The Return

Laura opened her eyes to see two identical faces staring at her. This does not look like the hospital, she thought.

“Mom, are you alright? Who were you talking to in the dream?” Lisa asked, whispering as she moved closer to observe her mother’s face.

Laura’s eyes snapped open as she realized where she was—in the airplane on her way back to New York.

“Mom, your eyes are red,” Liam said as he also observed his mother’s face.

They had boarded on a first-class ticket, so they had the whole section to themselves. Laura didn’t have to worry about them disturbing the other passengers.

“I’m okay, baby girl." Laura said to Lisa, and she turned to Liam and said, “It’s because I was sleeping.”

“Liam, are my eyes red too?” Lisa turned to her brother so he could observe her eyes too.

Liam bent towards Lisa, peering into her eyes to observe. “No, they are too tiny to be red, I guess,” Liam said.

“Is that true, mom?” Lisa asked her mother, who was smiling at them, glad that she had distracted them from her mood.

“Humm, I guess genius Liam is correct,” Laura replied.

“I told you, you should listen to me more often,” Liam told his sister in triumph.

Lisa scrunched up her face, folded her hands, and turned towards the window instead.

Laura rolled her eyes. She pulled out her phone to check if she had received any messages from her assistant. Audrey. She was returning after seven years, and there were only two things that had brought her back.

“Mom, I need to go to the restroom,” Liam said casually.

“Oh, do you want to pee?” Laura asked.

“Mom! You don’t say that in public” Liam replied, his brows raised as he looked at his mom.

“Okay, big guy, let’s go,” Laura said, chuckling.

As Laura and Liam left for the restroom, Lisa stood up and went towards the mini bar.

“Hello, can I get a cherry, please?” she asked in a cute voice.

The attendant looked around, wondering who had spoken, as the bar obscured her from his view.

Lisa shook her head, rolled her eyes, and stretched out her hand as she said, “Down here.”

“Oh, of course you can have a cherry, not just here,” the attendant replied.

Before Lisa could reply, a gentleman walked up to them. “Here you go, little one; you can have these ones,” he said.

Lisa’s eyes brightened up when she saw the cherry. “Oh, thank you!”

“You’re welcome, dear. Now where’s your seat? Let me take you there,” the young man said.

“No, don’t worry; mummy would think I brought Daddy,” Lisa replied as she took the plate.

“Can I have your card instead? My mom says every gentleman has a card,” Lisa said, looking up at the handsome man in front of her.

“Aren’t you a cute one?" the man said, chuckling. He dipped his hand in his pocket, hoping he found a card. He had stood up to bring her the cherry when he heard her voice from his seat.

“Here you go,” the man said after finding one in his pantsuit.

“Thank you!” Lisa said as she hurried on her small feet back to their section.

When Laura got back to her seat, she saw her daughter with a plate full of cherries.

“Lisa, how did you get that?” Laura asked.

“A handsome man gave it to me,” Lisa replied innocently. Laura wanted to say more, but she let it go, knowing her daughter was smarter than she looked and would not collect something from a stranger. It had to be one of the attendants she was referring to as ‘handsome’, Laura thought.

“Liam, come over here,” Lisa called before Laura could strap him into his seat.

Liam saw the look in his sister’s eyes and knew she wanted to discuss something with him. Turning to his mother, Liam asked, “Mom, can I sit beside Lisa while you sit in my own seat?”

Laura knew when her twins were trying to be mischievous, but she agreed because, well, they were aboard a plane, and there was only so little they could do.

“Okay, go ahead,” Laura agreed.

As soon as Laura sat down, she plugged in airphones so she could listen to messages from some of her clients while working on her laptop.

When Liam saw their mother was preoccupied, he asked, “Lisa, what did you find?”

“I found candidate number one,” Lisa whispered back.

“Cool, I just need to find my own candidate, then we can choose one,” Liam replied with a cheeky smile.

“You need to do it before we leave the airport, though, so you can get his card like I did,” Lisa told her brother.

Each time Laura looked up, she saw her twins whispering to each other, “I wonder what they are cooking this time around,” Laura muttered before getting back to work.

A few heartbeats later, the plane landed, and they were passed through immigration. Laura constantly checked to make sure her twin was with her.

“This is going to be fun,” Lisa said, her small brown eyes twinkling. Beside her, Liam was laughing too, his small eyes filled with joy as they finally made it through the checkpoints.

“Do not let go of each other, okay?” Laura told them as they walked through the airport.

“Okay, mummy,” the twins chorused.

Satisfied with their response, Laura looked around, trying to look for her name tag, which was supposed to be held by her assistant, Audrey.

“Over here!” Audrey shouted as soon as she saw them.

“Okay, thank God, there she is; let’s go,” Laura said, heading towards Audrey.

“It’s so good to see you,” Audrey said with a big smile when she finally got to them.

“It’s good to see you too, Audrey; I believe you’ve met Liam and Lisa,” Laura said, looking down to point at her children only to find just Lisa.

After pausing for a minute and turning around, Laura noticed Liam was nowhere to be found. She looked down and asked Lisa, “Where did Liam go?”