An unassuming spoon covered in mayo was no big deal until it slipped and clanged to the floor. White dots galore all over the kitchen cabinets, the floor mat in front of the sink, my bare feet. I grabbed the dishcloth and bent down to wipe up the mess while Peg continued adding bologna to the sandwiches we were assembling for lunch. I wasn’t much on cooking, and so Saturdays, I stuck to cereal and sandwiches. Tomorrow I would give it more effort and add something like Beanee Weenees or canned stew to the meal rotation.

“Oooh! We gonna have company!” Peg announced as he took a step away from the mess I’d just made.

“No. The ole wives’ tale says it has to be a spoon you’re cooking with that falls. I’m not cooking.”

“That’s about as close to cooking as you get,” Charlotte sassed from the other side of the kitchen.

I looked over my shoulder to glare at her, but Knox being smothered by his blanket caught my attention. I pointed to the blue swing that we’d designated for him. “Get that blanket off the baby’s face. And crank Nash’s swing again.” Nash was kicking his tiny legs in the green swing beside his twin. The only way the others could tell which was which was that I kept Nash in green and Knox in blue. Due to spending so much time with them, I could tell them apart by subtle differences in their six-month-old features. Knox’s nose was a little wider at the tip and Nash outweighed his brother by a quarter pound, making his face a bit fuller.

Charlotte did as I asked without giving me any lip. We’d all learned quickly that we were a team and teams couldn’t perform well without unity. The baby twins were the most well-behaved babies in the history of babies. Perhaps they understood from the get-go that it was in their best interest in order to have better odds at surviving. We were pretty much on our own.

Fortunately, I only missed a few weeks of school until the day care at the First Baptist agreed to take the twins, even though they didn’t have spots available. They also looked the other way when my thirteen-year-old self pulled up in Pa’s truck to drop the babies off and pick them up.

Looking back on the juggling act I pulled off, it’s amazing I didn’t drop the ball on something. Thankfully, the school made an exception in my case and set up a short-term homebound program for me. It was also helpful that book smarts always came easy to me, even though nothing else did.