Death In Duplicate

Chrissy walked slowly toward the door. “I won’t be long,” she said, looking back over her shoulder at Sha

“Take your time. We’ll be fine,” Sha

“The linen closet is at the end of the hallway,” Chrissy added.

“I’m sure your mother can help me find anything I need.”

“Yes, and I bought an herbal baby wash…,” Susan began.

“We brought our own,” Chrissy said, stopping in her tracks. “We’re not introducing anything new. Ethan had a slight rash on his stomach yesterday.”

“We’ll use your wash. Go on, honey, you can use the fresh air too, you know,” Susan urged.

“Well… You’ll want to feed them once more before they go to sleep, Sha

“Of course.”

Chrissy finally left the room. Susan looked at the cribs. Ethan was calm now, lying in his diaper, studying the knights on the wall above him. Rosie was in her crib, lying on her stomach, still whimpering.

“Do we give them their baths together or separately?” Susan asked, putting first things first. “I bought two baby tubs, but I’m not quite sure how to arrange things. The bathroom next door is small, but the master bath is huge with lots of counter space and two sinks.”

“We had to bathe them one at a time in the apartment, but if we could manage them both together, it would sure speed things up. And it would be nice if we could find some time before Chrissy returns to put things away in here. It would give your daughter a break. She’s a wonderful mother and these are great babies, but she needs to get more sleep, to take better care of herself.” Sha

Susan stared at Sha

She was true to her promise and, with Sha

“Kitchen clean?” Susan asked. She had been pleased to discover that holding a wet baby in one hand and washing with the other was a skill she had not lost.

“Not quite. But I didn’t want to miss a great photo op.” Jed had celebrated the twins’ birth by buying the most high-tech electronic camera on the market and he brandished it now.

“Oh, do you think you could wait until tomorrow morning? They’re just settling down and the… the flash might get them all excited again,” Sha

Jed frowned, but he lowered the camera and didn’t argue. “I understand. We had a saying when our kids were little. ‘If you wake the baby, you play with the baby,’ ” he explained. “And, frankly, it’s been a long day around here too, and I’m not sure I have a whole lot of energy left. I’ll finish the kitchen and take Clue for a walk.”

“Keep Chrissy and Stephen downstairs as long as you can,” Susan suggested. “They need the break and we’re doing fine up here.” She picked up a plastic cup and rinsed Ethan’s hair one last time before lifting him out of the water and placing him gently on the towel-lined counter. Sha

“I… No, I don’t,” Sha

Now that Susan had started asking questions, she didn’t quite know how to go about it. “Have you been doing this type of thing long?” she began, but before Sha

“You saved his life,” Susan said, her heart slamming in her chest. “I… I couldn’t move.”

“I’m trained to respond quickly. You would have done it yourself if I hadn’t taken over.” Sha

“Not in time. I wouldn’t have known what to do in time. He might have suffocated. You saved his life,” Susan repeated. Then she had another thought. “What will Chrissy say when she hears about this? She’ll think I can’t take care of her children.”

“I don’t want to speak out of turn, but would you feel comfortable not telling your daughter about this?”

Ethan seemed to be calming down a bit and Susan began to relax. “Not tell Chrissy?”

Sha

Susan nodded. “You’re right. We’ll just tell her everything went well.”

“And you might want to run your luxurious thick towels through the washer and dryer a few times before we use them again,” Sha

Susan looked down at her grandson-he smiled up at her as though nothing had happened-and over to his sister, who was rubbing drool into her chin as though it was a beauty cream. “Yes, I will. Definitely.”

“Let’s take them back to the nursery and get them dressed in their jammies and settled down. Then you can stay with them while I go downstairs and warm their formula. I can clean up in here later.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of the bathroom… and the laundry. Oh, did you see the laundry chute in the hallway? It’s just outside the door of your room. You can just dump their clothing down and it lands right next to the washer in the basement,” Susan said.

Sha

“No problem. And do you use regular detergent? I used Ivory Snow for Chrissy’s things, but I don’t remember if I did for Chad…”

The two women walked back to the nursery, each holding a baby, quietly going over the babies’ domestic requirements. By the time Chrissy and Stephen returned from their stroll, Susan and Sha

“We’re almost done here if you want to take a shower or something,” Susan suggested to her daughter.

Chrissy rubbed her back and glanced over at her husband. “I think I…”

“Why don’t you go ahead and get to bed early for once?” Stephen picked up his mother-in-law’s cue immediately. “You know Ethan or Rosie will be waking up in just a few hours.”

“I’m not sure I’ll hear them crying from our room.” Chrissy sounded worried.

“I’ll keep the door open to my room and I’ll let you know if you’re needed,” Sha

“And I put a baby monitor in your room,” Susan said. “You can just turn it on and listen in to them if…” She stopped. She had been about to say if you don’t trust Sha