Kim & Jethro, 2

(East, West - West's best!)

“That's my sister, Aleysha. The other one is Kaylee, but she's not here.”

Aleysha jumped up. “Yes she is, she's up in our room. I'll go and get her – she has to see this, it's freaky!”

She ran upstairs. Kim shrugged and grimaced. “Sorry. It is amazing though, our faces, I mean.”

“It's amazing,” Jethro smiled. “Maybe you should say 'our face' though – we've only got one between us.”

“Yeah, nearly. I've been thinking about that. Maybe we are related somehow, we must be!”

“Maybe, maybe not. Have you asked your dad if he played around?”

“I did not. I mean, you can't ask that, can you? Have you asked your mum?”

“I did actually. She's still not saying anything and she doesn't believe it about you. She needs to see for herself.”

“That can be arranged. Miss Clayton says that everyone's got a double, maybe it's as simple as that.”

“Could be, possibly. Oh, hello.”

“Oh yeah, this is Kaylee. Kaylee – Jethro.”

“Ohmigosh! I thought Aleysha was having me on, but she's not! Wow. You look just like Kimmy, you poor thing!”

“That's Kim and shut up! I think he's real good-looking actually.”

“Yeah, well you would. Mum's got to see this, I'll get her!” She left running as well.

Kim said, “Sorry about this.”

“'Sokay. You'd probably get the same at our place. The resemblance is pretty cool, eh?”

“It's cool, but weird!”

“Yep, that too.”

“Right then. What is this that I have to see?” Kim's mother walked in the door and looked at Jethro who was across the room, facing her. Kim was sitting with his back to the door. He looked around and grinned. She looked from one to the other.

“Oh my giddy aunt! I'll take it all back, Girls. This is incredible. Hello Boy, what's your name and where did you pop up from?”

“Hello, Mrs . . umm, Kim's mother. I'm Jethro and we met out in the street, yesterday. We think it's amazing too.”

“Yeah, Mum. You didn't give my twin brother away, did you?”

“No I did not! You haven't got a twin brother – well, I thought you didn't.”

“I think you'd know,” Kim grinned.

“I would! Wow, Jethro. I'll go and get my husband, he has to see this too!”

She left, Kim said, “Jethro, I . . “

“Don't say sorry again,” Jethro interrupted. “Not your fault.”

“No, but it's embarrassing. You'll have to say hello to Dad, we can't get out of that now, but that's all. Once he's seen you, we're outta here.”

“Fair enough, but not in the rain, I hope.”

“No, not in the rain. We'll find somewhere private.”

Kim's dad came in and met the visitor, he was as amazed as anyone was. “You can all stop looking at me like that. He's definitely not one of mine. But, could be a nephew? What's your father's name, Jethro?”

“I don't know. Mum's never told me.”

“A secret eh? Tell her that you've met us and see if that gets a reaction.”

“I will. I'll do that for sure.”

“Okay, that's it. Dad, you can go back to work now.” Kim got to his feet (foot!) “We've got things to do.”

“Haven't we all? But there's time for a cup of tea first.”

“You've always got time for that. Come on, Jethro, we're out of here.”

The two boys went out into the hall. Kim looked at the stairs and sighed. “Right. I want to show you my room. It's up on the top floor and I haven't been up there for days – since this happened. I can get up the stairs, if I take it slow, but I'm worried about coming down again. I tried it before and nearly fell on my face.”

“At least you'd get down quick.”

“Yeah, but that's how I broke my bloody leg in the first place, and it was your fault. I don't want to do that again.”

“How was it my fault? I wasn't even here.”

“You nearly were. I was up on the front balcony, saw you walking down the street with all your dogs, I was rushing down to get a closer look, tripped over my big feet and fell down the stairs and broke my leg. So, it's your fault – kind of."

“Yeah, right! If you insist.”

“I do, I do. Anyway, I can't get down the stairs by myself, but I can if you'll help me.”

“How can I do that?”

“Just stop me from falling over.”

“Oh, right. I can do that, I think.”

“You'd better or I won't be happy and I'll bleed all over you. We'll get started then.”

He struggled up the stairs, one by one, and Jethro hovered closely. He rested on the landing, then started on the next flight. At the top he swung along to the foot of the 'bad' stairs and looked up there.

