The Two and Only Kelly Twins Read online

  Chapter One

  Meet Arlene and Ilene

  Chapter Two

  Two Pets for Two Girls

  Chapter Three

  Triplets!

  Chapter Four

  The Playdate

  Chapter Five

  Which Witch Is Which?

  Chapter Six

  The Separation

  Arlene Kelly and Ilene Kelly were sisters. They were also twins. In fact they were identical twins. That means that they looked just alike. They both had straight brown hair, which they wore in matching short ponytails. They also both had brown eyes and wore the same style glasses. In addition, they had the same shaped noses and chins. They were the same height and the same weight. Hardly anyone, except their parents and they themselves, could tell them apart. Arlene and Ilene were seven years old on their birthday this year. But there was one difference between the girls. Arlene had been born at 11:55 p.m. on July 17th, and Ilene, who was just eight minutes younger, was born at 12:03 a.m. on July 18th.

  “We must be the only identical twins who have different birthdays,” said Arlene. She was proud of being a day older than her sister.

  “I doubt it,” said their mom.

  “Don’t forget: you’re not really a whole day older than me,” said Ilene. “You are only eight minutes older. That’s hardly any time at all.”

  “Eight minutes is long enough to eat a sandwich,” said Arlene.

  “No. You would choke if you ate so fast,” insisted Ilene.

  “Eight minutes is long enough to make my bed,” said Arlene.

  “Eight minutes is not long enough to take a bath,” said Ilene.

  “Yes, it is,” said Arlene.

  “No, it’s not,” said Ilene. “You’d still be dirty.”

  “No, I wouldn’t.”

  “Yes, you would.”

  “Eight minutes of arguing is enough to drive a mother crazy,” said Mrs. Kelly. “Why don’t you girls go outdoors and roller-skate until supper time?”

  So the girls went outdoors, and in less than eight minutes, in fact in less than two minutes, they were laughing and racing each other down the street. They might argue, they might disagree, but mostly they were best friends. They knew they were lucky to always have someone nearby to play with or do their homework with or help when they were setting the table for a meal.

  Of course they knew other kids. In fact, on the street where they lived, there were two other children just their age. Unfortunately they were both boys: Monty and Joey. Luckily both boys were friendly, and the four often played together. Monty even took karate lessons with Arlene and Ilene. And Joey and Monty had been in the same first-grade class as Ilene. Still, even with other friends around, Arlene and Irene knew that being a twin was very special, and they considered themselves lucky.

  All last year, there were two other sets of twins at their school. One set were sixth-grade sisters who were not identical. No one could guess that those two girls were even related, much less twins. One was tall, and one was short. One had curly hair, and one had straight. But they both had crooked teeth and wore braces. Half the girls in sixth grade wore braces, so that wasn’t much of a clue. And since they didn’t look alike, people tended to forget they were twins.

  The other set of twins were in fifth grade. They weren’t identical, either. One was a boy and the other a girl. People tended to forget they were twins, too.

  No one could forget about Arlene and Ilene. When they were born, Mrs. Kelly received dozens and dozens of matching sets of clothing. For their first four years of life, the girls always wore the same outfits. When they had finally outgrown the last of these gift items, Mrs. Kelly thought the girls would be delighted to pick out their own clothes. When she took them shopping for winter jackets, she was in for a surprise.

  “My favorite color is blue,” said Ilene.

  “My favorite color is blue,” said Arlene.

  “I said it first,” said Ilene. “You could pick green.”

  “I hate green,” said Arlene. “Green is for frogs.”

  “How about red?” suggested Ilene.

  “I hate red. Red is for ketchup. My favorite color is blue.”

  “You like ketchup on French fries,” said Ilene.

  “I’m not a French fry. I’m a girl. And my favorite color is blue.”

  “All right, all right,” said Mrs. Kelly. “We’ll buy two blue jackets.”

  “Yippee,” Arlene sang out.

  “Yippee Doodle,” Ilene sang out.

  “Yippee Doodle? Don’t you mean ‘Yankee Doodle’?” asked Arlene.

