yet another excerpt. (mi hermana, my sister)

Growing up with a sister that was nine years older than I was, was not something easy to endure. My arrival was probably the most spontaneous arrival ever. My mother was 35 and my father, 44. Although my mother always says she always planned on having another child, I find her claim very dubious. Anyways, my sister was always very imperious as we were growing up. She wanted everyone to do what she said to do and thought she should always get her way because she was "better than the rest of us." I mean, I don't blame her. She was the only girl for 9 years and my parents raised her in a way that made her develop a very dictorial behavior. Before I came, she was sort of like one of those despotic rulers who had absolute power with my parents when it came down to what she thought should be done. Well, maybe i'm exaggerating, but she was crazy.

She patronized everyone. She behaved as if she was all grown up and everyone else was but an unexperienced youngster. My mom always tells a story of when my sister was four years old and in pre-k. My mother had to go pick my brothers up from their classrooms and she told my older cousin to keep an eye on her while she went to get them. For one reason or another, my cousin took her eyes off of my sister for a second and when she turned around...POOF! She was gone! Of course, my cousin was scared out of her mind and when my mother admits that when she came back, she felt nothing but disdain towards my cousin. She was so upset that she could lose her precious four year old princess! As my mother desperately searched for my sister, a teacher suggested she go home and see if she was there. My mother thought that that was surely impossible, but she listened anyway. When she arrived home, she saw her intrepid four year old sitting at home with my grandfather. She had walked home all by herself! Now, our home was not in proximity of the school and the route home was amazingly convoluted. Everyone always got lost going there because it was so confusing! Her little coup was a flagrant little plan to show our mother that she was all grown up. My mother says that when she arrived, my grandfather told her that my sister said, "Mi mamá se perdió" (my mom got lost). As if my mother was the child and my sister was the adult! Of course after my grandfather told her this my poor cousin, who was effusive in her apologies for losing my sister, was exculpated and her lament was then truncated. But, even though my sister had done wrong, she wasn't penitent for doing what she did. She didn't think she did anything wrong so she didn't think she had anything she had to be sorry for.