The Rite Twins

1: What Do I Know?

What do I know?

I don’t live anyplace special, or anyplace you’ve ever heard of or been. It’s a quiet undisturbed town in the mid-eastern part of Michigan. I’m from the town of Healing. Lately, it’s the one thing we’ve lacked. Welcome to Healing, Michigan, the United States of America.

It was any normal February in Healing. By normal, I mean completely ABNORMAL weather. Cold one minute; hot the next. I had just turned 18. 2003. The year I graduate. I knew it would be the biggest moment in my life. What did I know?

In downtown Healing, there’s a small café. It’s sort of the “local hangout”. There’s a park just outside of downtown and a small shopping center just outside the district, both places of popular interest. It was around 7 pm on the night I decided to go. I believe it was the second Saturday of February, but who can remember anymore? It was pretty bare, but considering the weather was fair, I figured everyone was at the park or out playing pranks or the such. Kelly Hart was there, reading in the corner on a couch. Michelle Anderson was working the counter, Jim Schwartz doing the “heavy work”, and the manager, Kim Lithe (who had graduated 2 yrs previous), seemed to be asleep in the break room. It seemed the average spring evening, considering it was still winter.

I grabbed a muffin and a hot chocolate and sat down at a table in front of the window. The sun had set, but there was still a glow of red on the horizon. Being that the café is on the end of the main street in our downtown area, the window wraps around both sides of the street, and there are few houses on this edge of town. You can see straight through to the west. I sat wondering if all the science in the world could make this sight any less miraculous. However, my thoughts were disturbed when the door to the café opened, and the bell on top started to jingle.

Two people walked in and ordered café mochas. I’d never seen either of them before, so they were probably visiting. The girl was about 5’6” to the guy’s 6’2”. Her hair was a short, luscious blond, with the ends curled slightly at the top of her shoulders. Her brown eyes were deep, and somehow shone through her fair skin. His hair was a dark brown, and cut at the ears to a slight bowl style. It rose up in the back, and came back down around the sides, making it look like someone decided to put the bowl over his eyes, instead of his hair. His skin was a caramel color, maybe of slight middle-eastern decent. His brown eyes pierced me as they passed to sit at a table facing the north window.

Nothing struck me as odd about these two. We often had visitors from out of town, coming to visit their grandmother, or great aunt, or perhaps a distant cousin. No one was ever directly related to those in Healing. Most often, those who left Healing never came back, those who moved to Healing never left, and those who visited, never spoke of their experience outside of Healing. Like I said, it was a quiet town. They were ordinary people, but with an unordinary air about them. They were wearing jeans, tennis shoes; she, a light blue tank top under a dark blue button shirt; he, a green rock t-shirt of a group of which I’ve never heard (probably Underground). But there was something about her that I just couldn’t figure out. Was it love?

Around 8, I decided to head back home, probably watch television, and head to bed for the night in order to wake up for church in the morning. I hadn’t driven, no use since I lived just a quarter of a mile south on the same road the café cornered.

When I got home, I walked into the living room and sat on the couch. It was quiet, but it was Saturday night. I rarely went out on Saturdays anymore. I didn’t have a girlfriend, and my friends just liked to prank, which was not my scene. I figured my parents went out to dinner and my brother went pranking with HIS friends. After sitting for a moment, soaking up the peaceful sound of nothing, I turned on the television to find out what movies or shows were on tonight.