  “Nope. ‘Yippee Doodle’ means I’m extra happy. I can wear my blue jacket, and I can look at your blue jacket.”

  “Yippee Doodle,” Arlene agreed.

  And that’s how it went when the twins selected new pants, sweaters, shirts, caps, and mittens. Of course not everything was blue. They got brown pants and green pants as well as blue ones. And they got red-and-white-striped sweaters and white shirts with blue polka dots. But all of their clothes matched. And they always liked to wear them on the same day.

  “How will anyone be able to tell you apart?” asked Mrs. Kelly, looking at her matching children.

  “Can you tell us apart?” asked Arlene.

  “Well, of course. I’m your mother,” said Mrs. Kelly. “Your father and I have lived with you every day since you were born. I know that your voices are slightly different and your smiles are slightly different. And your father knows it, too.”

  “Well, if you can tell us apart, everyone else should be able to do it, too,” said Ilene.

  “Wouldn’t it be funny if I woke up one morning and couldn’t remember whether I was Ilene or Arlene?” said Arlene.

  Ilene started laughing. “We could pretend to be each other,” she suggested.

  “No way,” said Arlene. “I like being me. I like being Arlene.”

  “That’s okay,” said Ilene shrugging. “I like being Ilene.”

  “Good. That’s settled,” said Mrs. Kelly.

  Just after the twins’ seventh birthday, Mr. and Mrs. Kelly finally agreed that Arlene and Ilene were old enough to have a pet.

  “I want a kitten,” said Arlene.

  “I want a puppy,” said Ilene.

  “A kitten. I said it first,” said Arlene.

  “No. A puppy. I said it louder,” insisted Ilene.

  “We can’t get both,” said their mother. “The animals would probably fight.”

  “No, they wouldn’t,” said Arlene.

  “No, they wouldn’t,” agreed Ilene.

  “I think your mother is right. A cat and a dog in the same house can mean trouble,” said Mr. Kelly.

  “Then let’s get a kitten. Caroline at school has an orange cat that had babies. She said she’d give me one, and I want one that is orange, too,” said Arlene.

  “No fair,” said Ilene. “I want a puppy.”

  “Puppies are lots of work,” Mrs. Kelly said. “They need to be walked several times a day, even in the rain or snow. You’ve seen Joey. He walks his dogs as soon as he comes home from school every day. And he does it after supper, too.”

  “I’d love to walk a puppy,” said Ilene.

  “I wouldn’t,” said Arlene. “If we got a puppy, I’d never, ever walk it.”

  “I don’t care,” said Ilene. “I’d walk the puppy all the time.”

  “No,” said Mr. Kelly. “A puppy grows into a dog, and this house isn’t big enough for two adults, two growing girls, and a dog.”

  “So let’s get a kitten,” said Arlene, smiling at what she was sure was victory. “Even when a kitten grows into a cat, it’s still smaller than a dog.”

  “No.
Wait,” Ilene said. “We could get one of those teeny-tiny dogs with the funny name. A Chihuahua. Remember we saw a lady with one when we went to the library last week? It was so little, she had it in a canvas shopping bag with her books.”

  “I don’t want a Chihuahua,” said Arlene.

  “Well, I don’t want a cat,” said Ilene.

  “And I don’t want all this arguing,” said Mrs. Kelly. “Just forget what Dad and I said about getting a pet.”

  “But you promised us,” Ilene reminded her mother.

  “Yes you did,” said Arlene. “You said after we finished first grade, we’d be old enough to have a pet.”

  “How about a tank of fish?” suggested Mr. Kelly.

  “No,” said Arlene and Ilene in unison.

  “Well, I’m glad you girls can agree on some things,” said Mrs. Kelly. “But we’re not making any decisions today in any event.”

  So a couple of weeks went by, and all of Caroline’s kittens were adopted, much to Arlene’s disappointment. And Mr. and Mrs. Kelly remained firm about not getting a dog.

  Then one evening Mr. Kelly came home from work carrying his briefcase, a newspaper, and a box.

  “What’s in there?” asked Ilene, pointing to the box. She knew that the briefcase held only boring old papers.

