Sparrow
Backstory"Lily, the guests are coming. Be presentable! Not like that, stand up straight,
yes, feet together and chin straight, no... You know what, fine, it'll do."
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"Lily, off to your room! It is not seemly to run around like that as young lady
of six years!"
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Her room is white. And clean. And tidy, her mom did not accept mess. "Who wants
to play, also needs to know how to tidy up behind themselves", she always said.
Lily has been in her room for 12 minutes. She was sent up her for 15 minutes to
"think about what she did". She had told her father "No, I don't want to go on a
family walk." She knows, she shouldn't have said No to her father.
She looks around. The room is white, with pastel rose furniture. There is a wall
tattoo on the wall of a flower from which the petals fly away and turn into
butterflies. Her room is beautiful and... So! Boring!
Eddie is just on the other side of the wall. They wanted a room together, but
the parents said "it was better for the development of their character", if they
had separate rooms.
13 minutes.
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Tap, tap, tap, tap,... Lily's feet drum a perfectly regular rhythm on the soft
floor. Slowly the tension in her chest loosens and she starts to be able to
breath again. Without her runs, her climbing, her sprints, she would have gone
mad. Just don't talk back. Just do what they want and then run. Run off
the frustration, the helplessness, the mind numbing boredom. Tap, tap, tap,
tap...
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Lily is hanging on the sheer wall of a building, just outside the window. Eddie
told her through the bud in her ear that she was about to open the window, with
her computer. Click Lily once again wonders how Eddie does it, to open,
close, activate, deactivate all these things with her computer. Lily wonders,
but she never doubted her. Silently she slides into the apartment. Her heart is
pounding, as adrenaline pumps through her body.
"Yippeeyahey" she whispers to herself, with a satisfied smile.
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Once again the walk of shame. It was not the one after a night spent with an
awkward stranger, but when her father picked her up from jail. This time he is
very upset.
It is fine, she will sit through his lectures and tomorrow night she will be out
again. Without that she would have nothing. Nothing but Eddie.
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"Enough is enough! Your mother and I decided, you will stop with this nonsense
and start taking your life and the name of the family seriously. Lily you will
go to aunt Maggie in Detroit and Edwina, you will live with Matt, down in
Dallas. Once you settled in, got a proper job, we will find your place in the
company."
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Life was good. Lily is sitting on their couch in their studio apartment, Eddie
is preparing some salad. She misses her parents sometimes. Seldomly. But leaving
their old lives has been worth it. She is the Sparrow now and the Twins are
known and often requested. Last nights job went picture perfect again and they
will be covered for a month, comfortably. But she knows, the next job is already
waiting. It is not about the money. The money is a means to the ends of living
their life in comfort. It's about the thrill. Lily knows that, but she is fine
with it. She smiles. "Ed, fetch me a drink, when you come back, will you?"
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