Slapstick of Another Kind

The People's Republic of China announces it has shrunk its entire population to two inches tall, signaling a dramatic new era. In a high-profile press conference, ambassador Ah Fong proclaims that the key to all knowledge lies with the newborn twins. The announcement sets a comic-book-like premise for the rest of the story, foreshadowing a global scramble around the twins' potential.

Caleb Swain and Letitia are celebrated as 'the most beautiful of all the beautiful people.' Their newborn twins are diagnosed by the family doctor, Dr. Frankenstein, as doomed to die within months. The bleak prognosis does not deter the couple from cherishing the babies.

The Swains decide to shelter the twins in a mansion staffed with servants, protecting them for the short life they were told to expect. Sylvester is among the staff who manage the household. This upbringing isolates the twins from ordinary life and sets the stage for their unusual intelligence.

Fifteen years pass and the twins are still alive, though they have large heads and appear mentally disabled. Their parents have not visited them in those years, leaving them in the mansion under servant care. The isolation deepens their separation from the world.

The former Chinese ambassador returns to deliver a counterintuitive message: the twins are actually geniuses who can solve the world's problems. The claim reframes the previous pessimism and hints at a mission for humanity rather than a doomed fate.

Along with the President of the United States, the parents visit the twins to observe their abilities. The twins reveal that their previous 'stupidity' was only mimicking the servants; when not constrained they are intelligent. The demonstration confirms their extraordinary potential.

A battery of tests demonstrates a telepathic connection between the twins. Their intelligence is only functional when they are together, and when their heads touch they reach levels of intellect never before seen. The results solidify the idea that their genius is a collective phenomenon.

Fearing incest, the parents separate the twins, breaking their connection. The twins become despondent without one another. The ambassador reappears to urge them to seek each other out.

When the twins finally reunite, a spaceship appears and reveals they are aliens sent to Earth to solve its problems. The revelation reframes their status from exceptional humans to extraterrestrial intelligences. The moment marks a dramatic pivot in the story's meaning.

Their alien father explains that Earth cannot handle the twins' extraordinary intelligence and returns them to their home world. The mission to assist Earth ends with their departure. The decision underscores a theme of the limits of humanity's receptivity to overwhelming intellect.

Earth is left to grapple with the knowledge that its most capable minds were extraterrestrial and unreachable. The narrative closes with a sense of unresolved tension about humanity's capacity to accept radical intellect. The twins' fate becomes a mirror for human volatility and curiosity.

News of the twins' existence and fate echoes through international relations and the scientific community, shaping speculative plans for future contact with alien intelligences. The long-term impact is hinted at as a paradigm shift in how humanity views genius and intervention.