siblings

Strange dreams.

My sister and I were sleeping in a double bed in our childhood bedroom. Our bed was directly in front of a low set window. In the darkness, my brother crept through the window and lay two fully blown yellow roses on our bed, each with a card. I woke and he was disappointed that I had seen him leaving us gifts. I picked up my card and could see that it was identical to my sister’s card – both had pictures of beautiful fairytale images on the cover in purple hues. Inside the card, my brother had written a message. It was somewhat shorter than the message to our sister, but I knew that because my birthday was coming up, he would write more inside my birthday card. I was worried about him and wondered why he was bringing us gifts. Was he leaving?

I was in the home of my teenage years and it was night. I could hear someone at the front door so I opened it. A version of my sister walked straight in. Though she looked like my sister, I knew it was not her. This person was taller, bigger in every way, and seemed to be only half-present. She walked up the stairs, along the hall and into my bedroom, where she lay down on the floor and crawled under the bed. I followed her upstairs and saw where she was hiding, so I pulled her by the ankles out from under the bed. I told her that she had to leave even though I felt concern for her. I reminded myself that this wasn’t really my sister. She ran down the stairs intending to hide in another part of the house, but my brother appeared and tackled her to the ground. He too told her that she had to leave. I wondered where my sister was. I noticed the curl of my brother’s hair.