running toward the kitchen.
Their afro puffs zoom into the room.
“Tee! Tee! Tee!” they chant in unison.
They see T first,
as my dining chair is behind
the open kitchen door.
T scoops them up into a hug,
but they wriggle to get free of T
as soon as they see me.
“Kai!” “I want Kai!” “Put me down!”
In seconds, they’re wrapped around my legs.
I bend to pick them up:
“Hello there, my favorite girls
in the whole wide universe.”
“It’s world, not universe,” they say on cue.
“Universe. Multiverse.
You are in every verse,” I reply.
My special greeting for The Twins.
I kiss them each on their cheeks,
and I’m tickled by their giggles.
They kiss me back, one on each cheek.
“What game shall we play today?”
I ask as I put them down.
“Hide-and-seek!” they happy-shriek.
I cover my eyes with my hands,
and start to count:
“One...
two...
three...”
The giggling twins run into the hallway.
