Scott and Marcia grew up in the stinking armpit of Passaic New Jersey where crime and drugs was just another part of the “joy” of living in New Jersey. Nearly half of his high school class didn’t make it to graduation, the lure of the streets was just too great. Scott decided that his family would never know what it is like to live day to day wondering where your next meal will come from, and which one of your friends will get shot or die of an overdose. He worked hard to be able to semi-retire at 35, and as soon as he could, he and his darling wife packed up their kids and moved south, as far south as possible, and as far from a city as he dare.
Now Sara and Jeff played a game of Naked Keep away with Wyatt, while Marcia, still trim and beautiful after four children, tried to wrestle baby Sandy back into her clothing, Scott smiled and held back a tear of joy. The Alden family had made it, his dream had come true. “While you’re just standing there,” said Marcia, “you have got to fix that gate on the island.”
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Fourteen years later, the Alden family was a fixture in the “Southest” part of Georgia. Scott was working in the real estate industry, driving into Jacksonville three days a week, Marcia worked in the library at the high school in Folkston, twenty miles north of St. George. Marcia took the job to keep an eye on the family troublemakers Wyatt and Sandy. All children keep secrets from their parents, and one of the secrets that Scott and Marcia never found out is that Wyatt and Sandy aren’t the biggest troublemakers in their family, they’re just the ones that get caught.
Sara and Jeff were born close enough together to appear to be twins, their hair and complexion was like their mother whose roots go back to southern Italy, black hair, dark eyes, and Sara once put it, “I can get a good tan with a reading lamp.” Because they looked and acted so similar, they grew up being called “the twins” even by their parents and grandparents, and because Sara shared her schoolwork with Jeff, he was allowed to skip past the second grade, and he ended up in the same grade as Sara.
Wyatt and Sandy were also considered twins, mostly because they were never separated. Many times, Jeff would wake up in the night to find Sandy snuggled up in Wyatts bed, or Wyatt missing completely only to turn up in the girl’s room with Sandy. And they were troublemakers, so much so that Wyatt was held back in the fourth grade, and he ended up in the same grade as Sandy. They were such troublemakers that Wyatt earned the nickname M-80 and Sandy was known as Cherry Bomb.
Folks had trouble believing that they were related to Sara and Jeff, while Sara and Jeff took after their mother’s dark complexion and black hair, Wyatt and Sandy resembled their dad with frizzy light brown hair and blue eyes. Since most folk knew their mom Marcia from her work at the high school the local joke was, “Sandy and Wyatt had to be hers, if she had adopted them, she woulda sent ’em back by now.” All of Charlton County Georgia was aware of Wyatt and Sandy’s antics.
In the end it worked out for Scott and Marcia. Four kids, two graduation parties, the fun was done. However, none of the kids look like they intend to move out. Sara is studying nursing, Jeff is studying Physical Therapy, both are attending University of Florida North which is an hour drive from home. Wyatt and Sandy are enlisting in the National Guard so they can serve together in the same unit, their dream is to end up in FANG, the Florida Air National Guard and work on F-15’s. FANG is at the Jacksonville airport less than 30 minutes from St. George. For their part, Scott and Marcia just want a chance to make love in the kitchen without planning weeks in advance for the kids to be out of the house. Or maybe the chance to cut the lawn or weed the garden in the nude, something the kids grew up doing.