Gina that in our next argument about when I can start driving,” he said. “Anyway, what are you doing today?”
I shrugged. “Ike’s taking me to the movies and I guess we’re going out to dinner later,” I said. “Nothing special. You?”
“Math homework of all things,” he said.
“That sucks,” I said.
“Tell me about it,” he said. “Seen Annie lately?” he asked hesitantly.
I couldn’t help but smile a little. I guess it was just nice to hear him ask about Annie for once. It was something he rarely did.
“Not really,” I said. “She and Lawrence just got back from a business trip of his a couple days ago. I haven’t seen her yet.”
“Where’d they go?”
“England,” I said.
“Nice,” he said. “I guess I’m the only one who hasn’t been out of the country now,” he added, laughing.
“I guess so,” I said. “Hey, you could always hitch a ride on our next tour or something. We’re going all over Europe.”
“Tempting…but I don’t think so,” he said.
“Why not?” I said.
“I think I had enough of Hanson on tour the last time you came to Buffalo,” I said. “Huge crowds of screaming, horny girls are not my thing.”
“Since when?” I asked. “Anyway, we could always use you as a decoy or something.”
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“You’d love it,” I said.
“Yeah. All except the part where they’re all screaming ‘Je t’adore, Taylor! Je t’adore!’ at me,” he said.
“At least you know what it means,” I said.
There was some murmuring in the background on his end.
“I should probably go,” I said. “I don’t want to run up too large of a long distance bill over here. At least not if I have any hope of getting that new car any time soon.”
“Okay,” I said. “Happy birthday.”
“You too,” he said. “Talk to you later.
“Bye.”
And with that, we hung up. I made my way back into the kitchen where everyone was watching me expectantly.
Zac was the first to speak up.
“Did you just call Parker Grandma?”
***
Later on in the day, my thoughts wandered as we drove along on the highway toward wherever it was they were planning on taking me for dinner. I thought of the movie Isaac, Zac and I had seen. It wasn’t the best movie I had ever seen but I pretended like it was so Isaac didn’t feel bad. I thought of the phone call from Annie I had received as I arrived home where she had wished me happy birthday. I had told her that Parker had said hi. She probably knew that he really hadn’t, but she pretended to be pleased anyway.
Most of all, I thought about Parker’s phone call. It hadn’t occurred to me before really that this year my birthday was not just my own but his as well. It wasn’t something I was unhappy about. It was just a weird thing to think about. I had never had to share my birthday with anyone like that before. It hadn’t even occurred to me in an earlier phone call a few weeks before when there was a brief mention of our upcoming birthday. Even then I still thought of it as two separate things. But his phone call that morning had finally gotten it through.
Not only was it my sixteenth birthday. It was Parker’s as well.
With that thought, I felt a pang of…something. I don’t know. It started to bother me that it was the first birthday we could have potentially shared and yet we spent it half a country away from each other. It didn’t seem right. He was my twin brother. He should be here. Or I should be there.
“Is something wrong, Taylor?” my mother asked, turning around to look at me as we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant.
“No, I’m fine,” I said, smiling a little to reassure her.
She smiled back as we all proceeded to get out of the car.
The hostess smiled at us as we walked into the restaurant, nodding at my father’s reminder of a reservation. She led us to the back of the restaurant where they had taken the trouble to push several tables against each other so we could sit together comfortable. The burdens of having a large family…
As we approached, two figures were already sitting at the table, bent over menus and discussing a few of the choices. They only looked up as we approached and I realized who they were.
“Annie!” I said.
She laughed at my surprise and stood to give me a suffocating hug and a smothering kiss.
“Happy birthday, kid,” she said, letting go of me so Lawrence could shake my hand.
“Happy sixteenth birthday, Tay,” he said, grinning.
“How come you guys didn’t tell me you were going to be here?” I said.
Annie shrugged. “We wanted it to be a surprise, I guess,” she said. “I know I’m not Jennifer Aniston, but hey…I’ve been away and I’ve missed you and since your dad invited us…” She shrugged again. “You don’t mind? I know this is probably supposed to be kind of a family thing.”
