Wild Bandits

Jolene Chen and Darla Joneson were two of a kind. Twins separated at birth, they were brought together just recently and realized although they were total opposites. but they were as tight as any twins could be. People (close friends and relatives) called them ‘Ravens’ because of their long waist-length dark hair. They’ve also have dark blue eyes but it changed whenever the mood struck

Always the spontaneous one, Darla suggested, “Why don’t we do something wild and crazy for our sixteenth birthday?”

“Like what?” asked Jolene.

“Like do something wicked with our hair.”

“OK,” Jolene said. “I know a place.”

On their sixteenth birthday, they decided to dye their hair. Jolene decided to dye the tips of her hair golden, making her looked more like an eagle than a raven while Darla decided to give her hair purple and pink streaks.

Jolene had always been book smart since she had grown up in the prominent neighborhood while Darla had street smarts having grown up in the rough part of the town, Creek Valley. You could say she was from the wrong side of the tracks. They still lived in the same neighborhoods, although Darla hung out more than not in Jolene’s neighborhood, Flat Rock, where the rich resided. However, she didn’t get along with her twin’s friends well.

Their adoptive parents were glad they finally found each other. Unbeknownst to even the adoptive parents, they didn’t even know that there were twins. But when they finally found each other, they were overcome with joy.

Before their party, where both sets of parents were going to meet for the very first time, they decided to change their looks.

At Blamzamo, a local beauty salon that Jolene frequented, she requested to her favorite stylist,. “Cut our hair off to a pageboy cut and give it some bangs.”

“Also, I want a dye job,” Darla added.
”A dye job?” Jolene asked, surprised. “What kind?”

“Oh something radical,” Darla said carelessly.

“Maybe I’ll get a dye job too.” Jolene.

“Tell you what,” Darla suggested. “Let’s do ours separately, and we’ll reveal the results later, okay?”

“Okay!”

Three hours later, Jolene and Darla stood in front of each other, mirror images of each other Their heads covered in a terry cloth turban. Each twin took a deep breath.

Their stylists said, “On a count of three. One… Two… Three…!” Boy were they surprised and shocked! In Jolene’s case, she was shocked. And in Darla’s case, she was surprised.

They were talking at once.

Jolene: “You’re crazy! Absolutely, beyond without a doubt have totally lost it!”

Darla: “It looks like you barely did anything to your hair.”

They stopped talking as quickly as they started.

Darla said, “Well, whatchu think?”

“It’s wild and crazy.” Jolene said. “What do you think of mine?”

“      It’s very you.”

That night they arrived at their sixteenth birthday party in different attires. Jolene wore full glam. Tight little leather jacket with metallic minidress and thigh length combats that Darla gave her earlier. Darla wore jeans and a T-shirt and her favorite ankle boots with spurs. Besides being from the rough part of town, she lived in a ranch where she could work off her frustrations if need be.

Both sets of their parents were shocked and surprised. They were surprised at Jolene’s appearance but shocked at Darla’s new look. Darla was used to shocking her parents anyways. (She started smoking when she turned 13.) But after the shock wore off, they were surprised for them that they changed their appearances. They were looking forward to being confused and they loved their daughters long hair.

Mrs. Chen said, “We won’t co-parent the girls.”

Mrs. Joneson said, Yeh, we’ll keep things the way they are.”

Mrs. Chen said, “My home is open to you whenever you wish.”

Mrs. Joneson said, “As with me.”

At the end of the party, Jolene and Darla hugged, whispering in Darla’s ear, “Call me if you need anything. I’ll be right there. Love ya.”

Then Jolene and Darla’s families went their separate ways. While Jolene went back to her prestigious, private high school studying to get into Julliard, her twin continued going to her public high school named, which was after the town, where she had an unruly bunch of friends. A real tough crowd who fought a lot. They may get into fisticuffs, but most likely they carried a weapon with ‘em, be it a knife or a switchblade.

Sure, the twins did drugs and drank alcohol But only when life dealt them a hard blow. For Jolene, it was easy for her to acquire coke or heroin because she lived in Flat Rock.The pressure of life affects her, be it her parents, teachers or any authority figure she do a line of coke or even heroin. She sometimes smokes grass to make her feel less stress. She even went to a rave once where they did Ecstasy. She knew it wasn’t for her when she saw someone passed out and died because he overdose on it. She hadn’t even told her twin yet that she had been doing drugs since high school started. High school had been way too much pressure for her.

On the other hand, in Creek Valley, it was easy to obtained alcohol even without a fake ID. They don’t even card you. Liquor stores are so poor and rundown that they’ll accept any form of business even from minors. So Darla liked going to the liquor stores unsupervised to get what liquor they’ve remaining. She liked drinking alone. If Darla’s parents ever caught her drinking, they’ll have her hide and livelihood so she kept it discreet, not even telling her closest buddies. She might-just might- tell her twin when they get to know each other better. 

