Sisterly Love

A story of Christmas giving and sisterly love surviving familial and religous supression.

In winter, on the seemingly long drives to and from Church, Janeen and Iris would often count the number of houses with Christmas lights. The must each count from their own side of the car and would frequently accuse the other of cheating by counting on the other’s side. To combat this, they developed a simple rule. Each sister must keep their noses practically glued to the window on their own respective side. This required a great deal of trust on both sister’s parts for they were not allowed to turn and check to make sure the other was still looking out their own window.

On one particularly long drive in winter, the children counted more lights than ever before. They became very competitive to the point of almost shouting the number of houses to each other.

"Fifty!" Janeen proudly announced.

"Fifty-two!" Iris shot back.

Janeen pouted slightly and continued counting. They were in an area with few houses but many trees. It was going to be difficult to beat Iris’s count. Soon, though, she did.

As the road wound through the countryside, it came close to the Puget Sound. A huge body of water with many islands. This water mass is the great dividing factor between a huge metropolitan area, and the Olympic Peninsula. A land sparsely populated while densely packed with mountains and trees. Most of the Olympic Peninsula is within the boarders of the Olympic National Forest, a beautiful area with few roads leading in. This area is very wild and it is the state’s intention that it stay that way.

At this body of water, the land raised to a steep cliff on Iris’s side of the car, but on Janeen’s it gradually sloped off towards the water. There she could see many houses, each with their own little docks and each beautifully decorated with strands of lights.

She counted quickly, hoping not to miss a single one before the trees ahead blocked her view. [i]Fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-three....Ahh, they’re coming too fast![/I] Changing tactics, she stared at the center of the houses, making sure all she saw was fixed in her mind. Then, as abruptly as they left, the tree’s returned obscuring the houses beyond.

She closed her eyes, recalling what she’d seen. Her visual memory excellent, she used it frequently. It gave her an edge in math during particularly grueling quizzes. She could quite easily recall, visually, the entire page of instructions on how to do a particular math problem. This evening she used this ability to gain an edge in their little competition. She counted twelve houses, but knowing her sister would never believe there had been [i]that[/I] many, she cut the number back, a bit, to ten.

"Sixty!" she smugly reported to her sister.

Iris’s head quickly whipped around and looked for this large cluster of twinkling lights, but instead found only darkness and trees. She knew Janeen hadn’t cheated by looking out Iris’s window for her side had been only a cliff. There was only one other possibility.

"Liar!" Iris accused.

"I am not!" Janeen defended. "There was a big area back there wi...." Though she spoke as quickly as she could, she was not fast enough. Iris already stopped listening and was whining to their mom about Janeen’s "lie."

"[i]What[/I] are you talking about?" their mother asked, exasperated that the girl’s interrupted her conversation with her husband.

Iris tried to explain again, "We were counting and [i]she[/I]," pointing a finger at Janeen, "is pretending that there were a bunch when there [i]wern’t[/I]!"

"I didn’t lie, they were there, [i]you[/I] just didn’t see them!" Janeen almost yelled.

This sparked an angry bickering between the sisters, which frustrated their mother even more. "[i]Be quiet!!![/I]" she boomed. The girls stopped mid-sentence and looked at her, fearful that they might get their knees slapped if they didn’t obey right away. "What is it that you’re counting?" their mom continued.

"Christmas lights!" Iris piped up cheerfully.

Seeing the mild confusion on her mother’s face, Janeen explained. "We are counting houses with Christmas lights. Whoever counts the most, off of their side of the car, wins!"

Perplexed, their mother asked why they were doing this.

The children both shrugged, "Something to do, we were bored." They had been driving for almost 2 hours at this point. That is a [i]very[/I] long time for a child to endure in darkness, caused by the clouds above.

Their mother prattled off her usual line about boredom, like an automatic response to that word. "People who get bored are just too [i]stupid[/I] to think of something to do."

Confused, Janeen explained, "But we [i]did[/I] think of something to do. We were counting Christmas lights!"

"Well, you shouldn’t do that," their mother said in a matter-of-fact manner. "Christmas lights are ‘of Satan’ meant to lure little children into thinking that there’s nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas, meant to lure you away from God."

The sisters sat back in their seats. Feeling like they’d just done something terribly wrong, they stared down at their hands resting in their laps. Satisfied, their mother returned to her conversation with her husband.

The girls continued the rest of the ride to their destination, and back, in silence. They barely glanced out their windows for fear that Satan was watching them, just waiting to snatch them away from God.

