The desk went together easily, too easily. Which surprised both of them. They cleared up the remnants and garbage and waited for Hector to arrive. They sat quietly and ate sandwiches that Sabrina had prepared. They were ready for a break.
"So what was it like growing up a taur?" Sabrina inquired, it was the first time she had really had a chance to sit and talk with Heather.
"Really rough, Sabrina; you heard from my mom that I couldn't walk properly. I really didn't get a good hold on it till I was in my teens."
"Really? How did you manage?"
"Training wheels. " She said in a low voice.
"Huh?"
"Dad and Carlos, who by the way is a foxtaur; made a harness for me that had wheels on either side that kept me up right. It was real funny looking but it worked. "
"Sounds like they had your best interest at heart. "
"Well, the other kids were very mean to me. It didn't help me, as I wanted it to; it just made me more of a freak. "
"But you're not a freak, your Mom says you're the rarest of rare. "
"I was a freak; that's all my mind would tell me. If it hadn't been for Becky I would have run away."
"Sounds like Becky was your guardian angel. "
"Yup. " Sabrina noted that Heather's eyes were beginning to tear up.
"I'm sorry Heather, if this is upsetting you we can watch TV instead."
"No, it's ok. Haven't thought about Becky in a long time. She was the giant of the school yard. She had a disease that made her bones grow and grow. "
"That sound horrible, how sad. "
"It was, it also made her hideous looking. The kids would pick on her if I wasn't around. One day they hurt her with a rock and I took her to the school nurse. From that day on we were the best of friends. She couldn't do a lot for her size made things difficult. But she could draw and write. I have some of the most beautiful pictures and poems you have ever read. "
"Wow! I'd like to see them. Do you write to her much?" Sabrina didn't get an answer right away and she knew something was wrong.
"She died over five years ago." Heather put her head down and wiped her tears away.
"I'm sorry Heather. "
"I am to, I miss her. She made it to her 20th birthday and we all celebrated, it was a good time then. I still phone her mom once in awhile, she's a wonderful woman.
"It sounds like she is." Sabrina said with a smile, "I bet she's glad you're around."
"She is, Becky was her whole world and when she passed on she turned to me for comfort. Being a single Mom and losing her only child……well she fell ill. She's better now but it took a long time for her to get better, eventually she gave me most of Becky's stuff, including her diary." Heather tried to hold back her tears but they wouldn't stop. Sabrina dried Heather's eyes and smiled.
"Heather it's ok, you don't have to talk about this if you don't want to, I didn't ask you here to upset you."
"It's ok." She sniffed, "I get this way whenever I bring her up, guess I'm still not over her."
"I bet she'd be happy to know that she's still in your thoughts."
Heather smiled through her tears, Sabrina was a true sister, she was glad to have her. "I'm glad you're here, Sis. You know I'm getting to like the sound of that."
"Me too."
"To get back to Becky, I got her diary and, well, I cried for three days after reading it."
"Pretty emotional, huh!"
"Yeah, too much so; Sis, I changed her whole life."
"You seem to have a habit of doing that." Sabrina giggled.
"Oh….oh I get it….hehehe."
Sabrina noted that Heather's glass was empty, "Would you like more juice."
"Sure, it's good…..anyway I got a ton of Becky's poems and drawings enough for several books. I thought one day that I would write a book about her."
"That's a wonderful idea Heather, beautiful." A tear almost came to her eye. "How far have you gotten?"
"I'm afraid, not very far."
"Can I help you? I'd love to."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, Becky deserves a book."
"Ok, I guess we can start getting things organized again."
"Great."
"Although I'm not great at design."
"Hey that's what me and my sister do. I'll talk with Sabrina about it, I'm sure she'd love to help too. Your story and Becky's has to be told."
Heather grinned, "Sounds like a plan." She thought it best to give herself a break and put Becky aside for a while. "So have you heard anything of Swallow?"
The news about Swallow had shocked them all a bit, especially Heather whom she shared a common background with. The fact that Swallow was having mental problems had upset Heather, deep in her mind she had nightmares of losing herself to madness. It took Heather a couple of days to gather the courage to call her Biological Mother. She was so nervous that hello came out garbled but soon Endora had calmed her butterflies and a good conversation ensued. The only missing piece was Ti, the mysterious lost sister but with all this time gone by they didn't have much hope of hearing from her. Heather also had tried to talk to Swallow but she found her withdrawn and not saying much, she told her to call anytime and that she would be there for her. They all knew that they had to get together, they all agreed that it would be good medicine.
"I talked with Sabrina and her Mother, the sessions are helping some, but Swallow's been through a lot and time has taken its toll on her fragile psyche."
"I can understand, Endora told me of how that bitch left them in the ocean to die."
"Yeah this "Mother" creature is a horrible, horrible thing."