“      Hi Jolene,” said Darla. “Let’s go riding.”

“We don’t have our licenses yet.”

“Even better!” Darla yanked out her jacket from the front hall closet. “Let’s go!”

Outside Darla’s house was parked a fire-engine red Trans Am.

“My ex taught me how to hot-wired a car.”

“But that’s stealing!” Jolene protested.

“It’s borrowing,” Darla amended. “We’ll return before the night’s over.”

After Darla touched a coupla the wires, the car was roaring to go.

“C’mon, it’s alright,” Darla yelled over the roar of the engine. “We won’t get caught!’

While they were riding in the Trans Am, Darla asked Jolene, “Jo, didn’t you ever taken a risk before? Do or dare kinda thing?”

“No, but will we get in trouble for this?”

“I bet you never been in trouble a day in your life,” said her twin.

“Let’s go to Club Neon,” said Darla. “I heard there’s’ lots of drugs in that club.”

“And I heard you have to be 21 to get in.”

“I think we look 25.”

“Do you really think we do?”

“Sure we do,”

“Now onto Club Neon!”

The twins partied at Club Neon all night long. It was Darla’s first time trying drugs. Darla was so inexperienced she didn’t what to do with what. How to make a line, how to snort.

Jolene came out of the closet that she used drugs to make her relieve the pressure. She used her expertise to show her twin sister how to make a line and snort coke. In turn, Darla showed Jolene the best liquor in the house although here they carded them, which ix no problem because they got their fake IDs. Each twin was surprised by the other’s secret, but had not told anyone else about it.

Jolene asked, “You won’t ever breath a word to this to anyone?

Darla replied, “Yes, I swear, your secret is safe with me,” putting her hand to her heart.

“Pinky swear,” Jolene said, holding out her pinky.

“That’s for little kids!”

“C’mon, pinky swear!” Jolene insisted.

“Okay, okay,” Darla submitted, wrapping her pinky around her twin’s.

Deliriously drunk and high, they hooked up with a half a dozen guys at the nightclub.

Over the bar, there was a TV stand tuned into the nightly news. The announcer said, “An APB is out an hot-red Trans Am…” and followed that where it was last seen and the license plate number.

“Oh, no,” Darla said, who was high as a kite. “That’s us! We’ve gotta go! C’mon, Jo, let’s go!”

“Text me,” said a very drunk Jolene as Darla managed to drag her away from the nightclub.

When they got to the Trans Am, Darla said. “There’s a APB out on this car as a stolen vehicle. You’re the sensible one; what should we do about it?”

“Hm,” Jolene said, trying to think through her drunken haze.

“Nevermind,” Darla |”Will ya please look in the glove compartment?”

As they were looking through it, they found an automatic gun.

“Hold up,” Jolene interjected, finally waking up. “Drinking and doing drugs are way different from killing.”

“We’re not gonna kill,” Darla corrected Jolene, putting the gun in her back pocket. “We need to protect ourselves at all times” She checked to see if it was loaded. “ Good, It’s loaded. We can’t go back now; the cops’ll be on us. We gotta flee the country.”

That’s easy since they live on the stateline to north of the Canadian borderline.

“Let’s go to Vancouver!” Darla said.

“But… but… my family, my friends,” Jolene cried.

“Do you wanna get caught, is that it?”

“No,” said Jolene uncertainly

“Then let’s do Thelma and Louise!”

        Darla drove with Jolene sleeping in shotgun, tears in her eyes, all night till the break of dawn. Then they finally reached a low, rundown hotel that was nearly falling apart at its seams on the border of Canada. More like a shanty than a real hotel. As Jolene slept, her tears dried on her cheeks, making her look like a baby. By the time they reached the hotel, they were tired out.

As soon as they got the key to their room, they asked the brown hair, brown eyed deeply tanned night clerk, “What’s the name of this place?”

“Angel Lake” was the answer. “Locals called it Kissing Angels.”

“Thanks for the room,” called Darla and Jolene.

“You’re welcome.”

        Their rooms have two single beds, a bath, a kitchenette.

“I’m going to take a shower,” said Jolene. “Be right out.”

By the time she finished with her shower, it was Darla’s turn. After Darla came out, she said, “C’mon, we gotta figure out a plan,” At this, Jolene looked wistful. “We can’t go back. We’ll have to go juvie or worse yet, to reformatory,” said Darla. Jolene looked anguished.

“My dreams of going to Julliard gone up in smoke.” said Jolene.

“I didn’t know you were trying to get into Julliard, Jo,” said Darla.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Darla.”

“Well, should we stick with our original plan to go to Vancouver?” Darla asked.

“Okay,” Jolene said. “Might as well; I sure as hell don’t want to go to juvie or reformatory.”

“Are you okay with this plan?” Darla asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Only thing is that you said we won’t get caught and we kinda did.”

