THE BRESETTE TWINS
Curious Evangeline and her exasperating brother Raphael are the precocious twelve-year-old Bresette twins.
They star in my new novella for younger readers, The Children Didn't See Anything, now available from Amazon.
The Children Didn't See Anything
First in Ellen Byerrum's stories of the
Bresette Twins
Where do stories begin? Sometimes
with an indelible image. It sticks in your mind for years.
Like the first dead body I ever saw. I was ten years
old, my brother was eleven, and we were running up and down the hallways at our grandparents’ country club. Suddenly I noticed a woman
in a pink suit and a pink hat, sitting peacefully on a round pink brocade sofa. She was pretty in pink, and I liked pink, so I stopped
to stare at her. At first we thought she was just sleeping. But she wasn’t. She was dead.
My brother and I never
told any adults what we’d seen. It was too shocking. And too fascinating! So at the funeral my slightly deaf grandmother whispered
loudly, “Thank goodness the children didn’t see anything!”
The Bresette twins, curious Evangeline and her stubborn
(but loyal) brother Raphael, began with that same image: two kids looking at a dead woman in pink on a pink sofa. But soon the twins
came to life and took over. (Especially Evangeline. She rules!)
I love it when my characters come to life for me
and tell me their story. It makes writing a joy. And I hope you enjoy the Bresette twins as much as I do.
My grandparents' huge old-fashioned country club, which was later restored to its historic grandeur and turned into a cultural events
center. My brother and I used to play in these beautiful gardens. This setting was just a little grander (okay, grander by light-years)
than our backyard at home.
This hall is where my brother and I saw the dead woman on the pink sofa. We were busy chasing each other up and down the
hall, so we witnessed her death only after the fact. We didn't realize she was dead until someone draped a towel over her face. Then
we knew. And then we had to see everything.
It was great fun as a child to explore these long hallways. Our visits to the country club were among the more elegant moments of
my childhood. But children love to explore their surroundings, elegant or not, and sometimes kids make the most surprising discoveries.
Like dead bodies.
This round pink sofa, also known as a "pouffe" or a "borne settee," is similar to the one where the dead woman in the pink suit was
sitting. Today you might find this kind of sofa only in grand old hotels, New Orleans "fancy houses," European palaces, and maybe
old-fashioned country clubs.
And in my new novella, The Children Didn't See Anything.
The Children Didn't See Anything is now available from
Amazon.
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