• I STILL LOVE YOU

    The presentation deadline for my boss is just around the corner. If I fail to impress him, my promotion will be left in dreams. The pulsing nerve in my head twitched more with every minute passing.

    “Tum Tum, can I have some ice cream?” My retarded older sister just had to interrupt me, “NO! Get away from me!” I shouted at her, my face burned with fury. “Okay…” she sulked and dragged her feet as she walked away, suddenly trotting happily outside towards the living room.

    Later, my wife came in with a cup of coffee, “Honey, why is your sister like that?” I shook my head, not wanting to answer her question and took a long sip. I never wanted to tell her, it was not important anyway.

    I have been living in this house since I was born. Back then, my sister was normal. Now, she becomes a nuisance, always asking me to play with her as if I am a kid. She is acting worse than a kid herself; asking for candy, playing with toys, but one thing, she still knows how to draw well.

    CRASH! I heard the sound of a vase shattering. “What on Earth?!” my heart skipped a beat for a moment. Furiously, I stomped out of my small office room and went towards the living room, “It’s just got to be her!” I screamed in my mind. I could hear her scuffling to collect the shattered pieces of the vase and by the time I stepped in, she ran and hid behind the curtain by the verandah. She left a small blood trail behind her. I glared at the shattered pieces and saw that she tried to move the little black cabinet where the vase stood. I angrily pushed back the cabinet but stopped when I caught a glimpse of my own mischievous past with my sister.

    ************************************************************************

    “Sis! Come on, please! Just one game…”I made the cutest puppy dog eyes I could. “Okay, hold on,” she closed her maths homework and kept her stationeries. She grabbed my hand and off we went to my video game console. The ‘one game’ that might have taken about 10 minutes took about 1 hour.

    When we finished playing, we went to the little black cabinet in our living room. We pushed the cabinet away from the wall and sat behind it. There, she continued ‘our’ masterpiece on the back of the wooden cabinet. As I remembered, she drew so beautifully, two figures, a girl and a smaller boy in a playground, playing together on a swing, the girl was her, pushing me the little boy who was sitting on the swing.

    The background was so real and looked better than the actual playground. She made a dialogue bubble but we could not finish it when our mother returned. We quickly pushed back the cabinet but my hand just had to be clumsy to push a vase that was our mother’s favorite off the cabinet.

    The crashing sound alerted our fuming mother and my sister quickly hid me behind the verandah’s curtain. She quickly collected the shattered pieces so no one would step on it. Later, she took the blame, never mentioning me in any way to protect herself. The next day, she was scolded again by mom because her teacher informed her that she did not finish her maths homework.

    She was grounded after that but I did not understand what ‘grounded’ meant. “Sis, can I have some ice cream?” My sister smiled and together we walked towards the kitchen. She took out the ice cream container from the refrigerator. But to our despair, the ice cream had run out. I saw her gritting her teeth and went to the table where her change box sat. She took out a handful of coins and whispered to me, “Wait a while, I’ll go to the shop and get you an ice cream!” She winked and snuck out using the verandah.

    Unfortunately, mom came back earlier than expected, to find my grounded sister missing. She was mumbling angrily by herself when my sister went in by the verandah, looking a lot different than before, her eyes were almost empty, her arms and legs were bruised, but in her right hand, an ice cream cone with the flavors of ice cream that I love.

    My mom was shouting at her but my sister only looked at me with a smile and handed me the ice cream. “Thank you!” I squealed in joy. “I love you Tum Tum,” She closed her eyes and collapsed. My mom suddenly screamed, I too, saw the trail of blood from the verandah to my unconscious body and then I saw it, a huge pool of blood formed on her head where her hair was.

    Later, she was brought to the hospital and was in coma for months. Police informed my mom that my sister was on her way back from the shop when a few street bullies came up to her and asked for the ice cream but she refused. They started to beat her up but she did not defend herself, instead she defended the ice cream. They left her after she gave them her spare change.

    The blow on her head disrupted a large part of her memories and development. The months she was in coma turned to years and she woke up 7 years later when I had already reached 15 years old.

    *****************************************************************

    I took a look at the dialogue bubble and saw that she had finished it. My wife came in screaming angrily as the shattered vase belonged to her, “Just send her to a mental institution already!”

    My tears suddenly flowed and my chest seemed to burn, I quickly followed the blood trail towards the verandah and pulled back the curtain to reveal my sister who was shivering in fear. Without anymore thinking, I hugged her and kissed her hand in forgiveness. My wife could only stop in bewilderment as I cried my apology to my sister.

    My wife took a look behind the black cabinet and saw the completed picture with the dialogue of the girl, “I still love you, Tum Tum.”