“Almost,” said Darla. Almost, Jo, that’s the key word. Anyway, tomorrow will be a long drive up Ice Falls.”

“Ice Falls?” asked Jolene. “Where’s that?”

“That’s where my class went skiing and snowboarding last winter.”

Early the next day, Darla and Jolene set off for Vancouver to Ice Falls. When they got there, there was a neverending waterfall where at the end of the fall where boulders to prevent anyone from jumping into the stream where people sometimes fished, swim. . , whatever. Nearby were fruit trees of every kind: apples, pears, lemons, whatever.

        “Jo, usually people come here in the summers for picnics and other summertime fun. They eat the fruit right off the trees. But occasionally in the spring, people come by to have romantic adventures like camping and picnicking,” said Darla.

        “Cool,” said Jolene, nodding her head.

        “We can hide-out in one of those vacant cabins,” said Darla pointing to the cabins on top of the waterfall, which were vacant till summer. “It has running hot water and electricity and everything.”

        “Okay,” agreed Jolene. “You know this place better than I do. You be the judge.”

        They chose one of the middle cabins, with Darla saying, “Let’s hide-out here for a few days till things cool down, huh?”

        “Okay,” Jolene said. “Good plan.”

       

                                                                                                                                      However, in few days, things didn’t cool down. It was all over the news that there was a stolen Trans Am, perhaps crossing the border into Canada. Where they lived was 2½ mile apart from Canadian border, which took them half a night to get there. The cops in the States and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were on the lookout for a hot-red Trans Am.

        “What should we do?” Jolene freaked.

        “Lemme think…” Darla pondered. “Got a light?”

        “I don’t smoke.” Jolene freaked. “You do?”

        “Of course you don’t.” said Darla calmly, fishing out a packed of cigarettes from her breast pocket and a lighter from her back pocket. “You’re so straitlaced, you’ve never taken a risk in your life.”

        After lighting up the cigarette, she said, “I think we should change our license plates and head for the hills, live off the land till summer. Or, if you like, we could go on to Vancouver and risk getting caught. If we continue onto Vancouver, we’ll have to paint the car a whole other color. What do you say about that?”

        “Let’s go with the 1^st plan,’ replied Jolene.

        “Okay,” Darla said, smushing the cigarette with her bottom of her shoe.

Since Jolene was fairly loaded, she decided to part some of her money to save their hides. Next day, Darla walked into town to get new license plates to change into new ones. And buy a spraycan of black paint to spraypaint their car. After Darla changed the licenses on their car and then spray their car black, it was unrecognizable.

        “There, now, the cops won’t be after us anymore, Jo,” Darla said satisfyingly. “See, how there’s a solution for everything, girl. You needn’t to freak out as long as I’m around.”

        “Yeah,” Jolene said. “But how come I feel like a criminal?”

       “Don’t worry about it,” said Darla. “It’s just the adrenaline. Now we can go to Vancouver! I went with my family. I mean, my adoptive family. It was great. You’ll love it. I’ve bet you’ve never been outside of the States either.”

        “I’ve so been there!” Jolene objected.

        “Let’s set off tonight cause I’m still worried about cops lurking around,” said Darla.

        “Okay,” said Jolene. “But this time I drive.”

        “Sure thing.”

         

        Nightfall they started off. With Darla riding shotgun and Jolene at the steering wheel, they got to Vancouver by dawn with no trouble at all-not even from the local cops.

        Jolene’s family owned a timeshare in Cherokee Falls, which was a province of Vancouver.. She found the house-no, make that a mansion-easily. It had a 5-car garage, 7 bedrooms, including the master suite plus Jacuzzi. There was a outside sports area, a screening room, a music studio, a swimming pool. There was also a pool house used as a guesthouse. The mansion has motion-sensor detectors, an alarm system To get in, you don’t a key; you need your familial voice.

        Jolene reset the alarm as they went into the mansion. She invited Darla, “Make yourself at home,” which she already did having kicked off her shoes and put up her feet on the glass coffee table and about to turn on the sound system when Jolene said,. “Don’t put your feet there-it might break.”

        “Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud!” exclaimed Darla.

        “Okay,” Jolene said. “What would you like?”

        “Why don’t you sit down and enjoy life for a moment?”

        “Can’t,” Jolene said worriedly. “I’m still worried that the cops are after us.”

        “We’re safe,” Darla said. “We passed by and a buncha cops standing at an accident coming up here, and they didn’t stop us.”

        “True, I guess you’re right. I guess we got off scot-free. Life’s good,” said Jolene, kicking her shoes and leaning against Darla on the sofa, putting up her feet up on the footrest.

        “That was some wild ride, huh?” Darla asked. “Did you think it was sick?”

        “Hell yeah!” Jolene exclaimed. “I think it was hella sick!”   

The End