The Sister Song

Welcome, my little angel

Life is a gift, a miracle. When someone is born into this world they are born with so much purity that you want to protect them with all your being. 

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Sixteen years ago

I was waiting in a regular hospital room, eager to welcome my little sister. I was still in my school uniform. My hair was tangled and probably looked like a bird's nest. My entire family was here and everyone looked like me or even worse. My father's hair was disheveled, there were tiny beads of sweat resting on his forehead. At that time he looked so much older, like he had aged by ten years.

 I was sitting on my dad's lap, he was clutching onto me. I had never seen him so tensed, but again how much of him have I seen when I was merely six years old. 

My grandparents kept on patting his shoulders and saying, "It is going to be alright, son." However, that did little to calm him down, he was still rocking back and forth. 

My uncle, Aaron kept on pacing across the room. "You know Daniel, you brought this on yourself. We are all suffering through so much of anxiety because Daniel over here could not keep it in his pants," he said to my dad. I did not know what he really meant by 'keep it in his pants' but I knew that if it was any other time he would have received a smack on his head either by my dad or by my grandparents. At the moment my dad could only spare him an irritated glance. 

Hours had passed by and all we could hear were howls of pain from the delivery room. Howls that made me want to crawl into my skin and hide. It was like those sounds that came from horror movies that my parents watched at night. 

I looked up at my dad and asked him "Daddy, is mommy going to be okay?" I was scared and the noises did not help.

"Of course, sweet heart!" he pulled me closer into an embrace. It was as if he needed to say that to not only reassure me but also himself. Soon the tension in the air broke when we finally heard cries. The frowns on everyone's face was replaced with smiles, I really did not understand why. Why were they so happy? My baby sister was crying, she must be hurt. I was worried.

The doctor came out of the delivery room, he looked extremely pleased with himself. "Congratulation Mr. Jones, you are now a proud father of a healthy baby girl. Both mother and daughter are healthy. You can see her very soon," with that he left us to celebrate. The entire room broke into sighs of relief and laughter. Hugs and 'congratulations' were being passed around the room.

My dad scooped me up and said, "Evellyn you are now a big sister."  My father was beaming at me, his eyes glinted with joy and happiness. It was as if he had become young again.

"So can I name her daddy?" I ask him. "Of course sweet heart. What name would you like to give her?" "Elizabeth! I want to name her Elizabeth" I say to him, I was excited that I could name my little sister. They all smiled at me in approval. Time went by as we all started discussing my sister's future. During that time my dad and uncle had repeated the threat to "kill anyone who hurts their little girls." It had just been a while since my sister came into the world and they were already making threats and planning her future. Did they do the same thing when I was born?

"You can all  see the baby and the mother now," announced the nurse. Everyone immediately stood up and rushed into the room. On the bed laid my mother, smiling at my new born sister. She looked at me as soon as I entered the room. "Come meet your sister, Evellyn" she beckoned me towards her. 

There were a lot of 'awws' and 'so cute.' However, I was speechless, something that did not happen often. I could only stare at the tiny form my mother held. My sister looked like an angel, wearing all white. She was wide awake and was looking at everything with awe. Her admiration for the world around her was so infectious. Finally her innocent, doe like brown eyes found mine and time had stopped. We were taking each other's appearance in, committing it to our memory. We both were strangers to each other, but the moment we laid our eyes on each other, my soul recognized hers. It was like a trance, I was hypnotized.