"She better not ever come across me or….." The door buzzer sounded and interrupted the conversation. Sabrina went over and answered it.
"Hello?"
"Heather???? You sound a bit funny." The male voice said and Sabrina looked at her sister.
"That's Hector, play along I never told him you're my twin."
"What!!! Heather he'll freak if he sees me."
"Yup……that's what I'm hoping." Heather grinned from ear to ear.
Poor Hector; seems that Heather had this all planned, oh well, she thought, she would let him off the hook if things got hairy. "Hi Hector, buzzing you up, 4th floor, #406." She heard Hector acknowledge and she pushed the button. So far so good she thought.
"Hector is gonna flip when you open the door." Heather said between giggles.
"Are you sure about this?" Sabrina didn't like playing jokes on others.
"Oh yeah, he loves playing pranks on me; he's also a wiz with comps. Actually he's my backup, he's done work for me on the side. Great guy all round."
"Are you…..ah going out?"
Heather looked at her sis, seems she was a curious one. "We've dated but nothing really full time, I like him though."
"Hmmm cool." The doorbell rang and Sabrina went to the door. "Well here goes nothing." She looked in the spyglass and saw a side view of someone's midriff. "Big." She said quietly to herself, she straightened her shirt then opened the door. "Hi Hector, bring it right in."
Hector was a blonde equine with massive everything, you name it, it was big. It was easy to see why he was in the moving business. However at the moment he wasn't moving, he just stood transfixed staring at Sabrina. He was so bewildered that he almost dropped the huge box he was carrying.
"Heather…..Wha…wha…happened to you?????" He was obviously in shock.
Well time to play the part, she thought, in for a pound…, " Well, like the new look?" She did a pirouette and then faced him again. "Better come in before you drop that." She pointed to the box.
He shook his head but still couldn't believe what he was witnessing. He moved into the small apartment still stunned and confused. " You have some serious explaining, fourfoot."
He put the box down then focused his attention back on Sabrina. He was at a loss for words, "Heather spill……What happened?"
She gave Hector another look, now that the large box didn't obscure her view. There was no doubt this guy took care of himself, he was positively huge in every respect, even down there. It was hard to miss. Sabrina knew that whoever snagged him better prepare themselves for quite a ride.
"Don't you like the new look?" She said innocently.
"Heather it's fine, more than that is fabulous but I saw you only a week ago….no way could you have recovered from an operation like this. I don't even know if it's possible!" Then it came to him, there could be only one solution to this, "You're not Heather are you!!" He said pointing a finger.
Sabrina guessed the gig was up but out of the corner of her eye she saw Heather motioning for her to go on. She thought what the heck, he would know the truth soon enough.
She tilted her head and gave him a strange look, "Ah…Hector who else would I be." She shook her head. "Please take the monitor out of the box and put it on the desk over there. Sabrina isn't really that strong."
"Uh..sure but WHAT HAPPENED!!!!!" He exclaimed and pointing to the obviously absent backside.
She sighed…, "Ok, I made a wish!" Sabrina said with a straight face and in the other room she saw Heather holding her hands over her muzzle trying to hold back a laugh.
"What!" Hector eyes opened wide. This didn't make any sense; he just shook his head. Now his brain hurt.
"I wished on a falling star and I awoke like this, free of my other legs. I was ecstatic so was everyone else, thought I would surprise you, ahhh….surprise." She threw her arms up to show off.
He gave her this weird look, "Yeah right and I'm related to monkey's. You expect me to believe that!!! Come on Heather I'm not an idiot!"
Sabrina now was treading into territory she didn't like, she was feeling very uncomfortable right now.
"Ok don't believe your eyes, let me help you with that box." She thought that if she stopped talking it might take the pressure off. As she moved by Hector he gave her a good sniff, a really good sniff.
"Hector!!!!"
After his sniff he took a step back stunned, "It is you!!!! I doubted my eyes but your scent matches."
"What?" This surprised her, she didn't think she could have the same scent as Heather but then again she was her clone…ah sister, oh she still wasn't exactly sure.
"Your scent.." He said.
"I know, Heather!" Sabrina called out but as it turned out she was already bouncing out of the back room.
"I heard, that's fascinating."
Hector couldn't believe his eyes, seeing the two of them together was too much for him. "There's two of them!" He said quietly to himself. He found a chair and sat down, he needed to sit this out.
"Heather, I have your scent."
"Yeah, but I didn't think that was possible." Heather gave Sabrina a smell but couldn't really smell anything different, but then again she shouldn't. But however she did know her nose wasn't the greatest either…she hated having a bad sense of smell. "Hector come over here and smell us."
Hector just sat there in awe, there were two of them, the thought just kept going over and over in his mind.
"Ah…Earth to Hector." Heather said as she gave him a poke.
"Ah….there are two of you." He said with a slight pause between each word.