“Since when aren’t you family?” I said.
Her grin grew wider and we all sat down at the table as everyone else smiled their hellos to her.
It wasn’t long before the waitress came to take our drink orders. The table buzzed with conversations of all kinds. My father talked with Lawrence about his and Annie’s trip to England, which Annie raved about to my mother. Zac joined Mackenzie as he began to color his placemat with the crayons the waitress had given him. Isaac tried to resolve a small fight between Jessica and Avery. I was content to sit back and watch it all.
It was only when I did this that I noticed a few extra chairs at the end of the table. I dismissed it without much consideration, thinking maybe they had just been put there so they would be out of the way or something. Not long after I had this thought, the hostess came back, wringing her hands and biting her lip.
“I’m sorry to have to do this,” she said, “but as you can see, we’re really busy and there’s just no room. We have two guests up front who would like to be seated. Would you mind if they maybe sat with you since you have some extra chairs? I’m really sorry about this…”
“No, that’s fine,” my father said. “The more the merrier. Bring them back if they don’t mind us having our little party while they try to eat.”
She smiled gratefully and moved back to the front of the restaurant.
“What a strange thing to ask,” Annie said.
“Definitely a first,” Isaac commented.
With that we all fell silent. When the new guests arrived, my back was turned to them.
“Fancy meeting you here,” a new, very familiar voice said from behind me.
I whirled around, nearly falling out of my chair. When I saw none other than Parker and Gina standing there, huge grins pasted on their faces, words left me completely.
“Surprise!” everyone shouted at me at once before they all erupted into giggles.
“We were just decoys in case you started to suspect something,” Annie said.
“I…didn’t expect anything at all,” I managed to get out. “Oh my god,” was all I could say next as I moved to embrace Parker. “I can’t believe you’re here!”
“Neither can I,” he said back with a laugh.
“How did you get here?” I asked, pulling away.
He rolled his eyes. “Well first we found this ordinary looking little lamp….,” he said.
Gina hit him lightly on the arm.
“By plane,” he said. “With a lot of financial help from your parents which is something we would like to thank them profusely for…”
My father held up his hand with a grin on his face. “We knew you two would probably want to be together on your birthday so we’ve been plotting a way to get Parker down here for the past couple of weeks without you knowing.”
“When did you get here?” I asked as we all sat down again.
“Yesterday afternoon,” he said.
I couldn’t keep my shock from my face.
“I called you from our hotel room this morning,” he said, laughing.
I opened my mouth to ask him more questions but before I could get them out, he was being accosted by questions from around the table. Everyone wanted to know how he’d been lately, how school was going, how he felt about being sixteen finally, whether or not he had driven yet, and just about everything both relevant and irrelevant a person could think of to ask him, most of which I knew from talking to him on the phone. I sat back quietly, waiting for my turn but I didn’t get it before our food came or before the cake was brought out while the entire restaurant sang “Happy Birthday” to us or before the check came. He rode in a separate car with Gina on the way to the house and even there he was pulled immediately away. I suppose my siblings were as excited to see him as I was which was definitely cool considering the way they first felt about him and acted around him. For a while, I was content to sit back and watch.
But soon it was time for bed and I still hadn’t gotten beyond the revelation that he had been in Tulsa when he called that morning. Just as Isaac and Zac were settling down in their beds, I snuck off into the hallway. Knocking lightly on the door to the room where Parker and Gina were sleeping, I opened it a crack to peer in.
The lights were on and Parker was sitting cross-legged on the bed as he always had, a notebook in his lap and a black pen in his left hand. A quick survey of the room showed me that he was alone.
“Can I come in?” I asked.
He looked up and grinned. “Sure,” he said, closing the notebook.
I walked into the room and closed the door behind me.
“This room definitely seems a lot less empty with you here,” I commented, sitting on the bed. “I think it missed you.”
“I doubt it,” he said. “I mean, what with all the messes I made and the way I locked myself in here after…you know.”
“I know,” I said. “I don’t think it minded.”
He smiled. There was a long pause. Now that I finally had the opportunity to talk to him in person, I didn’t know what to say.
