looking up Eliza knew what he meant without further explanation Leander made up the best games but he would always let others choose if they should play something new or stick to a classic New Eliza said I have had more than enough of the same today with all that churning Did you know that one in twelve girls die of churn-related boredom each day They both laughed at the made-up fact Their father was always saying Did you know and following it up with some new and fascinating piece of information He'd done this for as long as the twins could remember filling their heads with facts legends and stories No one knew as much as their father a man who loved learning so much he would go without eating or sleeping when he got 9
lost in a book When the twins were four years old Eliza climbed on top of the bench at church when everyone had their heads bent in prayer and shouted Did you know that bunnies used to be BLUE To this day retelling that story delighted their father and made their mother flush with embarrassment Making up silly new facts was a sure way to make her brother and father laugh and making people laugh always made Eliza happy Before Leander could start shaping a new game they heard Lucy Abbott Eliza’s best friend shouting for her younger brothers NOW Lucy yelled Lucy was always running after one brother or another an unfortunate side effect of being the oldest of the six Abbott children She feared the day when her baby sister would learn to walk She especially feared the day James and Noah Abbott come out RIGHT 10
when her sister would learn to run and hide which seemed to be a favorite pastime of her brothers Hi Lucy Leander called out Eliza and I were about to play a new game it’s too bad James and Noah aren’t here to join us A nearby mulberry bush rustled The two Abbott boys scrambled out from under it insisting they wanted to play too The children gathered around Leander as he explained the rules to the new game As usual he made it up with ease and Eliza added an occasional imaginative detail Today’s game was simple as far as the twins games went For each round someone would choose a color then skip a rock across the creek The number of times the rock bounced on the water before sinking would decide the number of items that the players had to find in the chosen color Then the players would race back to the oak tree with 11
the first person back getting five points the next four points and so on Since the creek was not very far across the rock almost always skipped two or three times before sinking or reaching the opposite bank Francis Bishop the postman’s son swore that he was able to get a rock to skip four times last June but no one was there to see it When it was Lucy’s turn to throw it did not skip at all leaving them to only find one item James and Noah being the youngest and the most easily distracted of the bunch did not do as well as the others Lucy was good at finding things but not a very fast runner so she tended to be in the middle of the pack most rounds Eliza and Leander were in fierce competition for first place when Leander added a twist and requested an item of two different colors For this round you have to find something 12