"Yeah, sorry there, Blondie…you were the victim of my prank." She rubbed his mane, "Hhahaha funny wasn't it." She had a big grin on her face but Hector didn't look amused.
"This wasn't funny, Heather."
"I thought it was, you should have seen your face…..hahaha. Ok guess intros are needed, Hector this is Sabrina, my sister and Sabrina this is Hector."
"Your sister?" Hector said as he put out his paw to greet Sabrina.
"Nice to meet you Hector."
"You too Sabrina, I think……ah I dunno……your sister Heather?" He said in a very confused tone.
"Long story Blondie, but I'll fill you in."
"I was close to letting you off the hook anyway." Sabrina smiled at him; he was a nice guy.
"Well, you two really had me going; that's for sure." He scratched his head. "I won't forget this one, fourfoot, although I don't think I'll be able to top it and that's the understatement of the week."
"Point taken, now if you could give me a sniff, just want to be sure."
"Sure." He gave both of them a good whiff and the results were the same. "You're the same, as scent goes."
"That's strange." Heather said, sitting down. It was then Hector's watch began to beep.
"Oh drat!" Hector said turning the alarm off. "Sorry ladies but I've got to get your stuff off the truck. I'm due down town to pick up some more stuff before the place closes."
"Oh sorry Hector I didn't know you were on a tight schedule today." Heather said sincerely sorry.
"S'ok..fourfoot, usually I'm not but today is special."
"I've got a few more boxes on the truck, I'll be right back up."
"Ah….anything I can carry?" Sabrina said hoping she could help.
"Yeah there is a small box that would save me one trip."
"Be right back, Heather; help yourself to more juice ok."
"Sure; I'll buzz you in."
They left Heather and headed to the truck.
He thought it best to strike up a conversation to clear his befuddled mind. "You really had me going back there, Sabrina. I mean I couldn't understand it and when I got your scent, well I almost fell over. You almost had me believing in wishes." He smiled at Sabrina and found that he missed seeing Heather's taur half.
"I can imagine, sorry bout that….ah….you actually haven't heard the whole story yet."
"Oh!?" Hector approached his truck and opened the back door. "So, I haven't heard it all?" He said as he grabbed a box off the truck.
"Well I'm a twin."
Hector did a double take, "What!"
"I have a twin sister, Heather it turns out is a clone of me." She waited and Hector just blinked. "And I have another sister who looks like me, but isn't quite the same as me."
Hector just shook his head. "Let me get this straight, you have a twin sister, another sister who sort of looks like you and Heather who is a clone of you." He didn't think he could repeat what she just said to him.
"Right, there are 4 of us in total, all different and then again the same, it's confusing."
"To say the least, wow!"
"It's a complicated story, though."
"It sounds like it." He handed Sabrina a medium sized box. "Can you handle this one?"
"Yeah, no problem." She watched as he got out a trolley and put several more boxes on it. "Those all mine?"
"Yup, printer, scanner…other stuff." He smiled.
"Wow! You sure are strong, I know a woman who's built like you."
"Oh!" His eyebrows when up, "You're kidding right?"
"No, her name is Kathren, she's a Giant Alaskan Sea Otter and it seems they tend to be on the large side."
"She sounds interesting, does she live around here?"
"Yeah, but she prefers…..ah…….females."
"Oh……well still a woman my size I'd still like to meet."
"Well I think I could arrange it sometime."
"I'd like that Sabrina." He then reached into his pocket and handed Sabrina something. "Don't forget that."
"What is it?"
"It's a phone jack splitter, Heather seems to always forget one when she does an install so I usually pick one up."
"You seem to know Heather very well." She winked.
"I've picked up on a few things, she's a hard worker. Rarely leaves the shop till after nine."
"Really?" That would make for a long day.
"Yeah she works way too hard."
They made their way back up and Hector said his good byes. With all the large parcels taken care of and the monitor safely on the desk he was free to leave. Sabrina watched as Heather began to unpack some of the things.
"Well don't just stand there, open up something. Put any disk or manual on the chair over there."
"Ok."
"After we get things all unpacked, you're going to put this thing together."
"Me! Heather I know hardly anything about these things. Well I know how to use Windows, Word, and Excel but that's my limit. We didn't get into the hardware side of things."
"S'ok but once I show you, you won't believe how easy it is."
"Ok if you say so, Hector says you work too hard."
