Sibling Rivalry

kitchen-window

“Whenever I came home, she was usually standing right here.”

“Almost always.”  He sat smoking at the kitchen table. The cartons he had brought were stacked against the wall, still folded up. He had neglected to buy packing tape. “It made it hard to sneak past if I’d been in a fight at school.”

“You used to get into a lot of fights,” his sister said. “Why was that?”

He shrugged. “Dad said to never take shit off of anybody.”

“Mom wouldn’t like that language, Neil.”

“Well, that’s how Dad put it to me, anyway.”

She knew he was lying.

 

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8 comments

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  1. Joy Pixley

    Great scene that encompasses so much more. The packing cartons is a nicely subtle hint about why they’re there, and then you throw in that he neglected the tape (like always?) — neat little clue about his personality.

  2. Claire Fuller

    I how much unsaid information is in this piece. How they still don’t get on, how she sees him as a bit of a loser, how their parents are both probably now dead. Just great.

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