Forward:
I grew up in an environment of emotional indifference. It was almost sterile of emotion, actually. There was irritation and the occasional outburst of anger, but the warm, fuzzy side of things was notably absent. Still, I have attempted in adulthood, to a greater or lesser extent, to engage each of my four siblings and attempt to develop some sort of relationship with them. The results are fairly pathetic. My oldest brother and I are the closest, but even that relationship is saturated with awkwardness and infrequent engagement. My sister has on many occasions almost reciprocated my desire for a relationship. I am not entirely sure what her hesitance is about, but I suspect it has more to do with her than me. My relationship with our mother is pleasant, yet distant as well.
Saturday I received a text from my sister, “Are you home? Do you have access to a computer?” I replied immediately, “Yes and yes.” Which was followed shortly by a phone call. My sister currently lives a very sparse existence and owns very few possessions. She called because upon arriving home from work, the emergency sirens started going off and she does not own anything to listen to, or look up, the news. She needed to know if a tornado was about to carry her off. I looked up the weather for her and told her there was a tornado warning, but it was only until 5PM and it was very nearly 5 PM where she lives. She looked outside and said it had cleared an unbelievable amount. The sky before had been so dark it was hard to see anything outside, now the visibility was improving. Great! Disaster avoided, tornado gone. She has vowed to go buy an emergency radio, which I know she will follow through on. We got off the phone. She hates talking on the phone only slightly more than I do, so that was fine. She sent me a text saying she would try to stay in touch better, maybe send me a letter; I said that would be lovely. She told me that I was the last person she had tried, that all three of our siblings and our mother had not answered her and, “I guess that says something!” She thanked me for my help and I said the only thing I could, “Anytime, Dear Sister.” I guess it does say something that I was the only one who answered, but what it says makes me very sad.
