Little Sister

He awoke in a tin can.

As he shifted, he felt the tin-like texture of the dark cavern around him. The man was aware of two things: he did not know who, he was, exactly, and that he loved his little sister.

She was resting by him, pressed up against him with her head on his lap. Her chest moved with every gentle breath and the wind beyond their shelter responded with a calm breeze scented of salt and cold tides.

“Are you awake, big brother?” her voice, as light as a feather’s fall.

He looked down at her brilliant smile and found that he was giving her a crude smile of his own. “Yes, I’m awake. Is my name Big Brother?”

She blinked at him, then giggled. “No, silly!” she said with glee, then pursed her lips and touched them with a soft index. “How about we call you... Daryl.”

He blinked and flushed. “Okay.”

“Oh, well, it’s about time,” she said as she stood, the top of her curly blond head just touching the ceiling of their enclosure. “I kept waiting and waiting for you to wake up, but all you did was snore.”

Nodding, he looked out of the cavern where the morning’s light was playing with the receding waves. “Who am I?” he asked her as he turned back.

Their gazes met, and despite the shadows enveloping her, he knew that she was grinning. “You’re my big brother, your name, today, is Daryl.”

“Of course I am,” he said, a torrent of emotions swelling up in him like the crashing waves against the shore. Her eyes had an otherness about them, as though they could see things beyond. They told him to be quiet. To hush up and follow her lead. He complied.

Bending down, his little sister snuck out of the dark enclosure and stood, her bright yellow dress sparkling in the sun’s light as though greeting an old friend. “Come on! Today we’re going to go play!” she called after him before skipping away.

He scrambled out of the cavern and after her, only noticing then that they had hid beneath an upturned boat. “Hurry!” she called back with a note of anxiety in her voice, a child who was excited for the day ahead.

Running after her, he shoved his way through thick brushes only to stumble onto a well-worn gravel road. She stood nearby, her hands pressed together in the very image of meekness. “Brother, I want to play all day, but that won’t happen if you keep making me tardy.”

The tapping of her shoes on the ground and the little crease in her brow only heightened his mood. He loved her, but he was not alone. The very universe loved her. The wind played with her hair and the sun seemed to pierce through grey clouds just to bathe her in light.

They walked side-by-side along the path, crossing abandoned horses that grazed besides the road as they made their way deeper into the forest. A few hovels and farms dotted the landscape, their little patches of vegetation hidden by the shadow of ancient trees.

“Oh, look, brother, look!” His little sister called as she ran ahead and pointed. Over the crest of a hill, they could see a little town, no more than a hundred homes gathered in a rough circle. Plumes of smoke escaped into the chilly morning air. Little paths snaked in and out of the town.

His little sister’s eyes twinkled as she looked at the brightly dressed ladies and a few men in dapper suits. Most, though, wore simple but clean clothes.  The ringing of a church’s bell tolled out across the barren hills and echoed around them.

With a quick twirl that made her dress flutter around her, his little sister turned to him and grinned. “Come on. I think I see other girls over there. And some boys, too.”