"Not hard enough I'm afraid, my butt is getting huge." Heather turned around to look at her behind. However Sabrina couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
For Sabrina having a computer at home worked out great, for the first few nights it was new and exciting. Being able to chat with her sister and her friends was fabulous. However the novelty wore off and she fell into a normal routine, she enjoyed normal. If having an identical sister and two more as clones, could be considered normal. She had also begun to work for Heather; the first few days were awkward for she was constantly running back and forth to Heather with question after question. But she did some research with the magazines that Heather got delivered to the store, plus Max helped her since he'd had his computer for quite awhile. Experience helped a lot in this business and in the end it helped her on the sales end of things. Enough so that Heather was really impressed. And so slowly Sabrina's life returned to a routine, one she could follow. Her sister Sabrina had been busy trying to get everything planned for the reunion. Everyone was looking forward to it, now all that remained was to choose a good time. Meaning that they had to pick a good time for Swallow.
Sabrina counted the till twice and was pleased it balanced. Her first few days were not as lucky, however she was back on track. She closed off the register for the day, all in all not a bad day's take. She thanked God it was Friday; working two jobs was tough. Friday's were especially hard since the store stayed open 'til nine. She put in her call for a cab; then put the receipts and money in the safe. With that done she went to see how Heather was faring. The last time they spoke she hadn't made much of the way of progress on a certain system.
"Closing time!" She announced as she came into the small room. It seemed small due to the fact that Heather was taking up quite a bit of it. She looked up at Sabrina as she entered.
"Already? Time has flown by tonight."
"Not behind the counter it doesn't." Sabrina grimaced.
"Sorry Sabrina, fun, thrills, and excitement is a whole different type of job."
"Yeah, I know." Sabrina sighed. "Well everything is put away, the till is done; $4200.47 in sales tonight."
"Heather's eyes lit up, "That is pretty good for a Friday, must be my new sales girl. They say she's hot." Heather winked.
"Oh yeah, with my big butt, tell me another." She saw that Heather had a multitude of tools out. "What 'cha doing?"
"Oh, this is a customer's card, it's faulty, thought I could fix it but it has a bad chip I think. Returns are such a hassle and I never seem to do well by them. They never just want to give me a new card, 'oh we'll fix it, just send it back' all at my expense of course. But as of late I've been using another company to repair cards; so far so good. Most of the cards just have fuses that are blown, which are easily fixed, with the right tools."
"Oh that's good." Sabrina then glanced at her watch, "Oops my cab should almost be here. I'll turn the lights out and lock up."
"Ok Sis, thanks for a job well done. Sorry I didn't see you too much tonight."
"It's ok; you had other things on your mind. If you want you can come over this weekend." It was then that she noticed something odd about Heather. "Heather you don't look well, you must be half asleep." She was really concerned. " Why don't you come with me in the cab? You can stay over at my place."
Heather shook her head, "I'm ok, I won't stay here much longer; don't worry. Now you scoot, ok? Yeah, the weekend sounds good, Sis, I don't think I have much planned, can't work on this much longer anyway."
"Ok Heather, please don't stay too long, ok?" Sabrina said with obvious concern.
"I'll be fine, now scoot."
"Ok, I'll call tomorrow."
"C-yah."
Sabrina watched as Heather went back to probing the card with her instruments. She knew that she wouldn't leave anytime soon. She got her purse and coat and crossed the room to the light control for the main shop. She flicked the switches and everything became dark. However the street lamp outside lit the place up enough for her to find the doorknob. Outside she locked the door with her key. She knew Heather would check it before she left but it was good to have a clean record with important stuff, like locking up.
At home Sabrina started into a project she had to do for work. The advertisement needed some fancy lettering to be done around a lovely young female fox. She was staring at herself in a mirror wearing some very provocative underwear. She started to work and time flew by and when she finally gave the clock a good look it was 10 after midnight. She yawned, "Well guess this will have to wait till tomorrow" she said to herself. She smiled for it was really looking good. It was then the phone rang. She moved out into the living room and answered the call.
"Hello?" She said in question, not sure who would be calling her this late.
"Sabrina this is Mrs. White, would Heather be there?"
Oh Heather, you promised! She was mad at herself for not making her come with her now. "No, Mrs. White Heather was working on something when I left at nine." It was then that she heard Nancy's voice talking from a distance, addressing her husband.
"She's not there, Sid, I'm worried."
"I'm heading over there." Sid said.
"I'm going with you, hold on." Nancy then returned to the phone. "Sorry Sabrina, Heather isn't answering the phone at the store and it's really late, I'm worried."
"It's ok, Mrs. White; I'd be too; she looked tired when I left, I'm betting she fell asleep. I over heard you were going to the store. Would you call me from there, I'd just like to know everything was ok."
"I will Sabrina."
"Thanks Mrs. White."
"Good bye." The phone went dead leaving Sabrina to wonder. Blast that Heather; she promised, plus it really wasn't like her not to call. Now her mind began to churn with worry.
The car pulled up to the front of the store and the first thing they noticed was that all the lights were still on. Sid didn't like that at all. As they approached the front door they were able to see into the store and what they saw horrified them.
End Of Chapter 8
Silence………chirp chirp…….