“Damm. These will be the hard ones – steeper and narrower and just one flight all the way up.”

“You don't have to do this, you know.”

“Yes I do. My room's up there and that's where we're going!” He started up and didn't stop until they came to the top. “Did it,” he exulted. “Getting back down is not going to be fun.”

“So, stay up here.”

“Not likely! The kitchen is down there. We'll go and have a look at the balcony out at the front first.”

Jethro opened the glass doors and looked sceptically at the old woodwork.”Are you sure it's going to hold us? It's a long way down.”

“Tell me about it! It'll hold us. Both of us together wouldn't weigh as much as Mr. Springer and it holds him. He smokes his pipe out here because Mrs Springer won't have the smelly old thing in their rooms. That's the pipe, not him, by the way. Come on.”

They went out and looked down at the street. “Whoa! Great view.”

“Yeah, not too bad. Even better on a clear day. I need a water-pistol – no-one ever looks up. It's a good place for spying on the street. Sometimes I see this kid walking past with a whole lot of dogs.”

“I wonder who that would be? I don't think you're going to see him today.”

“Probably not – not down there anyway.” They grinned at each other. “Thanks for coming around. I was so bored! We'll go to my room now. Too bloody wet and windy out here.”

“Yeah, good.”

Back inside, they shut the weather out and went to Kim's room at the back.

“It's a big place,” Jethro commented. “Bigger than 3 houses stacked on top of each other. It must've been really grand in its day, it still looks good.”

“It does look good, in places. Better on the inside than the out. Dad's plan is to bring it all back to the way it was, which'll be good. It'll be a whole lot of work though and I'm staying away from that as much as I can.”

“Good scheme.”

Kim stood back and let Jethro open the door.

“You don't lock it?”

“No, I don't worry. It's mostly boarders up here and none of them would come in here.”

“Why not?”

“Miss Clayton. So, this is my room. Not huge, but it's big enough.”

“Way bigger than my room.”

“I guess it would be.” Kim sat on the bed. “I haven't been up here in over a week, I've missed it. Have a look at the view out of the window.”

“Not bad. Must be better when it's not raining.”

“Definitely! Can you see the mountains out at the back?”

“Not a sign. There's just clouds.”

“Of course there is. You'll have to take my word for it, it's spectacular when you can see it.”

“I'll believe you. Bluest skies I've ever seen are around here, when it's fine.”

“When it's fine – just doesn't happen enough./”

“You're not wrong.”

“Never am.”

“Yeah, right. So, you're into music?”

“Very much. Music is my life! You?”

“No, not really. I like listening, but I don't play anything.”

“Nothing at all?”

“No, except for the radio.”

“Radio? I never listen to that.”

“I do, I have it on all day long. I like it because you never know what's going to be on next and the DJ's chatter is like a bit of company for me.”

“Because you're home alone, all day every day.”

“Pretty much, yeah. But I'm used to it.”

“I would hate it.”

Kim lifted his guitar down from the wall and sat strumming it quietly while they talked. “I've missed this. I'm so going to take it downstairs when we go.”

“How're you going to do that with the crutches?”

“Easy. My new friend is going to carry it for me.”

“Oh? Who is that then?”

“You know who that is.”

“Yeah,” Jethro smiled. “I like your room. It's private and you've got space. My one's tiny and you couldn't swing a cat in my room. If you had a cat.”

“Which we don't. I've never understood that saying – why would you want to swing a cat around? You'd get ripped to shreds!”

“Probably,” Jethro shrugged. “Seems like a stupid thing to do all right.”

“And that'd be why you'd need lots of room. Do you think you mum will be moving on soon? Easy enough to do when your house is on wheels, I guess. Where will she go to?”

“I don't know. It could be anywhere, she just likes moving. She grew up in a circus, so that's probably why.”

“A circus – like lions and elephants and clowns and stuff? That would be awesome!”

“Yeah, I reckon it would too, but you know what else would be awesome?”

“What would?”

“Not moving around and staying in one place and having a friend, that would be awesome.”

“Yeah! But it's not going to happen, is it?”

“No, dammit. Not for long. One of these days Mum will get itchy feet and we'll be gone, again.”

“Yeah, dammit is right. There's nothing we can do about that. I guess we've just got to enjoy the time we've got, or something.”