“I still can’t believe you’re here,” I said.
“Neither can I,” he said. “Trust me, this was just as much a surprise to me as it was for you. Apparently they’ve been sneaking around behind our backs for months now but I only found out about it a week ago. Gina gave me the plane tickets as an early birthday present.”
“I see,” I said. “How long are you here for?”
“Only a couple days,” he said with a sigh. “But hey, it’s better than nothing, right?”
“I guess,” I said. “I meant it when I said you could come on tour with us this summer if you wanted to, you know.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’ll think about it,” he said. “Somehow I don’t think it’s an idea Gina would take to very well, but I’ll bring it up to her.”
“You should,” I said.
He nodded.
“What were you writing about?” I asked, not sure what other topic to move onto since he clearly didn’t want to discuss that one yet. I don’t think I actually expected him to answer.
When he did, it was in the voice of someone deep in thought, “I was just writing about how weird it was that a year ago you didn’t even know I existed and I didn’t know who you were and now here we are.”
“Kind of takes all the fun out of the mystery, huh?” I said.
He shrugged. “There’s really no fun in a mystery like that,” he said.
“But hey, here we all are more or less,” I said.
“Guess so,” he said. “I don’t know. I guess it’s just weird to think about.”
“Trust me, I know,” I said. “A year ago my mom was my mom, my dad was my dad and my brothers and sisters were my brothers and sisters. Now it’s all changed. Which I don’t honestly mind now that I have a little perspective on it, but it’s still just….”
“Weird?” he suggested with a smile.
“Yeah,” I said. “And I think it’s strange for Annie, too. She called me this morning not long after you did. She didn’t seem to know what to say.”
He nodded. “I still don’t know what to say to her,” he said
“I think she understands,” I said.
“Yeah, well, maybe we can hang out a little while I’m here to remedy that a little bit,” he said hopefully if a bit hesitantly.
“I’m sure she’d love that,” I said. “She’ll probably go on and on about her trip to England, but hey, it’s a start, right?”
“Right,” he said, smiling a little.
Glancing at the clock, we saw that it was getting later and later.
“Where’s Gina anyway?”
“I think she’s still talking to Annie,” he said, smiling a little. “They have some catching up to do.”
I nodded. “I’m glad,” I said.
“Me too, actually,” he said.
“Well, I should probably leave you alone so you can go to bed. It’s getting late,” I said.
He glanced at the clock. “It’s not that late,” he said. “I think we have some catching up to do, too, you know.”
“Parker, we talk on the phone every week,” I said. “I think my family had more catching up to do with you than I have.”
“Tell me about it,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I felt like I was being interrogated. Although, I did think it was funny when Zac asked about Theresa.”
“Did he?” I said. “How’s she doing anyway?”
“Pretty good,” he said. “She’s mad at me, though.”
“How come?”
“I guess she comes from a family of extreme Yahtzee freaks,” he said. “Anyway, the night before I left, we went to the movies for my birthday and afterwards we went to her house and played a few thousand rounds of Yahtzee. I’ve never played before in my life but I kept winning. She’s a bit of a sore loser.”
I laughed. “Just don’t tell Zac she likes Yahtzee. Of all the games he can’t stand, that’s definitely somewhere in the top ten,” I said. “If he knew, we’d probably never be able to get them together.”
He smiled. “I don’t know. They’re getting a bit too easy to tease,” he said. “Part of the fun of teasing people the way we tease them is the sport of it. The harder they are to get angry, the better. These two are too easy.”
“We’ll have to find better prey soon,” I agreed.
We stayed up long into the night, just talking about little things. We almost didn’t sleep at all that night and I realized that Parker was right. Despite the fact we talked on the phone often, we still had a lot of things to talk about. And it wasn’t every year I got to spend my birthday with my twin brother.
My first thought when I woke up that morning was that the pleasant smell finding its way up the stairs and to my nose was that of an overly elaborate breakfast undoubtedly put together by my entire family. There were pancakes, eggs, bacon…I sniffed the air again, already throwing my legs over the side of the bed and added something onion-y to the list—potatoes of some kind probably.