A WEEK OF TROUBLE

It was a cool Saturday afternoon. I sat outside with my sister as we talked and gisted about random things, enjoying each other's company as we ate some biscuits we bought. However, I felt disturbed, everywhere was too peaceful. It was awfully quiet. Something felt off. Everything was far too perfect, too good to be true.

The twins were asleep in their room, but I was still skeptical. Those twins were like a truckload of trouble. You can never get one moment of peace with them. Since the beginning of the week, we had been babysitting them, and it was from one shenanigan to another. The twins were like walking energy, very vibrant and full of trouble. They could play from dusk till dawn, destroying the entire house in the process. And they were awfully obsessed with electronics or anything relating to science. The twins were very dangerous if left unsupervised. There was no telling what they could do under no supervision.

Source

Annabel and Harry, the little twins of only ten years old, were our cousins. Their parents had to travel for a small urgent trip for a week and were in dire need of someone to watch over them. Aunty Lizzy, the twins' mother, had begged us relentlessly to watch over them just for a week, and we had innocently agreed, not knowing what was awaiting us. “How hard could it be to watch over these children?” We thought to ourselves. If only we knew. Aunty Lizzy had jokingly said or so we thought, that they were quite a handful and could be overly obsessed with electronics.

We didn't really understand what she meant by that, until one fateful morning, we woke up to a loud sound in the living room. It was an explosion. We rushed downstairs to the living room, only to see two little kids standing in the midst of the smoke that had clouded the living room. I quickly rushed and checked them for any signs of injuries. Fortunately, there were none.

“Oh my God! ""These children had blown up the speaker" my sister exclaimed, checking what caused the explosion.

I looked at the two twins to see them holding some naked wires and a socket.

“ Where did you get this from?" I asked, grabbing it from them.

" We just wanted to do some experiment we watched on TV, that's all,” they said innocently.

" What experiment for Christ's sake!”

" You almost blew up the TV,“ she said, frustrated and angry.

“ Oya, go to your rooms quickly and let me not see you downstairs" I said, trying to salvage the situation before things got out of hand.

That was just the first incident. We scolded and punished them. But that didn't teach them a lesson. They sneakily went from one hanky-panky to another. Their obsession with electronics and the likes drove them from one mischief to another. We were afraid to let them out of our sights. We got rid of any electronics and things that could pose a danger to them. But these kids were so mischievous. Somehow they manage to find one or two here and there.

Two days ago, they tried toasting a banana with the toaster all in the name of some experiment they wanted to carry out. Ever since then, we have been locking the kitchen door to keep them from getting access.

“Sis, everywhere is far too quiet” I said, voicing my apprehension.

“That's because the twins are finally asleep", she answered with relief.

“But you know, twins don't sleep in the afternoon. They usually play from morning till dusk. "I think I smell a rat”, I said with conviction.

" You might be right, let's go check on them”, she concurred with me.

Together we quickly went to their rooms to check on them, but they were not there.

“So these children had feigned to be asleep so they could carry out another mischief”, my sister said in wonder.

“ Let's just quickly look for them before they injure themselves in the process" I said.

We got to it, searching from room to room and the entire house in the process, but we couldn't find them. Where on earth could they be? I thought to myself, frustrated.

“Let's check the backyard,” my sister exclaimed.

We went there and, lo and behold, there they were about to light up my perfume bottle.

“What are you doing? "we shouted in unison.

They looked at us sheepishly, knowing we had caught them red-handed.

“Please Aunty, don't be mad” they said in their cute little voices.

" We only wanted to test if the gas was flammable,” they continued.

I looked at them with wonder. They were small but very smart and dangerously intelligent. Luckily, we got there in time to stop them, otherwise it would have been a different story.