7,869 Miles

7,869 miles

 

Inspired by Phil Kaye & Sarah Kay’s “Origin Story”

“When they make fun of your accent, I will take you swimming because we all sound the same underwater.”

 

You don’t need protecting, it took me a while to figure that out

But eventually I did- in between trying to be the older sibling

and stealing your food and reading your diary,

which I admit made me laugh

I was young, I didn’t know better

I would do it again if I had the chance.

We’ve had a weird love-hate-this-is-my-room-get-out kind of relationship

I never really knew how brother-sister bonds worked

I admit. I was wrong to hide your certificates under the couch

eat your favorite cut of chicken and change channels

every time football and Masterchef clashed. I was wrong

but I don’t regret doing any of it.

For the longest time I had deluded myself into believing that you were just my sister

that you had never smoked, never kissed boys. That you never had a life outside

of us curling up and watching Little Rascals, forcing Baba to take us out eating

guilt tripping Ma into cooking biriyani. In between those little instances of laughter,

of nondescript happiness we grew up, and time passed.

Fast forward a year and half and I was in New York when you knocked me on Facebook

“I’m getting engaged” you said- I remember being confused. And happy.

And listening to “Little Wonders” on repeat for the rest of the night

It hit me then, in true dramatic fashion exactly how much of your life I had missed out on

Unintentionally. Impossibly. This world is a strange place and I can’t say I understand it at all

but it makes us overlook the simplest of things in favor of higher complicacies

It made me learn of my sister’s falling in love through Facebook

Seven thousand eight hundred sixty nine miles away.

 

I can’t promise I’ll be around for it all, for your first few years as Mrs Nawra Mehrin

Don’t- you- dare- change- your last name. I can’t promise that when and if you

have a baby I will be around to name him or her. And photograph the baby showers

I probably won’t be there every step of the way, the world is too complicated

and our lives too divergent for that to happen

But keep a diary, knock me on facebook, let me know about your life

about work, movies, songs and family

ask me questions about studies, photography, songs and friends

we’ll find intersecting venn diagrams even when our lives spin wildly off in

different directions. We’ll talk about rain when I’m knee deep in snow

This world, this strange globe of love happiness and hurt is a web of confusing lines

criss crossed with memories and baby photographs taken a lifetime ago,

and sometimes, a lot of times, things will not make sense

but this is your younger brother saying that’s okay

it’s okay to embrace confusion, we are but mortals fighting for survival

in a speck of dust in the vastness of space

but if the world ceases to matter if at some point, you need to fight

and brawl and cry and hug and laugh, call me

I promise to pick up seven thousand eight hundred sixty nine miles away.