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“What—?” she began but Strong held up a hand.
“Wait—it’s not finished yet.”
As Melanie watched, another pinhole-sized opening appeared at the top of the bowls and a trickle of water ran into each one. As soon as the water touched them, the tiny brown granules began to grow and swell until each bowl held a very respectable amount of what appeared to be pet food.
Aunt Marge’s cats noticed at once and came, mewing, from every direction to dine on the impromptu Christmas feast.
“That’s amazing!” Aunt Marge’s eyes were wide. “What in tarnation is it?”
“This is a self-filling, self-cleaning pet bowl set,” Clear explained. “I filled it with a year’s worth of feline mix that’s specially nutritionally formulated to keep cats of all ages healthy.”
“You say it’s self-cleaning too?” Aunt Marge demanded.
“Just watch.” Strong pointed to the last two bowls on the right side, which had already been cleaned out by two of Aunt Marge’s fatter cats—a tabby named Sylvester and a Norwegian Forest cat by the name of Mr. Flufferpants.
As they watched, more water ran into the bowls and washed away all the crumbs. Then they stacked themselves together again, the silver mechanical arms lifting the first bowl to nestle it into the second. As the cats finished their food, the other bowls did the same. Any food left in the bottom of the dishes was instantly dehydrated and sucked in the form of tiny granules back into the bottom of the bowl for later use.
“As you can see, none of it goes to waste,” Clear explained as the last of the bowls stacked themselves, resulting in a single, colorful stack again.
“Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!” Aunt Marge breathed.
Strong frowned.
“You will?”
“How can you be the male relative of a primate?” Clear asked, also frowning in confusion.
Melanie laughed.
“It’s an Earth saying, you guys. I think Aunt Marge is just overwhelmed by your present.”
“Overwhelmed? Why, I’m amazed!” the old lady cried. “Do you know how much my back pains me when I’m bending over all the time, feeding these ungrateful critters?” she demanded, looking at Melanie. “And those big bags of cat food aren’t easy to lift, neither! Or cheap! And now your two new fellas have solved all my problems at once!” She gestured to Clear and Strong. “You two come here right now and let me give you a hug! I just don’t know what to say, I’m so happy!”
Both the twins hugged the old lady gently and Melanie felt another warm glow in her heart. Steve had never touched her aunt if he could help it—he didn’t even want to help her up the stairs when her knees were bothering her. But Strong and Clear treated her with respect and tenderness…which she supposed shouldn’t surprise her, since they treated her the same way.
“I just feel bad I didn’t get anything for you two,” Aunt Marge said, when they had sat back down on the couch at last.
“That delicious meal was the best gift we could have received,” Strong told her, patting his flat stomach.
“Oh, I know!” Melanie exclaimed. “I feel like I’ll never have room to eat anything ever again.”
“Well, Strong and I were hoping you might have room for just a few more bites of something sweet,” Clear murmured. He and his brother exchanged looks and then he handed Melanie a silver wrapped box that had something heavy that rolled around inside it.
“What’s this?” she asked, mystified as she tore off the wrapping.
“Think of it as another Secret Santa gift,” Strong told her, smiling. “From both of us this time.”
Inside the box, cushioned in tissue paper, were three perfect bonding fruit.
“Ohhh,” Melanie breathed, lifting one of the peach-colored, triangular fruits out and pressing it to her nose. “These smell amazing!”
“They’re perfectly ripe,” Clear assured her. “But they actually have another present that goes with them.”
“They do? Oh!” Melanie looked up from the bonding fruit to see that both of the twins were on one knee in front of her—Strong on the right and Clear on the left.
“Here you are—please unwrap this too,” Clear murmured, handing her a much smaller present this time.
Heart pounding in her chest, Melanie tore off the crimson wrapping paper to see a small, black velvet box inside. When she opened it, she saw the most exquisite ring she’d ever beheld.
“Oh…” She looked up at the twins as she picked the ring carefully out of its box. “Oh, it’s so beautiful!”
“We were told by Sonja that when a male proposes Joining to a human female, he must give her a ring of engagement—to show that he is serious,” Strong told her.
“And this one is actually three rings—look.” Clear showed her how the ring came apart into a gold, a platinum, and a diamond band which all locked back together when twisted in the right direction. “I hope it’s the right size,” he added shyly. “I had to guess and the jeweler aboard the Mother Ship wasn’t too happy about being woken so early on a holiday to open his shop.”