“Or something.” Jethro went over and looked out of the window again. He turned back to Kim, still sitting on the bed. “Kim, how far could you walk with the crutches and that thing on your leg?”

“Don't know. Not far, I think. The furtherest I've been was to the seat down the street. And up here of course.”

“That's not so far, but yeah – hard to do, I guess. Well, do you . . ?”

He didn't get any further because there was a knock on the door and Bonnie and Jordan walked in.

“Hey-ho, Kimbo. What're you doing up here?”

“Yeah, Mate,” said Jordan. “Miss Clayton said to come up and we'd get a surprise – she got that right. What happened to the broken leg?”

“Nothing happened to it,” Jethro replied. “It's over there, on the bed.”

“It's what?” Jordan turned, looked at Kim on the bed, looked at Jethro, by the window, and back at Kim again. “Your leg looks broken – you've got the cast on it, so you must be Kim. Who the hell are you?”

“Umm, not Kim,” Jethro grinned. “Who are you?”

“Oh, we're not Kim either,” Bonnie said. “But we're his friends – he's Jordan and I'm Bonnie. Are you Kim's brother that we didn't know about?”

“No, I'm not. We just met yesterday. I'm Jethro and I live uptown with my mum.”

“Yeah? You're not exactly the same. Still pretty amazing though. You two could easily be brothers.”

Kim said, “Could be, but we're not.”

“Spooky,” Jordan commented. “Hey! Aren't you the one? Have you got like lots of dogs? You have, haven't you? I've seen you walking with them.”

“Wrong,” said Kim. “They're not his, he hasn't got any dogs. His mother won't let him have one – which is mean.”

“But you go walking with lots of dogs.”

“I do, but they're not mine. They just tag-along because they want to.”

Bonnie said, “So you're like Tarzan, the King of the Animals, or something.”

“Or something,” Jethro shrugged. “They're just today's friends. Animals live very much in today, I like them and they like me.”

“Okay. How come you look so much like Kimbo?”

“I don't.”

“You bloody do!”

“No, he looks like me – we don't know why.”

Kim said, “Miss Clayton says that everyone's got a double. When you think about it, with millions and millions of people, all with 2 eyes, 2 ears, a nose and a mouth and such, some of them are going to look alike, there's only so many combinations.

“Maybe,” Jordan shrugged. “Bloody freaky though – seeing someone else with your face.”

“It's not freaky!” Kim protested. “It's cool.”

“Yeah, it is cool,” Jethro agreed.

“We could have real fun with this, “ Bonnie said. “You could take each other's places, like the Prince and the Pauper story thing.”

“Wouldn't work,” Kim shook his head. “Besides, no-one's princes or paupers, we're just us.”

“Yeah, you are. You're just you,” Jordan agreed. “Are you gay, Jethro Tull?”

“I'm not Jethro Tull, I'm Jethro Bourke, and why do you want to know?”

“Just curious. Kim says that he is – so have you got that in common as well?”

“Are you gay, Kim?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Oh. Well, I don't know what I am. Maybe yes, maybe no. I don't know.”

Bonnie had had enough of watching quietly. She broke in, “Who cares if you're gay or not? It doesn't matter. There's lots more to a person than that. So, Mr. Lookalike, do you sing like an angel as well?”

“Me?” Jethro grinned. “No, I don't sing – not very good. Do you sing like an angel, Kim?”

“Don't know. I've never heard an angel singing, but I can hold a tune.”

“Don't be modest,Kim,” Jordan growled. “He's the best singer I've heard, I think.” He picked up Kim's guitar and handed it to him. “Show him, Kimbo – dazzle us with your brilliance.”

“I'm not that good,” Kim protested. But he took the guitar and strummed it again.

They sat around for the rest of the rainy afternoon, talking and making music – some were better at that than others, but it was fun. When it was time to go, Jordan, Bonnie and Jethro carried Kim down the stairs. He lay back in their hands, playing his guitar as they went.

Miss Clayton stood down at the bottom, watching and waiting with a small smile on her normally grim face.

They stood him back on his feet with the crutches and he went to the front door to see them off into the rain. He waved goodbye and went, smugly, back to trhe warm kitchen for his evening meal.

It was a good day.