It was a boring Sunday like every Sunday during football season. Beatrice fought over bathroom time with her sister Lucretia while their father drove their grandma to church and their mother enjoyed a Game of Thrones marathon. After church Dad and the NFL would take over the living room.
"Stop fighting, girls!" Their mother Gloria called up the stairs. "Don't make me start scheduling bathroom time."
"It's her fault," Lucretia replied glaring at Beatrice, "if she wasn't so ugly she wouldn't have to be in there so much trying to get pretty."
"Lu!" mother yelled, "what have I told you about calling your sister ugly?"
"You do realize we're twins," Beatrice returned Lucretia's glare.
I'll be in my room." Lucretia stomped into her room and slammed the door.
"You know we have two bathrooms," Gloria said before returning to her marathon. "I'm going to swap them for two dogs and move to a desert island," she muttered into her cup of coffee.
Suddenly the cat Poe raced into the living room from the kitchen at top speed and jumped into Gloria's lap. "You almost spilled my coffee, Poe! What is your problem?"
Beatrice and Lucretia raced down the stairs to jump onto the couch where their mom put a hand over her coffee cup to keep it from spilling.
"What is everyone's problem around here?" Gloria was annoyed.
"Didn't you hear that loud noise in the back yard?" Beatrice asked.
"No, what noise?" Gloria looked back and forth between her daughters. "Is that what spooked Poe?"
"When's Dad coming home?" Lucretia held onto Gloria's arm.
"Soon," Gloria replied, "What noise?" she asked again. Poe jumped to the floor and sat in the corner to stare at the wallpaper as was his habit when the family was together talking.
"I didn't hear any noise," the girls stared at her wide-eyed with fear, "can you help me out with some info or is it a secret?"
"It sounded like a crashing noise and a gun shot!" Lucretia spoke while Beatrice nodded in agreement.
Giving in to her curiosity, Gloria put her coffee cup down on the coffee table, pried herself apart from her frightened daughters and headed to the kitchen in the back of the house.
"No, Mom, don't go out there!" Lucretia tried to hold her back.
"At least take a weapon," Beatrice handed her a hard cover notebook which Gloria ignored. Just then their dad Gregor burst in the back door with a shotgun in his hand and grandma behind him.
"Hey, guys," he announced, "I just shot a rabid racoon in the back yard. I was getting Grandma out of the Lincoln and it came staggering sideways at us."
"Yeah," said Grandma, "I almost shit a brick!"
"Well, there you see," Gloria turned to her daughters who were no longer frightened, but disgusted, "mystery solved."
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