About a week later, it was Christmas Day. In that house, it’s just like any other day, except for the lack of school. They may not watch TV because the only shows on are about Christmas, shows ‘of Satan.’ The girls may only play with their toys and read their religious books.

There is no tree to decorate an empty corner. No stockings dangling above the wood stove. No presents wrapped in pretty papers with beautiful bows. No special family meals to enjoy in each other’s company. This day is made as ordinary as humanly possible.

That evening, the sisters looked out across the lake to the lights reflected, and dancing, upon it’s surface. They wondered what Christmas was like, what the kids in that house were doing. The girls had never celebrated a single Christmas or birthday in their lives, and though they knew it was wrong, they still wondered.

While Iris stared out the window, Janeen came up with an idea, but they would have to keep it quiet. She carefully whispered her idea to Iris and emphasized how it must be kept a secret. If their mother found out, they both would be in [i]big[/I] trouble!

When bedtime finally rolled around, they calmly went up the stairs to their bedroom. As their mother expected, they did not argue, did not beg to stay up longer, they used their manners and did as they were told. What their mother didn’t know was how much they longed for bedtime this night.

They put themselves to bed and once their mom tucked them in, she turned out the lights and closed the door. The girls waited until they heard her return to the living room and turn on the TV. Now they would put their idea in motion.

Iris moved toys and chairs away from their nightlight, while Janeen grabbed her yellow blanket with yellow silk trim, and a stool. She placed the stool in front of the night light and draped the blanket over it covering 3 sides, being careful to keep the blanket away from the heat of the light.

Then they both snuck back to their beds to grab the toys they’d secretly hidden before their mother came to tuck them in. Hiding the toys from each other, they quietly tiptoed back to the little stool and night light. The girls quietly sat down on opposite sides of the stool and carefully lifted their own side of the blanket and slid the toy underneath. They were careful not to look under the stool while doing this, for that would ruin the surprise. Carefully they replaced the blanket, making sure to completely hide the inside area of the stool.

After this, they both sat back a ways to talk in whispers to each other, and admire their "tree." It was quite a sight! A glowing yellow cube against a backdrop of yellow rays fanning out from the center of their "tree." It may have been simplistic, but to them it was the most beautiful thing that ever graced their bedroom. This was their Christmas Tree, and hiding beneath it were two treasures.

Again they had rules, but these rules were for love, not to keep each other from cheating. They would each put one toy under the "tree," something special, something the other sister always wanted to play with. However, because of their own selfishness, this would be the first time. They were very possessive children and had many such toys. It would be a mystery as to which toy each would receive.

Once they felt they’d chatted long enough, they moved to the "tree" to see what "gift" they’d received. Their eyes lit up as they each pulled out a toy they’d been wishing to play with for many months. Careful to not damage the little treasure, they played with their respective toy for about an hour.

When they started to yawn too much, and their eyes watered, they slowly gave the toy back to it’s rightful owner. This saddened them for they knew it was quite possible, they would never be allowed to play with that toy again. However, they’d enjoyed the time they did have with that toy, and would treasure it always.

Sadly they pulled the blanket off of their "tree" and returned the room to the way it was before their mom said good night. As Janeen crawled into bed, sadness washed over her, for this wonderful night of giving and receiving was over. But still she smiled at the memory, and fell asleep to dream beautiful, peaceful dreams filled with love for her sister.

For many years they continued this tradition, always in secret, always at night, until Janeen and Iris grew to teen-agers and no longer shared a room. Their parents never found out about these nights of Christmas giving, and true sisterly love.

Reviews

[Nicole (Carpe Diem)]

Ah sisterly love. My sister and I used to share a room, it was an exp. that i will never forget... We are horrible with Christmas presents too... i taught her the fine art of the re-wrap... What else are older sisters for after all... ha!

This is a great story. I enjoyed reading it. Very well written...

thank you for sharing it with me.

[Chloe..Across the Unive..]

Andrea, i will read this more throughly . though i enjoyed it , the memories.. i plan to read it again though..
Chloe
xoxo

[THE BLACK SEAL]

yeah i knew there was something about this andrea bird. great story

[Adam Greenfield]

This was really a neat story. It has awesome imagery and color. I have to say, the mother reminded me of Cruella DeVille from 101 Dalmations... haha. Well, that's the first person I thought of. Anyway. Great job re-telling this time for these sisters. We see a lot of stories that are somber or humorous, hardly any that are uplifting and soothing like this. Awesome story.