She’s My Sister

We were walking to the local 7-11, which was only a few short blocks from our house.
I’m pretty sure we were on our way to buy the Sunday morning paper on a Saturday evening but, I could be wrong.
Maybe we were bored.
Maybe we had a hankering for candy bars or a Slurpee … who knows.
But, there we were.

Sitting in the back of 7-11 was a big, smelly dumpster
& as we walked by, we noticed a man.
I, in my adolescent dummy-ness had no idea what that man could possibly be doing beside the dumpster.
But, my big sister knew.
Sister yelled out a sudden, angry spill of “you sick #!@$%#!”, grabbed my hand and marched us straight inside the store to the lady at the counter.
Lady called police.
Police introduced themselves to perv
& we walked safely back home with our newspaper, candy bars, Slurpee
or all of the above.

Why this memory came back this week is beyond me.
I’m figuring it’s because today is her birthday.

Another recently recalled flashback was the time Big Sister and I took a bus trip to see our 500 miles away family.
I don’t remember much from the ride there or the visit itself but, the ride home sits cozily in my brain.

The bus had paused at a rest stop where Sister and I got off to stretch our legs.
Upon reentering, the driver double checked with each rider as to where we were headed.
I got back on before Sister
& somewhere in this fuzzy memory of mine, I can see the man looking at me and mumbling “Chicago ?”
& I think in all my timid naivete I said “Yes” or nodded my head
or some other goofy goof like that.
Bus Driver knew Sis and I were traveling together, so he probably didn’t ask her the same question.

Anyways, long story short …
the bus zoomed by our designated stop and headed to Chicago.

My big sister was right on it.
She jumped up and made her way to Mr. Bus Driver with a ‘Wait ! Whoa ! !’
& much to the chagrin of our fellow passengers, the bus turned around and took us to our stop, our parents.
whew.
Mom, Dad, Sister, even I couldn’t figure out why that bus flew past our destination.
Until this week.
ummmm.
I do believe it was me.
ooops.

She’s my ‘I’ll take you down if I have to’ Protector.
My Voice when I don’t know what to say.
My ‘Oh YES, you can’ Reminder-er.
& my ‘I can tell something’s wrong cause you didn’t use exclamation points in your email’ Cheer-er Upper.
I sometimes think she knows me better than I know me.

Happy Birthday, Big Sister.
I’m so glad you’re mine.

🙂