  “It’s a surprise,” her father said.

  “Is it for us?” asked Arlene hopefully.

  “Yes. It’s two pets,” Mr. Kelly said. “One for each of you.”

  The box wasn’t very big, so right away Arlene shouted, “Kittens! You got us kittens!”

  “No.”

  “Chihuahuas!” shouted Ilene, rushing to hug her father.

  “No.”

  “Then what is it?” asked Arlene puzzled.

  “Here’s a hint. It starts with an f,” said Mr. Kelly. “And remember, there are two of them.”

  The two sisters looked at each other. “We don’t want fish,” Arlene reminded her father.

  “No fish,” he said.

  “Frogs?” guessed Ilene. She wrinkled her nose. Who’d want a pair of frogs for pets?

  “Look,” said Mr. Kelly.

  Arlene and Ilene stood shoulder to shoulder and watched as their father opened the box. Inside were two skinny animals with matching white hair, small claws, and tails.

  “What are they?” asked Arlene.

  “Ferrets,” her father said.

  “Wow. Ferrets,” said Ilene. “Aren’t they cute?” she asked as she admired the little faces, which almost resembled those of puppies or kittens. “I never even heard of ferrets. We’ll be the only kids at school with ferrets for pets,” she told her sister.

  “Cool,” agreed Arlene. She reached out a finger to pet one of the animals.

  “One of the men at my office is going to be working overseas. These ferrets belonged to his children, but the family agreed it would be too difficult to settle in a new country with these critters. So he offered them to me.”

  Each girl picked up one of the ferrets, and they began petting them. “He’s so soft,” cooed Ilene.

  “I love him,” said Arlene.

  Mr. Kelly went back to his car and returned with a large wire cage for the new pets to live in.

  “Do they have to stay in the cage all the time?” asked Ilene.

  “No. Just when you’re not playing with them, like when you’re at school.”

  “What should we name them?” asked Arlene.

  “Whatever you want,” Mr. Kelly said. “Mr. Clifton said that they are both females.”

  “I don’t care,” said Arlene. “I want to name mine Benjamin Franklin Ferret,” she announced. “And I’ll call him Frankie for short.”

  Ilene couldn’t think of a name that fast. She mumbled different names to herself, trying them out. Then she suddenly remembered something. “What is the name of that cookbook you always use?” she asked her mother.

  “The Joy of Cooking?”

  “No. The other one, that you said was a wedding present from Dad’s grandmother. The author has a name that starts with F.”

  Mrs. Kelly thought for a moment. “Do you mean The Fannie Farmer Cookbook?”

  “Yes,” said Ilene, nodding. “My ferret will be called Fannie Farmer Ferret. That’s a better name for a girl ferret,” she added, making a face at her sister.

  “I don’t know if either of those are appropriate names for ferrets,” said Mr. Kelly.

  “Who knows what appropriate names for ferrets are?” said his wife.

  And so that’s how Frankie and Fannie came to live with Arlene and Ilene Kelly.

  If truth be told, Arlene and Ilene could not tell the ferrets apart. They didn’t really know which was Frankie and which was Fannie. Like the twins themselves, they seemed identical. However, one particularly loved raisins and the other loved peanut butter on a piece of cracker.

  Whichever one Arlene held she called Frankie. And whichever one Ilene picked up she called Fannie. It didn’t seem to matter to the ferrets, and it didn’t matter to the sisters. The girls combed the ferrets’ hair, dressed them in doll clothes, cut up fruit for them, and portioned out dry food for them, too. They cleaned out the cage often, dumping the soiled newspaper from the bottom of the cage into the garbage pail. Then they cut up fresh, dry newspapers. They both agreed that their ferrets were perfect pets.

  Sometimes the ferrets escaped when Arlene and Ilene were grooming them. They jumped off of the bed and hid underneath it. Then Arlene or Ilene would get down on the floor and hunt until she found the hiding creatures.

  On the Saturday before school started after summer vacation, either Frankie or Fannie ran away.

  “It must be Fannie, because I’m holding Frankie,” said Arlene.

