Penny cocked an eyebrow. So, the children could speak English. Fascinating.
“Good. I like him, too. I see you also have Iron Man, Superman, and the Hulk. Do you guys want to play?”
Thorn shook his head and went to sit back on the bed, Batman in hand.
Juniper bit her lower lip, then said slowly: “We like toys, but play is boring.”
Penny’s smile grew. It was genuine, this time.
“Makes sense, honey. You’re nine years old, right?”
Juniper nodded. “Devet.”
“Nine? That means nine?” When the girl nodded again, Penny continued: “Well, I don’t mind learning some Bulgarian.” She went to sit next to them. “You know, I believe we’re never too old to play. But if you think toys are boring, we can do something else. What do you say we go outside and play… hide-and-seek?”
“Hide-and-seek?” asked Thorn. He seemed interested, especially since the name sounded weird to him.
“I bet you know it. It’s like…” She looked at the action figures in her hands and decided to use them to explain the rules. “While you two hide, I count to ten, and then I come look for you.”
“Krienitsa!” said Juniper, her whole face brightening up.
“Err… da? Let’s go outside and see if we’re talking about the same thing.”
This time, they both shook their blond heads. Penny did her best to convince them how nice it would be to play by the pool. They could hide behind the bushes and trees in the backyard, and later, after lunch, when the water would be warmer, they could even swim. In truth, she didn’t quite know why she was insisting so much. Yes, she was dying to spend a few hours in the sun, but she might as well play with them in their room and spare herself the headache. Looking at their pale skin and even paler faces, she knew they were in dire need of some Vitamin D. Oh, right. She cared about them. That was it.
“Tell you what. If I teach you a song, will you come with me in the backyard? It’s a fun one, and it goes super well with the game. It’s about a little girl who lost her sheep and now can’t find them.”
Thorn was unimpressed, but Juniper seemed to like the idea.
“It sounds like this.” She cleared her throat and started singing in a low, sweet voice:
“Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
and doesn’t know where to find them;
leave them alone, and they’ll come home,
wagging their tails behind them.”
Juniper chuckled, but Penny could see she was even more confused than before.
“Okay, so…” She stood up. “I’m Little Bo-Peep, and you two are the sheep. I pretend I’m distracted and I can’t see you, I count to ten, and you hide. Then, I’ll sing the song while I’m looking for you.”
She sang the nursery rhyme again and exemplified with the action figures. The girl seemed to get it little by little, but Thorn still looked unconvinced. Penny went to the toy boxes and looked for a sheep, but for some reason, she couldn’t find any. Eventually, she pulled out her smartphone.
“YouTube to the rescue!”
Why hadn’t she thought about it sooner? Ten minutes and about six different videos later, the children got the full meaning of the song. She was surprised when Thorn himself grabbed his sister’s hand, and then hers, and pulled them both toward the door. Penny hadn’t expected her little trick to work so well. The twins had instantly become fascinated with it to the point where they started singing in their strong accent as they walked outside, into the warm, blazing sun. They played for an hour. A whole hour in which Penny was never allowed to hide. Her sole purpose was to count to ten, then go look for them as she sang the nursery rhyme over and over. For some mysterious reason, every time she found them, they squealed with joy and hopped around as if they were little sheep, indeed. They had said toys were too boring for them, but plain old hide-and-seek wasn’t. As they finally took a lunch break and she could drink a huge mug of coffee in peace, Penelope figured out it wasn’t the fact that they were too old for action figures. It was their personality. Why had they refused to leave their room if they liked playing outside so much? At least, now she had a good understanding of the way they liked to learn, and she knew what type of teachers she was looking for.
CHAPTER FIVE
The next day, Penny started taking interviews in her fancy office at Goldman Corp. She had made the phone calls the day before, under the shade of the umbrella, as Juniper and Thorn had drawn and colored in their books at a small table next to hers. What she had realized was that she enjoyed their company. They were timid, yet clever, and they deserved the best teachers in New York. They best acquired new information through play and association, so she only called those applicants who were young, loved children, and seemed to work with modern, fun, and creative methods.
By noon, she had already done three interviews. She wasn’t hungry, but she needed a second coffee, so she left her office and went into the kitchenette to grab a cup. She spotted Jenny outside, on the terrace, smoking, and thought it might be nice to say “hi” to her. It was hard being new in a company where everyone knew each other, and they already had friends and small groups. Jenny was easily approachable, though, so she could start there.
“Penelope Walton… what a pleasure to see you this fine day!”
The smooth, masculine voice she knew so well made Penny jump so hard that she almost dropped the hot cup of coffee.
