DOUBLE EDGED Quote here maybe? ?????
The sounds were coming from the backyard: the melodious, rich laughter of two children, occasionally yelling and screeching in excitement like squirrels fighting over a freshly cracked pine cone. Mixed in with the gaiety were sounds of sharp creaks of an aged trampoline as the two tumbled about playfully and bounced their weightless selves toward the sky. One was a young boy, who had a goofy grin and a noticeable crinkle around his eyes, and the other was a young girl, who had a set of small, beautiful blinking crystal eyes and untamable straw-colored hair that would simply not lay flat. This was eight-year-old Mandy and her little brother Carson, who were siblings that belonged to the Gambles next door.
We first met the Gambles last year when we first moved to Mountain View. In the eyes of an outsider, they seemed to operate like a typical family-the kids being taken to do sports on weekdays, the parents cooking dinner as the kids watch TV together, the family visiting relatives on weekends, and the such. However, I came to learn that despite the veneer their amily was not ordinary. The parents had very unique jobs. Kristine, Mandy’s mother, was an ex-firefighter but currently worked as a coroner and Jason, Mandy’s father, was a brave and reliable police cop. To be honest, our family felt some sort of security living next to them. But as time passed and I saw them more and more frequently, I could not help but start thinking. For a family with a parent working in law enforcement, had to be …different. There had to be things beneath the surface. How were they, a “police family”, any different than ours?