  “Maybe yes and maybe no,” said Ilene, wishing she was the one holding a ferret and her sister was the one down on her hands and knees, looking. When ten minutes passed without success, Arlene offered to help in the search. She put the ferret she had been holding inside the cage and got down on the floor. “It’s too dark to see very much,” she complained.

  Arlene got up and got a flashlight. She turned it on and moved it around to give herself and her sister a better view of the room. “Oh, look,” she exclaimed, picking up a cap from one of their markers. “I was looking for this.”

  “The marker must have dried up by now,” said Ilene grumpily. She stood up and stretched. Where else could she look? she wondered.

  The girls’ backpacks were on the floor, ready and all packed for the first day of school. Ilene picked up hers and turned it upside down. It would be wonderful if Fannie was inside. But no, only a box of crayons, two pencils, an old shirt of her father’s to use as a painting smock, and a paperback book to read during quiet time. These things all fell out on the floor. Then she turned the other backpack upside down. Now there were two boxes of crayons, four pencils, two old shirts, and two paperback books on the floor. There was no sign of Fannie.

  “Maybe she went to another room,” suggested Arlene.

  “This house is too big,” Ilene whined. “We’ll never find her.”

  “Come on. I’ll help you. I’ll look in the kitchen and the living room. You look in Mom and Dad’s bedroom and the bathroom.”

  Usually Ilene didn’t like it when Arlene told her what to do. But this was not a time to argue. This was the time to find Fannie.

  Each girl went to her assigned rooms. They crawled on the floor and looked in every corner. Suddenly, when she slid her fingers underneath the clothes hamper in the bathroom, Ilene felt a sharp pain. She pulled out her hand, and a drop of blood fell on the floor. A moment later, out popped Fannie’s head.

  Ilene grabbed hold of the ferret. “You naughty, naughty girl!” she scolded the ferret. “I won’t give you any raisins today.”

  She ran into her bedroom and put the ferret into the cage. Then she went to show her mother the wound on her finger.

  It was not the first time either of the girls had been bitten. A book t
hey had borrowed from the library warned that ferrets often nip their owners. The girls had gotten good at holding their pets in such a way that they escaped most little bites. But this was the worst bite Ilene had gotten.

  Mrs. Kelly washed Ilene’s finger and put some iodine on the bite. It stung for a moment, but Ilene was brave and didn’t cry. Then her mother put a bandage on Ilene’s finger. “You must have startled Frankie,” she said. “That’s why she bit you.”

  “Fannie,” said Arlene, correcting her mother.

  “If you say so,” said Mrs. Kelly.

  Ten minutes later, both girls were skating down the street, looking to see if their friends Monty and Joey were around. Ilene wanted to show off her wound.

  Mrs. Kelly replaced the bandage with a clean one on Sunday and again on Monday. She put a fresh bandage on Ilene’s finger on Tuesday before the girls left for school. “You probably don’t need to cover it any longer,” she said to Ilene. But Ilene insisted.

  So that’s how their new classmates could tell one twin from another on the first day of school. Arlene was in Mrs. Storch’s second-grade class. Ilene was in Ms. Frost’s second-grade class. And it was Ilene who was wearing a bandage on her left index finger. At least for the next couple of days.

  It was quite amazing. On the first day of second grade, everyone was talking about it.

  When Arlene walked into her new classroom, Caroline Marks came rushing over to report to her.

  “There are three sets of twins in kindergarten this year,” Caroline Marks told her.

  “No kidding,” said Arlene. “Three sets. That’s amazing.” She wasn’t exactly happy with the news. She liked being a twin and didn’t especially want to share that honor with the six new kids.

  “That’s nothing,” Paul Asher said, pointing to a girl standing nearby. “She’s a triplet!”

  “A triplet?” Everyone turned to look at the girl. She was not someone who had been in kindergarten or first grade at their school.

  “I don’t believe it,” Arlene said.

  The girl turned to look at her. Then she nodded. “It’s true,” she said. “I have a sister in Ms. Frost’s class and a brother in Mrs. Gregory’s class.”