Her Children

``Come on kids, dinner is served!'' Eliza called from the kitchen. Above her, the pitter-patter sound of four feet scrambling across the wooden floor boards was followed by the soft thuds of their owners charging down the stairs to the best of their abilities. Eliza smiled to herself. It was the life that she had imagined she would live, to be married with her beau from high school and to have two lovely children, Aileen, an auburn-haired girl of six, and Chad, her fraternal twin. She did not quite imagine that she would carry twins, let alone fraternal ones too, but she did have the thought of having a boy and a girl at some point. That they came together was a blessing.

The two rambunctious children ran the remaining short distance from the stairs that led to the main hallway into the kitchen, appearing at the doorway at almost the same time, jostling each other as they playfully fought to get into the kitchen first. It was an old game, one that Eliza was not really fond of due to the rough nature, but she had since given up on trying to convince them to mend their ways. Besides, the twins were evenly matched physically, and so there was never a clear danger of one accidentally hurting the other, and their childish naivete was an ironic entertainment for her.

``Stop pushing each other and come in like civilised children,'' Eliza said for the umpteenth time as she slopped a goop of steamed peas onto each plate. Dinner was a simple affair most of the time, some stir-fried chicken, a scallion omelette, and the peas, together with some mashed potato. Eliza was not much of a cook herself, but ever since she had brought the twins to the world, she had tried her best to improve her cooking while making the food as healthy and as interesting as she could. Her experience in cooking before her pregnancy was limited to making instant noodles with a pot of hot water, a skill learnt during her college days while living in the dormitories.

The twins grinned at each other while seemingly heeding their mother's exhortations and gave themselves one last playful shove before sitting themselves around the kitchen table where their plates were. Eliza had set the table for four---Simon was about to come back soon from work. It was rather unusual though, for him to be this late. Often he would be back before six, but he had called in to tell her that something cropped up on the office that needed some looking into, and that he would be back as close to six as he could.

Eliza looked at the clock unconsciously. It was a quarter past six. She debated if she should give him a call at the office to confirm if he was still going to be back in time, but quickly decided against it. It was not as though there were something urgent that needed his attention, and she knew just how important his work was at the office that even a small distraction could be disastrous.

There was a loud crash, followed quickly by another, and Eliza was forced to snap out of her day dream. She turned to look at the source of the crashes.

Aileen was lying prone, her face smashed up into the plate of food. Eliza shrieked in shock and went over to Aileen, moving her face from the plate of food and leaning her back on the chair, trying to see what had happened. Aileen's stained face showed no response, her eyes staring back at Eliza motionless. Frightened, Eliza released her grip from Aileen, who promptly fell back into the plate of food. She then turned her eyes towards Chad.

Chad was not in his seat. Eliza looked about and saw that Chad had fallen off his chair somehow. But like Aileen, there was a mysterious silence; no screams of pain, no cries of discomfort. But unlike Aileen, Chad had fallen into pieces, with his limbs cracked open as though made of some hard plastic, the gears and springs within showing themselves as bits and pieces of broken cogs were strewn all over the floor, some even rolling away.

The sight was too much to bear for Eliza, for she screamed bloody murder and swooned just as a heavy set of boots came into the house.


Eliza found herself in a hospital, feeling heavily sedated. In between consciousness and unconsciousness, she could swear she heard Simon talking to himself. All that she could remember was his repeating words of sorry, that he should have come back early and keep them wound up, that he was running the risk of them losing power while he was away. What he meant by that, she never knew, since she slowly slipped off into a long sleep that she would not awake from.